Lee Dongwook, I Wished, 2004, Mixed media, vynl, 5×15×5cm. MMCA collection
New Generation Art
* Source: Multilingual Glossary of Korean Art. Korea Arts Management Service
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Postmodernism
Postmodernism emerged to prominence in the 1980s as a broad intellectual critique of modernism in its role as the dominant philosophical zeitgeist of the 20th century. Postmodernist critique has a general tendency to challenge the separation between high and low culture, strict distinctions between artistic genres, as well as notions of originality, newness, and authorship. The term postmodernist art can be used to cover a wide range of creative approaches, none of which are limited to medium-specificity, however, appropriation and citation are often considered as important characteristics. In art history, the label can be applied to many artworks created after the 1960s; however, it is not used for one specific genre of art. The term can be applied to not only pop art in its resisting of cultural hierarchies and conceptual art deviating from medium-specificity, but also land art, body art, video art, and installation art in terms of their critically expanding of artistic genre and form in challenge to established convention. In the context of the 1980s, Neo-expressionist paintings, returning back to figuration and historical eclecticism (such as Julian Schnabel’s works), and the ironically “staged” self-portrait photographs of Cindy Sherman question the originality and provide evidence of the variety of artistic practices that could be termed as postmodernist art. As such, the term postmodernism, can perhaps most usefully be considered in application to the diverse types of artistic practices that challenge the conventional notions of modernism. In Korea, postmodernist works offer an equally diverse field of practice depending on the definition of “postmodernism” in question. Historically, the term was used to describe the work of the small art groups called “New generation” that emerged between the end of the 1980s and early 1990s. These groups often focused their work on de-centered topics, usage of multi-media, an affinity with popular culture, and a casual attitude towards fine art. Some people also regard the Minjung Art movement as representative of postmodernism in Korea. This is because it emerged as a direct criticism against national modernist art including Dansaekhwa of the 1970s.
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Museum
An exhibition held in 1987 at the Kwanhoon Gallery. Participants included Koh Nakbeom, Noh Gyeongae, Myeong Hyegyeong, Lee Bul, Jung Seung, Choi Jeonghwa, and Hong Sungmin. The title of the exhibition was chosen to reflect the perspective that an art museum is essentially a lifeless storage space for art. The participants also desired to challenge the primacy of modernist aesthetics, the authority of art museums, and the tradition of art history. In a time of fierce competition between institutionalized modernist art and non-institutional minjung art, the exhibition was set out as independent of both orientations and instead featured conventional themes such as death, sex, pleasure, and fantasy. The works of art included made use of diverse media to express individuality, sensuality, and freedom. Of the participating artists, Choi Jeonghwa, Lee Bul, and Kho Nakbeom went on to spearhead the Sunday Seoul exhibition in 1990 at the Sonahmoo Gallery. This exhibition is therefore often viewed as the catalyst for the new generation art of the 1990s, which adopted pop and kitsch sensibilities in response to the consumerist culture of post-industrial Korean society, and made use of non-institutional exhibition spaces such as cafes, stores, and live clubs.
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Golden Apple
A small group formed in 1989 under the leadership of Lee Yongbaek, Lee Sangyun, and Paek Gwanghyeon, who were students at the Hongik University College of Fine Arts. The group held its inaugural exhibition at the Kwanhoon Gallery in 1990. The name of the group combined the words gold, a symbol of value, and apple, the source of humanity’s original sin in the Bible, it pursued freedom in its activities, rejecting all sources of authority such as academia, the establishment, Modernist tradition, and minjung ideology. The group’s exhibitions were unorthodox for its time. The group created portfolios from works of art that were varied in medium and materials, and using these sought spaces for exhibition. As such, the group is seen as an influential component within the “new generation art” movement of the 1990s. The group held three exhibitions, after which Lee Yongbaek left the group. Paek Jongseong, Lee Sangyun, and Paek Gwanghyeon followed suit, and the group disbanded in 1990.
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