Museums Aplenty in Seoul

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Museums Aplenty in Seoul

My visits to the Seoul Museum of Art (SeMa, line 1 or 2 to City Hall subway station, exits 1, 11, 12) have been more interesting than I thought they would be. First I stumbled on it after visiting the Deoksugung Palace grounds and seeing the changing of the guard. You may find something great, or you may not like it too much, but it is only 700 Won (70 cents) so it is worth a try if you are in the vicinity of Deoksugung Palace and City Hall.

Chun's Paintings

For example, they had an excellent display of work by a woman artist named Kyung-Jay Chun (Chun Kyung-Jay). Why is she not better known? Why is there no book of her work in English (as far as I can tell)? She seems to have lived approximately 1924-2002 (the signs were not that clear) and she produced a remarkable body of work in the form of small paintings that are based on her world travels. I particularly liked her Gaughin-like picture of a Tiki in Guam and her child-like llamas from Peru. Her pictures are dream-like, with people and objects floating in space. Her use of lavender and pink makes the paintings seem quite "feminine". In a caption in Korean beneath a mirror she says she is a 1,000 mirrored person, which reminds me of Charles Horton Cooley's looking-glass self, but with a twist. (Cooley seems to never have dreamed of a one thousand selves mirroring of the self.) She did several personalities like Madonna. Chun has Madonna beneath a hat witha boquet of flowers! Her collage of her trip to Italy could easily be a wonderful poster for Italian travel. Her self portraits are full of zany comments, like a snake around her head and varous icons. The nude with flowers, which is a kind of shamanic figure, was erotic and provocative. The commentary, as far as I could make out from the translation offered by a student, says she had a difficult marriage and had deep feelings about the death of a sister. They also had a kind of mock up of her studio apartment, which was quite small and filled with paints and scraps of this and that. (Did I notice Tarot cards?) She says that the fourth dimension of life is Beauty. Certainly her work is quite beautiful.

When I went back to the Seoul Museum of Art (SeMa) I was quite surprised to find that Chun's work was gone and a whole new display was there, mostly of optical illusion art and Korean abstract art. This made me aware that one can not judge the SMA from just one visit. There is a nice coffee shop (a bit pricy) where it is quiet and you can read or draw.

Tibet Museum

A second museum worth a visit for sure (if you like that kind of thing) is the Tibetan Museum (line 3 to Anguk Station, exit 1 and quite a distance to walk in the rain). It is small. But they were playing nice meditative music and I took time to draw one of the Buddhas (or bodhissatvas). There is very, very little in English, but mostly it is fairly clear what it is. The stuff all seems very old and authentic. The brochure says there are guided tours at 2 PM, but there was not one the day I was there. I have loved Tibetan art and culture for at least two decades and have participated in several Tara initiations in Toronto and in the Netherlands. But this was the most antique looking collection I have ever seen. I am so used to replicas that it took me awhile to fully appreciate the real thing. The displays are cramped, but if you take a meditative look and if you have ever read Robert Thurman on emptiness ( sunyata in Sanskrit) then you will appreciate this place. In fact, when we left (after more than an hour) it was difficult to readjust to the hectic pace outside. The music in a coffee place was suddenly jarring. In the vicinity of the Tibet Museum there are at least another dozen museums and the whole Anguk area is well worth a visit, if only to have a snack. There are lots of replica traditional architecturally beautiful buildings, including even a little Presbyterian Church house. (It is adjacent to the church itself and when I was there, ona Sunday, some men were sitting on the floor singing Christian hymns.) The Artsonje Center and the National Palace Museum of Korea are nearby, but I have not yet had a chance to see them.

A "Hi Seoul" free guide book to Museum and Art Gallery is available from the Seoul Metropolitan Government and can be picked up at a tourist office. It is very well organized, with a number for each museum and a fairly clear description of location. The Seoul Museum of Art is no. 46 and the Tibet Museum is no. 41. A total of 119 museums are listed!

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