The Twelfth SPACE International Print Biennial, Poster, 2002, Image provided by Sungkok Art Museum
SPACE International Print Biennial
* Source: MMCA
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1978 Seoul International Print Exchange Exhibition
The 1978 International Exchange Exhibition of Prints Seoul was held at the National Museum of Modern Art (now MMCA) from March 14 to 23 in 1978. It was organized by the Korean Contemporary Printmakers Association [Hanguk hyeondae panhwaga hyeophoe] and sponsored by Gyegan Misool art magazine of the JoongAng Ilbo newspaper company. Artists from five countries (Korea, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Japan, and the U.S.) participated in the exhibition. There were a total of thirty-eight Korean artists: Kang Kukjin, Kang Whansup, Kwak Duckjun, Kwon Yeongsuk, Kim Kulim, Kim Minja, Kim Bongtae, Kim Sangku, Kim Sangyu, Kim Seon, Kim Youngchull, Kim Choungza, Kim Tchahsup, Kim Taeho, Kim Hyungdae, Ro Jaewhoang, Bae Yoong, Baik Kumnam, Suh Seungwon, Seok Ranhui, Youn Myeungro, Lee Kangso, Rhee Sangwooc, Lee Sunman, Lee Ywanho, Lee Ufan, Lee Eunsan, Lee Inhwa, Chang Hwajin, Chun Kyungja, Oan Kyu, Chung Chanseung, Cho Kookjeong, Jo Junyeong, Cha Myunghi, Choi Insu, Han Unsung, and Hwang Kyubaik. Ninety-seven artists submitted a total of 300 works, including fifty-nine from overseas. Korean artists demonstrated a wide range of trends in contemporary Korean printmaking, reflecting contemporaneous art, such as conceptual or monochrome art, geometric or expressionistic abstraction, and pop art, and emphasizing Korean and indigenous sentiments. The participation not only by printmakers but also by artists working in various mediums shows the art community’s interest in print genre at the time. In the 1970s, the Korean Contemporary Printmakers Association focused on international exchanges through prints, and this exhibition is one of its prominent achievements.
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SPACE (Gonggan)
SPACE was a synthetic art magazine, first published by architect Kim Swoogeun in November 1966. In total 600 volumes were published up to the November issue in 2017. The magazine played a significant role in delivering news about domestic and international artworld news as the first specialized art magazine in Korea. For instance, the inaugural issue published texts by Jin Hong-seop and Park Seo-Bo, and the second issue focused on the thirty-third Venice Biennale. In 1960, Kim Swoogeun had founded an architectural design office, titled the Space Architecture Research Institute (now the Space Group). In terms of his other contributions toward encouraging the development of Korean contemporary culture, Kim also opened the Space Gallery in 1972 and a small theatre called the Gonggan Sarang in 1979. Until the 1980s, the magazine covered a diverse field of cultural interests, including architecture, art, and theater, however, it transitioned into a professional architecture magazine after changing the title to from Gonggan (Space) to SPACE from July 1994.
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Exhibition of Contemporary International Prints
Exhibition of Contemporary International Prints was held from June 21 to 26 in 1976 at the Korea Publishers Association Hall. It was one of the commemorative programs for the first Far East Artists Conference, which was organized by four Pacific countries—South Korea, Taiwan, Japan, and the U.S.—to promote understanding of each other and friendship among them through art and culture. During the conference themed “Comparative Studies of East Asian Culture and Arts,” the print exhibition was held, and discussions on “Contemporary Prints in Asia,” “Masks and Pantomimes,” and “Types and Styles of Chinese, Japanese, and Korean Music” were conducted. Moreover, the classic Japanese comedy Kyōgen and a joint concert by China, Japan, and Korea were performed, and documentary films from China, Japan, and Korea were screened. The participating artists from South Korea were members of the Korean Contemporary Printmakers Association [Hanguk hyeondae pangwagag hyeophoe], including Kang Whansup, Kang Kukjin, Kim Kulim, Kim Sangyu, Kim Chonghak, Kim Choungza, Baik Kumnam, Suh Seungwon, Youn Myeungro, Yoo Kangyul, Rhee Sangwooc, Lee Seduk, and Han Unsung. This exhibition was one of the outcomes of international exchanges in which the Korean Contemporary Printmakers Association engaged in the 1970s and showed how Korean art had become more active in international exchanges through prints. Furthermore, the fact that prints were selected as a main medium at the first Far East Artists Conference implies that there was a strong international interest in printmaking at the time.
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International Biennial of Contemporary Color Lithography
The International Biennial of Contemporary Color Lithography was an international print exhibition held from 1950 through 1960 by the Cincinnati Art Museum in Ohio in the U.S. At the time, there was a printmaking boom in the U.S. sparked by the relocation of Atelier 17, a notable Parisian printmaking studio, to New York in 1940. In the 1950s and 1960s, the International Graphic Arts Society (IGAS) was founded, and several special exhibitions on prints were held, including New Expressions in Fine Printmaking: Ideas, Methods, and Materials (Brooklyn Museum, 1952). In addition, institutions for exploring printmaking, such as Pratt-Contemporaries Graphic Arts Center, Tamarind Lithography Workshop, and Universal Limited Art Edition (ULAE), were built. Under these circumstances, Gustave von Groschwitz, a curator of prints at the Cincinnati Art Museum from 1947 to 1963, organized the first biennial of color lithographs in the U.S. Only works created within two years could be submitted to the biennial, allowing two prints per artist. Korean artists had participated in the biennial since 1958. Yoo Kangyul, Kim Choungza, Choi Dukhyu, Kim Sou, Rhee Sangwooc, and Lee Hangsung took part in the fifth edition in 1958. Their participation in the biennial led to the acquisition of some works by the Cincinnati Art Museum. They were Face and Pagoda by Kim Sou, Winter by Rhee Sangwooc, and Silhouette and Buddha’s Spirit by Lee Hangsung. This marked the first overseas debut of contemporary Korean prints. In the sixth edition held in 1960, Mountain Sentiment and Revival by Lee Hangsung and Study by Bae Yoong won prizes. Starting in 1962, the International Biennial of Contemporary Color Lithography was held as a triennial and renamed International Prints.
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International Biennial Exhibition of Prints in Tokyo
The International Biennial Exhibition of Prints in Tokyo was an international print exhibition held in Japan eleven times from 1957 through 1979. Initially, it was co-hosted by The National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo and The Yomiuri Shimbun newspaper company. In the fifth edition, the International Cultural Promotion Association (Kokusai bunka shinkōkai) replaced The Yomiuri Shimbun, strengthening the nature of cultural exchange. Over twenty-two years, a total of 1,317 artists (1,098 foreign artists and 219 Japanese artists) participated in the International Biennial Exhibition of Prints in Tokyo, with approximately 3,000 works submitted. The International Biennial Exhibition of Prints in Tokyo is one of the international exhibitions in which a large number of Korean artists took part. This is partly owing to geographical proximity, but active exchanges with Japanese art circles in the 1970s also encouraged their participation. Korean artists consistently participated from the fifth edition to the eleventh. Yoo Kangyul, Kim Chonghak, and Youn Myeungro joined the fifth edition (1966); Bae Yoong, Suh Seungwon, and Ahn Dongguk, the sixth edition (1968); Kim Tchahsup, Ha Chonghyun, and Lee Ufan, the seventh edition (1970); Kim Sangyu, Kim Tschang-yeul, and Kwak Duckjun, the eighth edition (1972); Lee Ufan, Kim Kulim, and Chung Chanseung, the ninth edition (1974); Lee Kangso, the tenth edition (1976); and Suh Seungwon, Shim Moonseup, Kwak Duckjun, Chin Ohcsun, and Lee Ufan, the eleventh (1979). Among these participating artists, Kim Chonghak received an honorable mention in the fifth, and Kwak Duckjun won the Minister of Education Award in the eighth. In the eleventh, Chin Ohcsun won the Minister of Foreign Affairs Award and Lee Ufan won the Kyoto National Modern Art Award. In the eighth, the art critic Lee Il participated as an international judge. The International Biennial Exhibition of Prints in Tokyo exerted a considerable influence upon the development of Japanese contemporary prints and played a role in anchoring prints in the postmodern discourse of “de-genre” and “de-media” in conjunction with contemporary art. Witnessing the interest in prints not just from Japanese art circles but also from the international art community through the exhibitions, Korean artists became more interested than ever in prints, which emerged as a major medium of expression in contemporary art. Since the 1970s, there has been a significant increase in the number of artists working in printmaking.
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Seoul International Print Biennale
The Seoul International Print Biennale was an international print exhibition hosted by Dong-A Ilbo newspaper company from 1970 through 1996. Since it started as an event to celebrate the fiftieth anniversary of the founding of Dong-A Ilbo, it was called the Dong-A International Print Biennale until the third edition. After being held twice in the 1970s, in 1970 and 1972, respectively, the biennale was suspended for ten years due to the circumstances of Dong-A Ilbo. Resumed in 1981 with the third edition followed by the fourth edition in 1983, the biennale was held every two years from 1986 to 1996. From the first to the third editions, only four winners were selected under the name of Dong-A Grand Prize instead of being awarded according to a conventional rating system of grand, gold, silver, and bronze prizes. Among Korean artists, the Dong-A Grand Prize winners were Kim Sangyu (first), Song Burnsoo (second), Han Unsung (third), Yoon Miran (fourth), Kim Taeho (fifth), Kang Airan (sixth), Youn Myeungro (seventh), Ji Seokcheol (eighth), and Lee Inhyeon (tenth). From the fourth edition, the awarding system was changed back to a rating system with the addition of an excellence award. The commissioner system was introduced in the seventh edition. In the thirty-year history of the Seoul International Print Biennale, the third edition stands out. At the third edition, Still Life A and Still Life B by the invited artist Kim Kulim were rejected because they did not fit the nature of the biennale, which became a major issue. Kim’s works were three-dimensional creations made using printmaking techniques, which were far from the conventional concept of printmaking. As a result, the range of prints that could be exhibited was expanded from the fourth edition. As the first international exhibition solely hosted by South Korea, the Seoul International Print Biennale holds significance in contemporary Korean art history. It also helped to proactively change facets of international exchanges. Moreover, it spurred principal shifts in the development of contemporary Korean prints by providing an opportunity for Korean artists to explore overseas art trends at home and contributing to the spread of awareness of prints as a genre of art. Since the holding of the biennale, the number of artists attempting printmaking in Korea increased and the quality of printmaking grew significantly. This is why the Seoul International Print Biennale is viewed to have been a catalyst in the development of contemporary Korean prints.
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