Seundja Rhee: Towards the Antipodes

Seundja Rhee: Towards the Antipodes

SEUNDJA RHEE (1918–2009)

A pioneer of modern art in Asia, the work of Seundja Rhee (1918–2009) established a trifold aesthetic and intellectual edifice bridging multiple worlds: the East and West, Asia and Europe, France and Korea. The consolidation of abstraction as an emblem of modern art in the aftermath of World War II, the cultivation of Korean identity in her geographical and cultural displacement in Europe, and the solid affirmation of her self in a patriarchal order across all aspects of society—these construct the underpinnings of how Rhee built her oeuvre and lived her life.

She was a mother and an artist who refused to align herself with credos or aesthetic obeisance to the dominant fashions of the time. Rhee was one of the first Korean woman artists to establish, with her visual autonomy, a unique and unrepeatable artistic paradigm of her own, from the second half of the 20th century to the beginning of the 21st.

Separated from her family, she emigrated to France in 1951 at the outbreak of the Korean War. Having acquired in Paris her artistic training amidst the milieu of the then predominant modern art, Rhee began traveling back to Korea from 1965 and explored the confection of images that speaks to both worlds. The work of Rhee expresses, in an evidently early concern for such matters, the consciousness of mankind’s dependence on earth and nature.

A lone woman starting life anew as an artist on foreign land, she identified art as her vital motivation. In her own words: “I am a woman, a woman is a mother, and a mother is earth.”

Rhee’s work is divided into thematic and aesthetic periods that revolve around the feminine Seundja Rhee at the atelier 49 Rue de la Procession, Paris 15, 1977 Courtesy of Seundja Rhee Foundation

condition and its relationship to earth. Classified by the artist herself, Rhee’s work is

introduced as a synthesis including the best moments of her production, featuring paintings

After arriving in Paris, in 1953 Rhee entered the Académie de la Grande Chaumière in

from iconic periods titled Abstract , Woman and Earth , Superimposition , Yin and Yang ,

Montparnasse where she was introduced to the prevailing schools of Western modern art.

Timelessness , Road to the Antipodes , and Cosmos .

In years to come, Rhee constructed a multilateral and eclectic lifetime practice identified by nine discrete stylistic periods: Figurative (1954–1956), Abstract (1957–1960), Woman and

Rhee’s work can be viewed today as the expression of an alternative and paradoxical

Earth (1961–1968), Superimposition (1969–1971), City (1972–1974), Yin and Yang , Timelessness

modernism, in which the languages of progress promised by the tabula rasa of the industrial

(1975–1976), Nature (1977–1979), Road to the Antipodes (1980–1994), and Cosmos (1995–

revolution are confronted with non-depredatory attitudes towards the universe. The

2008).

exhibition highlights how Rhee both belonged to her time and defied any association to a single historical period. Her work has become a timeless document of the future, rather than

After an initial foray into figurative art, Rhee made a dynamic shift to abstraction under the

of a time that was.

guidance of Henri Goetz, whose surrealist influence informed her earlier works. During this

Abstract period, she foregrounded a lyrical color palette reflecting her immigrant impression of France, authoring a body of work that has been regarded by critics as an unconscious About Seundja Rhee

reflection of her experiences in Korea rather than an explicit reference to traditional concepts and colors that were often seen in the work of other Korean artists working in Paris at the

A pioneer of the practice of modern art and one of the first Korean woman artists to attain

time. From the 1960s, Rhee’s poetic references to her personal narrative paved her creative

public international relevance, Seundja Rhee maintains an unparalleled position amidst the

trajectory and framed the perspective on her surroundings. Beginning with the Woman and

first generation of Korean artists who moved to France. Rhee’s prolific career across six

Earth period, her gaze downwards, towards the ground and soil (Mother Earth), mirrored the

decades demonstrated constant experimentation and unwavering intention to synthesize and

yearning for her maternal duties, as well as the longing to become reunited with her own

harmonize antipodal elements, including the East and West, natural and urban environments,

mother. Her almost pointillist strokes in alternating colors constructed an abstract surface

mind and body, and the Earth and the celestial. Born in 1918 in Jinju, South Korea, Rhee spent

plane of which the rough matiere evokes tilled soil, serving both as a nod to her motherland

her years in Korea surrounded by nature, an upbringing which would later constitute the

and the ground from which all life has birthed.

bedrock of her body of work. She spent the majority of her youth during a tumultuous period in modern Korean history when the nation was under the Japanese Occupation (1910–1945),

Rhee’s gaze gradually began to shift upwards from the late 1960s, as her trips to megacities

followed by the Korean War (1950–1953). The strains of the sociopolitical milieu during her

in the United States sparked interest and fascination in urban environments that arose

time in Korea was further compounded by her personal experience of becoming forcibly

from the ground, as well as the organic geometry that the artist paradoxically discovered in

separated from her family and three sons. In an attempt to start life anew, in 1951 Rhee left

cityscapes, giving way to the Superimposition and City periods. Rhee’s further investigation

behind three decades of her life in Korea for Paris.

into geometric motifs climaxed in the Yin and Yang , Timelessness and Nature series, compelling the artist to utilize the circle as her signature mechanism to unify contrasting

elements and transcend the limitations of space and time. Throughout the rest of her artistic

International Monetary Fund, Washington D.C. (1997); Korean Cultural Center, Paris (1996);

career, Rhee devoted herself to depicting halved circles with abutting convex and concave

Musée des Beaux-Arts de Nice (1988); Korean Cultural Center, Los Angeles (1986); UNESCO,

forms at the center for their expression of the philosophy of the harmony of duality, a

Paris (1984); the MMCA, Gwacheon (1988), Deoksugung, Seoul (1978), and Gyeongbokgung,

condensed reflection of Rhee’s conflicted identity as being “neither French nor Korean.”

Seoul (1970); and Galerie Charpentier, Paris (1964).

The artist further elevated her gaze to the skies and the cosmos from the 1980s, bearing

She is the recipient of the Chevalier of the Order of Arts and Letters, Academy of Arts,

two of her most iconic series—Road to the Antipodes and Cosmos —until her death in 2009.

France (1991), and the Officer of the Order of Arts and Letters, Academy of Arts, France (2002).

Signifying a culmination of her gradual journey upwards throughout decades of her artistic

She was also awarded the 10th Cultural Prize of France-Korea (2009) and Bogwan Order of

trajectory and repeated trips back and forth between France and Korea—Rhee’s home and

Cultural Merit, Ministry of Culture, Korea (2009). Rhee’s works are housed in major public

her homeland—halfway across the globe, Road to the Antipodes served as a figurative

collections such as the MMCA, Seoul; Leeum Museum of Art, Seoul; Ho-Am Art Museum,

memoir of the artist’s travels from one locus of the globe to another. Cosmos then served as

Yongin; Kumho Museum of Art, Seoul; Art Sonje Center, Seoul; Gyeongnam Art Museum,

a natural progression from which Rhee could see the two antipodes of her life from a bird’s

Changwon; Bibliothèque nationale de France, Paris; Centre Pompidou, Paris; Musée d’arts

eye view and praise the cosmic sublime as countless stars shine and eddy.

de Nantes, Nantes; Musée d’Art moderne de la ville de Paris, Paris; Centre national des arts plastiques (CNAP), Paris; Musée d’art moderne et contemporain - Saint-Étienne Métropole,

Rhee’s undisputed position within Korean art history counters the dominance of male

Saint-Priest-en-Jarez; Châteaumusée Grimaldi, Cagnes-sur-Mer; Musée Magnelli - Musée de

artists, demonstrating a decidedly independent stance amidst the prevalent trends of

la Céramique, Vallauris; and Médiathèques des Chartreux, Issy-les-Moulineaux. Rhee passed

Dansaekhwa and Minjung art movement of her time. She brought forth the hybridization of

away in 2009.

dichotomies, aspiring for unity between humanity and nature. Although part of a generation that experienced the horrors of the Japanese Occupation and the Korean War, and although rattled by the injustices of patriarchy, Rhee never ceased to pursue her visionary aesthetic as both a mother and an artist, achieving a world in which life and art come into a harmonious equilibrium.

Seundja Rhee (1918–2009) has held approximately 80 solo and 300 group exhibitions in her lifetime, including a major retrospective at the National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Korea (MMCA), Gwacheon, in 2018 to celebrate the centenary of her birth.

The artist has also been the subject of solo presentations at institutions around the world including Espace Pierre Cardin, Paris (2001); Musée de la Citadelle, Villefranche-sur-Mer (1999);

A Pearl of Sap , 1959 Oil on canvas 81 × 65 cm Framed: 90 × 73.8 × 4.5 cm

Perspective of Centuries , 1959 Oil on canvas 65 × 50 cm Framed: 75.7 × 60.6 × 4.7 cm

Earth No.1 , 1960 Oil on canvas 81 × 100 cm Framed: 101.5 × 120.5 × 5.5cm

White Mirror, 1960 Oil on canvas 116 × 81 cm Framed: 123.3 × 88.3 × 5.5 cm

The Bride , 1960 Oil on canvas 115 × 89 cm Framed: 126 × 100.3 × 5 cm

Composition , 1961 Oil on canvas 89 × 146 cm Framed: 98.2 × 155 × 4.5 cm

My Sweet City, 1962 Oil on canvas 120 × 60 cm Framed: 125.5 × 66.5 × 5.5 cm

Composition , 1962 Oil on canvas 130 × 194 cm Framed: 140 × 205 × 6 cm

A Mother I Remember, 1962 Oil on canvas 130 × 195 cm Framed: 141 × 205 × 5.5 cm

Sweet Sunrays , 1963 Oil on canvas 60 × 73 cm Framed: 70.5 × 83.2 × 4.9 cm

Ojak-kio, 1965 Oil on canvas 146 × 114 cm Framed: 163.5 × 131.5 × 6 cm

A Day of Serendipitous Encounter (Ojak-kio) - Cho Byung-hwa

This is a bridge that exists only in the East A symbol of connection These are tears that exist only in the East Flowing with emotions This is longing that exists only in the East A flickering love Woven with Eastern wisdom Across the galaxy A bridge of distant stars For love that meets and separates once a year In the sky This is an Eastern bridge Placed only between loving hearts Oh, longing The bridge between you and me

A World without Obstacle , 1968 Oil on canvas 116 × 89 cm Framed: 124.5 × 97.5 × 5 cm

Midnight at Empire State Building , 1969 Acrylic on canvas 162 × 114 cm Framed: 172 × 124 × 5.5 cm

“I was very impressed by New York.

I felt the pressure of the material abundance such as the large groups of mass and the density, the forest of skyscrapers reeling in the air.

Standing at the top of the Empire State Building at midnight surrounded by the city lights from the overlapped skyscrapers led me to my new attempt, Superimposition.”

- Seundja Rhee

Superimposition Traffic , 1971 Acrylic on canvas 130 × 162 cm Framed: 136 × 168.5 × 5.5 cm

Timeless January No.1 , 1976 Acrylic on wood panel 130 × 160 × 10 cm

Road to the Antipodes July No.2 , 1981 Acrylic on canvas 130 × 162 cm Framed: 134 × 165.5 × 4.5 cm

My Cottage of Great Bear October No.2 , 1995 Acrylic on canvas 130 × 97 cm Framed: 138.5 × 106 × 4.5 cm

My Cottage of Venus June , 2000 Acrylic on canvas 92 × 73 cm Framed: 99 × 80 × 4.5 cm

A City of Yong Keuk May, 2003 Acrylic on canvas 150 × 150 cm Framed: 159 × 159 × 5 cm

A City of September, 2008 Acrylic on canvas 130 × 162 cm Framed: 138 × 170 × 6.5 cm

TOWARDS THE ANTIPODES. THE WORK OF SEUNDJA RHEE

One of the series of works that Seundja Rhee (1918–2009) produced towards the end of her life, and which inspires the title of this exhibition, places us, the artist, and those of us who contemplate her work today, in the midst of a journey. Road to the Antipodes encompasses the work of a lifetime, paintings in which the Korean artist captured two of the central axes of her life experience. On one hand, the geographical and cultural displacement experienced

Bartomeu Marí, Curator

since 1951 when she moved from her native Korea to France, where she lived until her death. This kind of diaspora, a product of dominant habits of Korean society, came about as the result of an abrupt breakup of her marriage and estrangement from her family, which coincided with the outbreak of the Korean War (1950–1953). On the other hand, Rhee’s work reflects the awareness that human beings maintain with nature, the world, the earth, and the elements—a symbiotic relationship which is neither predatory nor domineering, but one of codependence and harmony. The popular culture of Korean society at the beginning of the 20th century had, as today to a lesser extent, deep roots in Buddhism. Economically based on the primary sectors, since 1910 Korea had been under a colonial regime imposed by a belligerent and imperialist Japanese Empire that was also expanding into Southern China and Southeast Asia, in a similar fashion to what Nazi Germany did shortly afterwards in Europe. Rhee witnessed the rapid industrialization imposed by external forces and the exploitation of people and resources to feed the metropolis. In fact, Rhee is among the first Korean women to be educated at a Japanese university.

As a result of her regular trips from France to Korea since 1965, Seundja Rhee was able to admire, from an airplane window, the extraordinary landscapes of a nature yet unscathed by industrial alterations, a rare grand scenery unknown to most of her fellow citizens.

Thousands of meters above sea level, where birds do not fly, the views of the North Pole, large expanses of land, sea water, and ice were appreciated with perspectives that evaded convergence into a single vanishing point and where the horizon was considerably curved.

The clouds ceased to complement the sky, instead becoming an attribute of the ground below or floating between spaces that venture towards infinity, without visible borders.

Rhee’s aerial landscapes are populated with signs of colorful punctuation and seem to

group or aesthetic current, her work was seen at the time as an exception—a free verse.

constitute a coded language, music, or calculations. The path to the antipodes speaks to the

Formally trained in Paris since 1953, the French art system (and European in general) shifted

artist and she translates it for us and through time.

substantially, as it had since the end of the 19th century, to the beat of groups, creeds, chapels, movements, fashion, and tastes. Belonging, especially at the beginning of one’s

Traveling the road to “the other side” of the globe is an experience that Rhee accumulated

career, to an aesthetic, programmatic, or ideological group seemed to be an obligation for

in both directions. Perhaps it is in the experience and materiality of the path between two

every artist; it was an essential attribute in order to exist as an artist, contrary to the current

worlds that Rhee constructed, consciously or unconsciously, her own place. Oscillating

panorama where all artists seem to be unique, independent individuals, disconnected from

between the two opposite loci on the globe, with all the associated meanings, Rhee

one another. Being part of a movement was like belonging to a family. And Rhee, who had

traced the borders of a territory from which she became an artist, being probably the most

just been estranged from hers, was not interested in new gregarious impulses: she harbored

accurate definition of the place where she belongs: to both worlds at the same time, to

an attitude of freedom that allowed her the utmost creative capacity when it came to acting,

neither one exclusively. For Rhee was a foreigner in Europe and built throughout her life

painting, and thinking.

a portable identity, undoubtedly Korean but highly transformed. After 1953, at the end of the war, Rhee’s native Korea no longer existed, there was no place to return to, and

By first practicing and going through the conventions that the school of that time transmitted

it was necessary to build a new home from a distance that she could visit cerebrally, in

in order to free herself from its grasp, Rhee soon elaborated the basis of a language of her

memories and emotions. Towards the end of her life and together with the series Road to

own that would accompany her ever since. Very quickly brushing over the stages of the

the Antipodes , Rhee elaborated a final series of paintings that also concludes this exhibition.

decomposition of realist images as initiated by impressionism at the end of the 19th century,

Cosmos projects into the future a formative idea that seems to bring to date the holistic

Rhee ends almost naturally, as if by decantation, in the cultivation of abstraction under

awareness of Buddhist roots that places the human being in harmony with the surroundings

the colorist influence of Paul Klee or Joan Miró. But by the end of the 1950s, when she

and with what exists. Rhee’s pictorial project concludes with explosions of color and almost

consolidated her first artistic stages, Rhee had already created one of her constant technical

psychedelic traces that are always punctuated by signs and tiny graphic elements that seem

innovations: a painting composed of short, repetitive strokes associated to or combined with

to compose a score or trace a stellar movement. But to the experience of the heights and

pointillism, a visually rough and complex treatment of the surfaces on which she depicts

the cosmos, Rhee has departed, as we shall see, from the earth and its soil, the components

simple shapes in high-contrast colors. In these paintings, another constant of her work also

of the natural and the productions of the human being.

appears: the represented object. If modern painting profoundly alters the components of classical painting (background and figure, perspectives and volumes), Rhee places the

This brief essay aims to situate, from a contemporary perspective, the reception of the work

representation of space at the center of her interests. And we will see it throughout the

of Seundja Rhee, a pioneer of modern art in Korea and Asia. Appreciated today in her native

works gathered in this particular exhibition: the artist’s fascination with the high points of

country as in her adoptive Europe, Rhee’s work deserves, for several reasons, a fresh look

early 20th-century painting, European sculpture and the historical avant-garde to which the

from the perspective of today. On one hand, not having belonged to any particular artistic

artist had copious exposure in Paris or the organic abstraction that allowed her to overcome

the world of fluctuation between the abstract and the figurative which had been cultivated

and colonization. Rhee connects in this association two facts of her own life: the rural

by late surrealism.

environment of her childhood and her condition as a mother of three children, a motherhood that must live with the trauma of an early and prolonged separation. Her own motherhood

From this first period, the works Perspective of Centuries and A Pearl of Sap , both from 1959,

carries with it an undoubtedly emotional charge that is somehow transferred to the earth,

clearly represent the will to distance herself from what she had learned and to launch herself

rendering the sentiment universal.

into the invention of her own territory that would be consolidated from the beginning of the 1960s and onwards. They are paintings of soft colors in which almost geometric shapes float

In this group of paintings, two examples of transition or conciliation between conceptual

on a highly elaborated background with a rugged texture. They are works where simple

opposites stand out, very central in Rhee’s work as a whole: Ojak-kio (1965) and A World

geometric shapes appear (including triangles, squares, circles, rectangles) that will soon

without Obstacle (1968) belong chronologically to the period that the artist calls Woman

evolve towards what reminds us of landscapes of nature and labor. The artist’s attention is

and Earth . But the orthogonal repetition of lines that evoke the furrows of tilled land ready

directed to the representation of the cultivated land, spaces ordered by orography or human

to bear new fruit, as seen in the fields of the continental interior or the mountainous terrains

action. In fact, her attention was distributed throughout the whole of her work towards two

of the Mediterranean inlands, for example, are in these paintings giving way to a series of

apparently opposite poles—especially from the perspective of Western cultures: the wild

highly complex compositions of lines and volumes where what seem to be aerial views of

and the constructed, the natural and the mechanical.

imagined cities are arranged, with clear divisions of spaces but without codes that indicate uses or functions. Such arrangement of spaces, where circular and straight forms compete

Rhee herself periodized her work by dividing it into specific thematic groups, each of them

with one another (in the manner of avenues or walled environments), reminds us of ancient

within a precise chronological range, and such was her awareness of her work. Thus, the

archeology, in any case, of monumental spatial forms, perhaps premodern or even typical of

Figurative (1954–1956) would be followed by the Abstract (1957–1960) to which these

science fiction. Ojak-kio (1965) is perhaps the most futuristic and in it the mechanical and the

aforementioned two works belong. Between 1961 and 1968, always according to her own

geometric are superimposed on the organic.

classification, Rhee developed a line of work that she called Woman and Earth , from which the exhibition includes an extraordinary group of works such as Earth No.1 , White Mirror,

The period Superimposition is developed subsequently—between 1969 and 1971—and in

and The Bride , all three from 1960; My Sweet City, Composition , and A Mother I Remember,

the exhibition, we find two excellent examples of this group of work that anticipates the next

all from 1962. Each of these works declines a similar motif with slight variations in chromatic

thematic axis developed by Rhee and is centered on the representation of an idea related to

and formal tonalities, eminently relatable. The titles with which Rhee identifies her works

the big city, the modern metropolis. In fact, this and the following period of works called City

add undeniable layers of meaning.

(1972–1974), are thematically and aesthetically intertwined. If we focus on the titles, Midnight

at Empire State Building (1969) and Superimposition Traffic (1971) synthesize two motifs The association between “woman” and “earth” is present in diverse cultures around the

typical of the metropolitan experience: the skyscraper illuminated from within that soars at

globe that remained unconnected before the development of modernity, explorations,

night to mingle with the stars in the sky or the artificial lights that abound on the surface,

and the flow of cars on the outstretched streets of the city. The depiction of buildings and

there, the artist’s gaze moves to the heights and looks again at the spectacle of a terrestrial

their harmonious relationships with one another translate into a bustling, rhythmic image

nature that confirms its place within the infinity of the cosmos.

with a powerful sense of movement. Midnight at Empire State Building (1969), however, seems more like a flat representation of a portion of a city than a built structure, erected vertically. The motifs in the painting resemble the characters of an archaic language, or perhaps an invented hybrid of geometric strokes such as those that make up the Korean alphabet, albeit with much more complex signs, with right angles and perpendicular compositions dominating, without the curves. The background of the painting recreates a landscape of movement with points of light that compose an abstract landscape of flashes.

The descending vertical vision that explains the paintings from the previous periods is shifting: the modern city has entered the repertoire of subjects that attract Rhee’s attention, thus reappearing as one of the most manifest paradoxes, the tension between nature and artifice. In Superimposition Traffic (1971), bundles of colored lines compose authentic urban highways that act like the arteries of an organism or like pentagrams that host a thunderous symphony. This painting is based on the declination of curved and wavy lines with a dominance of orange and mauve colors. In the center, one of the most constant figures in Rhee’s work, a circle divided in two with a central slit where the two halves meet, presides over the image as if it were a chromatic center of gravity. In fact, it is a representation of harmonization of opposites that, apart from being present in numerous works by Rhee, also became the blueprint for her studio built in the south of France in 1997.

The experience of the great American cities that Rhee gained on several trips to the United States in the 1960s endowed her work with a new vocabulary in seemingly frontal contrast to the forms and themes explored until then. Perhaps, the trip to the antipodes that defines Rhee’s life and work is a round trip, or a spiral journey, which first descends from the subject of the earth and its metaphor associated with motherhood and, merging with nature, becomes fascinated by its opposite, the artifice, the built, the city, and its appearances of immensity, organization, hierarchies of spaces, and spectacle of life and movement. From

LIST OF WORKS Courtesy of Seundja Rhee Foundation

A Pearl of Sap 1959 Oil on canvas 81 × 65 cm

Perspective of Centuries 1959 Oil on canvas 65 × 50 cm

Ojak-kio 1965 Oil on canvas 146 × 114 cm

A World without Obstacle 1968 Oil on canvas 116 × 89 cm

Earth No.1 1960 Oil on canvas 81 × 100 cm

White Mirror 1960 Oil on canvas 116 × 81 cm

Midnight at Empire State Building 1969 Acrylic on canvas 162 × 114 cm

Superimposition Traffic 1971 Acrylic on canvas 130 × 162 cm

The Bride 1960 Oil on canvas 115 × 89 cm

Composition 1961 Oil on canvas 89 × 146 cm

Timeless January No.1 1976 Acrylic on wood panel 130 × 160 × 10 cm

Road to the Antipodes July No.2 1981 Acrylic on canvas 130 × 162 cm

My Sweet City 1962 Oil on canvas 120 × 60 cm

Composition 1962 Oil on canvas 130 × 194 cm

My Cottage of Great Bear October No.2 1995 Acrylic on canvas 130 × 97 cm

My Cottage of Venus June 2000 Acrylic on canvas 92 × 73 cm

A Mother I Remember 1962 Oil on canvas 130 × 195 cm

Sweet Sunrays 1963 Oil on canvas 60 × 73 cm

A City of Yong Keuk May, 2003 Acrylic on canvas 150 × 150 cm

A City of September 2008 Acrylic on canvas 130 × 162 cm

SEUNDJA RHEE

b. 1918, Jinju, Korea d. 2009, Tourrettes, France

EDUCATION 1935

Graduated from Jinju Ilshin Girls’ High School, Jinju, Korea

1938

Graduated from Jissen Women’s College, Tokyo, Japan

1953

Entered the Académie de la Grande Chaumière, Paris, France

SELECTED SOLO EXHIBITIONS 2023

Seundja Rhee: Into the Woods , Rhee Seundja Jinju Museum of Art, Jinju

2022

Seundja Rhee: The Sound of Forest , Rhee Seundja Jinju Museum of Art, Jinju

2021

Seundja Rhee: Esperanto , Rhee Seundja Jinju Museum of Art, Jinju Seundja Rhee: Life of Floating , Rhee Seundja Jinju Museum of Art, Jinju

2020

Collection Exhibition: Endless Journey to Space , Rhee Seundja Jinju Museum of Art, Jinju

2019

Collection Exhibition: Beyond the City into Space , Rhee Seundja Jinju Museum of Art, Jinju

2018

The 100th Anniversary of Birth Rhee Seundja: Road to the Antipodes , National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Gwacheon

The 100th Anniversary of Birth Rhee Seundja: A Star Shining on Earth , Rhee Seundja Jinju Museum of Art, Jinju

Célébration du centenaire Seundja Rhee , Espace Muséal, Tourrettes-sur-Loup City Hall, Tourrettes-sur-Loup, France

The 100th Anniversary of Birth Seundja Rhee: 1957–1968 , Gallery Hyundai, Seoul

2016

Apesanteur Enchantée , Musée départemental des Arts asiatiques, Nice, France

2008

Le Retour Aux Sources , Gyeongnam Art Museum, Changwon

Seundja Rhee , Galerie la Nouvelle Gravure, France 1995

Seundja Rhee , Chosun Ilbo Museum, Hyundai Gallery (Hyundai Department

VILLES NOUVELLES DU FUTUR: PEINTURES RÉCENTES DE SEUNDJA RHEE ,

Store), Seoul

Musée departemental des Arts asiatiques, Nice, France

Seundja Rhee Exhibition , Haeban Gallery, Incheon

2007

Songs of Cosmos , Gallery Hyundai, Seoul

2006

A TRAVERS BOIS Seundja Rhee gravures sur bois, livres d’aristes et bois originaux ,

Seundja Rhee , Espace Michel-Simon, Noisy-le-Grand, France

Bibliothèque Louis Nucéra, Nice, France

Seundja Rhee , Librairie Lettres et Images, Paris, France

1994

Seundja Rhee , Librairie-Galerie Laure Matarasso, Nice, France Seundja Rhee , Mediathèque d’lssy-les-Moulineaux, d’lssy-les-Moulineaux, France

Seundja Rhee, Foster Bank Community Center, Chicago, USA

Seundja Rhee , Librairie-Galerie Jacques Matarasso, Paris, France 1991

Michel Butor et Seundja Rhee , Librairie-Galerie Jacques Matarasso, Nice, France

2004

Seundja Rhee , Librairie-Galerie Auguste Blaizot, Paris, France

Seundja Rhee 40 ans à Paris , Youngnam Gallery, Youngnam Department Store

2003

Chemin au Pays du Matin Calme , Musée Magnelli, Musée de la Céramique,

Co., Ltd., Jinju

Vallauris, France

1990

Seundja Rhee , Gallery Hyundai, Seoul

2002

Seundja Rhee , Grenoble International, Grenoble, France

Seundja Rhee Exposition des Dessins des années 60 , Institut Français de Séoul,

2001

Seundja Rhee , Espace Pierre Cardin, Paris, France

Seoul

Seundja Rhee , Librairie Lettres et Images, Paris, France 1999

1997

Seundja Rhee: 30th Anniversary of MBC in Masan , MBC Art Hall, Masan

Seundja Rhee Aspects de l’Oeuvre gravé , Musée des Beaux-Arts de Nice, Nice,

Seundja Rhee , Korean Cultural Center Osaka, Osaka, Japan

France 1986

Seundja Rhee , Gallery Hyundai, Seoul

France

Seundja Rhee , Korean Cultural Center, Los Angeles, USA

Seundja Rhee , Seoul Arts Center, Seoul

Seundja Rhee , UNAC Tokyo, Tokyo, Japan

Seundja Rhee , Yochii Gallery, Tokyo, Japan

Seundja Rhee , Mie Gallery, Seoul

Seundja Rhee , Espace Chubac, Tourrette-Levens, France

Seundja Rhee , Jacques Matarasso Librairie-Galerie, Nice, France

Seundja Rhee , Gallery Hyundai, Seoul

Seundja Rhee , Chez Noel Le Gall, Paris, France

Seundja Rhee , Semi Gallery, Seoul

1996

Seundja Rhee , National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Gwacheon Seundja Rhee’s Prints in 1960s , Gallery Hyundai, Seoul

Seundja Rhee , Musée de la Citadelle, Chapelle Saint-Elme, Villefranche-sur-Mer, 1998

1988

Seundja Rhee in France , Debeck Plaza Gallery, Daegu

1985

Seundja Rhee , Gallery Hyundai, Seoul

Seundja Rhee Paintings & Woodblock Prints Exhibition , International Momentary

Seundja Rhee 1960 –1964 , Lloyd Shin Gallery, Seoul

Fund, Washington, D.C., USA

Seundja Rhee , Galerie Alexandre de la Salle, Saint-Paul, France

Seundja Rhee , Centre Culturel Coréen, Paris, France

Seundja Rhee , Galerie de la Fondation Sophia Antipolis, Sophia Antipolis, France

1984

1982

Seundja Rhee , UNESCO (United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural

1969

Seundja Rhee , Seibu Gallery, Tokyo, Japan

Organization), Paris, France

1968

Seundja Rhee , Galerie Charpentier, Paris, France

Seundja Rhee , Maison de la Culture Andre Malraux, Reims, France

1967

Seundja Rhee , Galerie de la Lumière, Paris, France

Seundja Rhee , Hôtel de Ville de Saint-Ouen-l’Aumône, Saint-Ouen-l’Aumône, France

SIGNE DE LUMIERE Seundja Rhee , Gemmacothèque, Tours, France 1965

Seundja Rhee , Forum 3M, Cergy-Pontoise, France 1981

Seundja Rhee , Seoul National University Faculty Club, Seoul Seundja Rhee , Gallery Ichibankan, Tokyo, Japan

Seundja Rhee , Galerie Kim-Jungfernhof, Neustad (Wied), Germany

1964

Seundja Rhee, Galerie Charpentier, Paris, France

Seundja Rhee 30 ANS A PARIS , Galerie Jacques Massol, Paris, France

1963

Seundja Rhee , Galerie Rümelin, Basel, Switzerland

Seundja Rhee 30 ans à Paris a travers ses AFFICHES , Centre Culturel Francais de

Seundja Rhee , Galerie Cavalero, Cannes, France

Seoul, Seoul

1962

Seundja Rhee , Galerie Synthèse, Paris, France

Seundja Rhee 30 ans à Paris à travers ses AFFICHES , Gallery Hyundai, Seoul

1961

Seundja Rhee , Galerie Cavalero, Cannes, France

1980

Seundja Rhee , Maison de Van Gogh, Auvers-sur-Oise, France

1960

Seundja Rhee , Galerie Perou, Paris, France

1979

Seundja Rhee , Librairie-Galerie Jacques Matarasso, Nice, France

1959

Seundja Rhee , Galerie Beno, Zürich, Switzerland

1978

Seundja Rhee , National Museum of Modern Art (Deoksugung), Seoul

1958

Seundja Rhee , Galerie Lara Vincy, Paris, France

Seundja Rhee , Ambassade de la République de Corée en France, Paris, France

1956

Seundja Rhee , Galerie Guillaumet, Le Puy, France

1977

Seundja Rhee, Galerie Cavalero, Cannes, France Seundja Rhee , Gallery Hyundai, Seoul Seundja Rhee , Gogwandang Gallery, Busan

1976

Seundja Rhee , Chateau Musée Grimaldi de Cagnes-sur-Mer, Cagnes-sur-Mer, France

1975

Seundja Rhee , Galerie Yves Brun, Paris, France

SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS 2021

Seundja Rhee , Librairie Jacques Matarasso, Nice, France 1974

Modern and Contemporary Art, Seoul

Seundja Rhee , Galerie Beno, Zürich, Switzerland

2020

HYUNDAI 50, Gallery Hyundai, Seoul

Seundja Rhee , Galerie Soleil, Paris, France

2018

Digital Promenade , Seoul Museum of Art, Seoul

Seundja Rhee , Gallery Hyundai, Seoul

2016

Being in Nature , Museum SAN, Wonju

1973

Seundja Rhee , S. Domenico, Imola, Italy

1971

Seundja Rhee , Galerie Nuova Loggia Grafica, Bologna, Italy

1970

MMCA Lee Kun-hee Collection: Masterpieces of Korean Art , National Museum of

Recall the moments, Youngeun Museum of Contemporary Art, Gwangju 2015

Three Eyes I do Have , National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art

Seundja Rhee , Libreria Renzi, Cremona, Italy

(Deoksugung), Seoul

Seundja Rhee , National Museum of Modern Art (Gyeongbokgung), Seoul

Korean Abstract Painting — 45th Anniversary of Gallery Hyundai , Gallery Hyundai,

Wander on the Sky, 63 Sky Art Museum, Seoul

Seoul

SEOUL PARIS SEOUL: ARTISTES COREENS EN FRANCE , Musée Cernuschi,

2007

Paris, France 2014

2013

2012

2011

The Moment of Truth 2 , Museum SAN, Wonju

Center, Incheon 2006

Retz Paris, France

Museum of Contemporary Art, Gyeongju

L’Ecriture nomade , Bibliothèque Nationale de France, Paris, France

Contemporary Art in the Textbook , Goyang Aram Nuri Arts Center, Goyang

Exposition de Huit Artistes Pionnières , Gallery Hyundai, Seoul

Korean Modern Paintings in the 1960–70s , Gallery Hyundai, Seoul

2003

43 Artistes avec Michel Butor, Galerie Ô Quai des Arts, Zurich, Switzerland

Masterpieces of Modern Korean Painting , National Museum of Modern and

2002

100 Masterpieces of Modern Korean paintings: 1900–1960 , National Museum of

Contemporary Art (Deoksugung), Seoul

Modern and Contemporary Art (Deoksugung), Seoul

Zeitgeist Korea , National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art (Seoul), Seoul

The Color of Korea , Seoul Museum of Art, Seoul, Korea; Iwate Museum of Art;

1958 L’École de Paris , Shinsegae Gallery, Seoul; Incheon; Busan

Aichi Prefectural Museum of Art; The National Museum of Art, Osaka, Japan

The Star of Korean Contemporary Art in the 20 Century, Incheon Culture & Arts

International Contemporary Print Arts Exhibition , Sungsan Art Hall, Changwon

Center, Incheon

Le Paradoxe d’Alexandre , Centre International d’Art Contemporain, Carros, France

15th Anniversary of Ulsan Metropolitan City: 100 years Korean Art, Special Show of

2001

Salon d’Automne, Espace Auteuil, Paris, France

35 Masters , Ulsan Culture Art Center, Ulsan

2000

Salon d’Automne , Espace Eiffel Branly, Paris, France

The 3th Anniversary of Grand Opening of Pohang Museum of Steel Art: Meditation

32 Artistes avec Michel Butor, Musée Savoisien, Mediathèque Jean-Jacques

of Korean Modern Art , Pohang Museum of Steel Art, Pohang

Rousseau, France

L’Art entre les Lignes, Livres d’Artistes et Explorations de Michel Butor, Musée de

1999

Women’s Art Festival ‘99’: Parade of Patjwi, Seoul Arts Center, Seoul

l’Hôtel Sandelin, Saint-Omer, France

Corée, la Résonance , Résidence de I’Ambassadeur de la Délégation de la Corée

Portrait of Artists , YoungIn Museum of Literature, Seoul

auprès de I’OCDE Paris, Paris, France

2010 In the Midst of the Korean Contemporary Art , Gallery Hyundai, Seoul

Salon d’Automne , Espace Eiffel Branly, Paris, France 1998

The Masters of Korean Modern and Contemporary Art , 63 Sky Art Museum, Korea University Museum, Seoul 2008

Suites Coréennes, Hommage a Huit Artistes Coréennes en France , Passage de

Korean Modern and Contemporary Abstract Art — Silent Resonance , Wooyang

Korean Abstract Painting_10 Perspectives , Seoul Museum of Art, Seoul 2010

2007 International Incheon Women Artist’s Biennale , Incheon Multiculture & Arts

52ème Salon de Mai , Espace Eiffel Branly, Paris, France 22 Artistes avec Michel Butor, Mediathèque Louis Aragon, Le Mans, France

1997

51ème Salon de Mai , Espace Eiffel Branly, Paris, France

Aspects de l’Art en France (1950–1970) , La Collection Allemande, Musée

Michel Butor et la Gravure , Hôtel du Doyen, Bayeux, France

Departemental de l’Oise, Beauvais, France

SAGA – GANA Graphique , Espace Eiffel Branly, Paris, France

Contemporary Korean Artists in Paris , Seoul Arts Center, Seoul

Trois Artistes Coréens en France , 63 Gallery, Seoul

1996

Salon de Mars , Espace Eiffel Branly, Paris, France

1987

Printings of Ten Established Artists , Gallery Hyundai (Hyundai Department Store),

50ème Salon de Mai , Espace Eiffel Branly, Paris, France

Seoul

50ème Anniversaire de l’UNESCO 100 Peintres Vivants de l’Ecole de Paris

42ème Salon de Mai , Grand Palais, Paris, France

1945–1975 , Maison de l’UNESCO, Paris, France

28ème Grands et Jeunes d’Aujourd’hui , Grand Palais, Paris, France

35ème Grands et Jeunes d’Aujourd’hui , Espace Eiffel Branly, Paris, France

Corée – France , Centre Culturel Coréen, Paris, France

50 Artistes Coréens a l’UNESCO, UNESCO, Paris, France

1986

Seoul-Paris , Seoul Gallery, Seoul

1995

Modern Art of Korea Since 1945–1955 , National Museum of Contemporary Art,

Paravents Modernes d’Orient et d’Occident , Centre Culturel Coréen, Paris, France

Gwacheon

27ème Grands et Jeunes d’Aujourd’hui , Grand Palais, Paris, France

1994

49ème Salon de Mai , Grand Palais, Paris, France

Oeuvres Croisées avec Michel Butor, Centre National d’Art Contemporain (CNAC),

34ème Grands et Jeunes d’Aujourd’hui , Espace Eiffel Branly, France

Paris, France

33ème Grands et Jeunes d’Aujourd’hui , Grand Palais, Paris, France

Salon des Réalités Nouvelles , Grand Palais, Paris, France

Graveurs d’Aujourd’hui , Association Le Trait, Cité Internationale des Arts, France

Salon Comparaisons , Grand Palais, Paris, France

1993 1992

1991

1990

47ème Salon de Mai , Grand Palais, Paris, France

1985

Xylon 9 , Italy, February

32ème Grands et Jeunes d’Aujourd’hui , Grand Palais, Paris, France

Xylon 9 , Musée Gruérien, Bulle, Switzerland

Mémoire de la Liberté , Shinsegae Gallery, Shinsegae Dongbang Plaza Art

Xylon 9 , Schwetzingen Palace, Baden-Württemberg, Germany

Museum, Seoul; Busan

26ème Grands et Jeunes d’Aujourd’hui , Grand Palais, Paris, France

Peintres Coréens en France , Centre Culturel Coréen, Paris, France

3ème Rencontre des Artistes Contemporains , Palais Croisette, Paris, France

46ème Salon de Mai , Grand Palais, Paris, France

Artistes de Michel Butor, Maison des Arts Plastiques Rhône-Alpes, Lyon, France

25 Korean Contemporary Artists , Gallery Hyundai, Seoul

Aspect de l’Art en France de 1950 à 1980 , Musée Ingres, Montauban, France

Mémoire de la Liberté , Centre Georges Pompidou (Musée National d’Art

Autour de Nice , Acropolis, France

Moderne), Paris, France

Un Instant de Paix , Café de la Paix, France

45ème Salon de Mai , Grand Palais, Paris, France

1984

38ème Salon des Réalités Nouvelles , Grand Palais, Paris, France

Paris, École de Seoul , Gallery Hyundai (Hyundai Department Store), Seoul

9ème Biennale International de Céramique d’Art, Vallauris, France

31ème Grands et Jeunes d’Aujourd’hui , Grand Palais, Paris, France

Oeuvres Croisées , Maison de la Culture Andre Malraux, Reims, France

1989

44ème Salon de Mai , Grand Palais, Paris, France

Salon Comparaisons , Grand Palais, Paris, France

1988

Korean Modern Paintings in the 70s , Walkerhill Art Museum, Seoul

Salon du Dessin , Peinture a l’Eau, Grand Palais, Paris, France

43ème Salon de Mai , Grand Palais, Paris, France

Voir avec Michel Butor, Salle St. Geoges-Liege, Liege, Belgium

29ème Grands et Jeunes d’Aujourd’hui , Grand Palais, Paris, France

1983

La Maison des Artistes , Exposition 83, Rue Berryer, Paris, France

1982

26ème Salon d’Automne , Grand Palais, Paris, France

13ème Biennale de Menton , Menton, France

39ème Salon de Mai , Espace Pierre Cardin, Paris, France

21ème Grands et Jeunes d’Aujourd’hui , Grand Palais, Paris, France

Bois pluriel 1 , Première Biennale de gravure sur bois de Croissy-sur-Seine, Maison

Maison de Van Gogh , Auvers-sur-Oise, France

de la Culture, Croissy-sur-Seine, France

28ème Salon d’Art Sacré , Musée de la Ville de Paris, Paris, France

Société Nationale des Beaux-Arts , Grand Palais, Paris, France

7ème Biennale Internationale de Céramique d’Art , Vallauris, France

Parallèle , Centre Culturel Coréen, Paris, France

Gravure sur Bois Contemporaine , Musée d’Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris,

Prospective en Porcelaine , Saint-Yrieix-la-Perche, France

Paris, France

Vingt Artistes du Livre avec Michel Butor, National Library of Luxembourg,

La Sérigraphie et les Peintres Contemporains , Grande-Couronne, France

Luxembourg, Luxembourg

L’Art Coréen Contemporain en France , Centre Culturel Coréen, Paris, France

Les Artistes du Tiers Monde à Paris , U.C.J.G., Paris, France

Le Grain d’Or, Galerie Claudine Ratié, Paris, France. Organized by Jean Chieze

Livres d’Artistes, Livres-Objets , Maison de la Culture de Saint-Etienne, La Galerie

Association

N.R.A, Saint-Etienne, France

des Loisirs, Saint-Etienne, France

30ème Salon d’Art Sacré , Musée d’Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris, Paris, France

Les Ateliers d’Artistes de XVème Arrondissement , Paris, France 1977

18ème Grands et Jeunes d’Aujourd’hui , Grand Palais, Paris, France

Les Gravures Coréennes Contemporaines , Copenhagen, Denmark

F.I.A.C 77, Grand Palais, Paris, France

La Gravure sur bois contemporaine , La Mairie du Castellet, Le Castellet, France

31ème Salon des Réalités Nouvelles , Parc Floral de Paris, Paris, France

La Gravure sur bois contemporaine , Association Amateurs d’Estampes, Marseille,

Maison des Artistes , Haut-de-Cagnes, Cagnes-sur-Mer, France

France

1980

Trois Graveurs: Seundja Rhee, James Guitet , Yves Milet, Maison de la Culture et

2ème Exposition des Artistes Coréens à Paris , Centre Culturel Coréen, Paris, France 8ème Biennale Internationale de Céramique d’Art , Vallauris, France

1981

1979

1976

32ème Salon de Mai , La galerie de l’Esplanade de la Défense, Paris, France

Livre d’Art et d’Artistes , Villa Imperiale, Italy

30ème Salon des Réalités Nouvelles , Parc Floral de Paris, Paris, France

Premier Manifeste du Livre-Artiste , Livre-Objet , Centre Georges Pompidou

Formes et Couleurs , Billom, France

(Musée National d’Art Moderne), Paris, France

17ème Grands et Jeunes d’Aujourd’hui , Grand Palais, Paris, France

Xylon pluriel , Centre d’Action Culturelle Pablo Neruda, Corbeil-Essonnes, France

Mostra della Xilografia Contemporanea ‘Asia oggi’, La casa dell’Arte Sasso

The 3rd Seoul International Print Biennale , National Museum of Modern Art

Marconi, Bologna, Italy

(Deoksugung), Seoul

Collections Abstraites du Musée de Nantes , Musée des Beaux-Arts de Quimper,

Les Gravures Coréennes Contemporaines , Denmark

Quimper, France

Contemporary Western Painting Exhibition , Gallery YHE, Seoul

Dialogue , UNESCO, Paris, France

Korea Print Drawing Exhibition , National Museum of Modern Art (Deoksugung), Seoul

L’Essentiel , Le Grand Hôtel, Paris, France

1975

1974

Peintres Coréens à Paris , Ambassade de Corée à Paris, Paris, France

Exposition Internationale de Xylographie Contemporaine , Musée Espagnol d’Art

29ème Salon des Réalités Nouvelles , Parc Floral de Paris, Paris, France

Contemporain, Madrid, Spain

16ème Grands et Jeunes d’Aujourd’hui , Grand Palais, Paris, France

Grands et Petits Maîtres d’Aujourd’hui , Centre Culturel de Limoges, Limoges, France

13ème Biennale de São Paulo , São Paulo, Brazil

L’ École de Paris , Borås Kunstmuseum, Borås, Sweden

5ème Biennale Contemporaine de Gravure , Faenza, Italy

Mostra Internazionale de Xilografia Contemporanea , Faenza, Italy

La Casa dell’Arte , Centre de Culture et d’Information, Bologna, Italy

Mostra Internazionale de Xilografia Contemporanea , Ravenna, Italy

15ème Grands et Jeunes d’Aujourd’hui , Grand Palais, Paris, France

Mostra Internazionale della Xilografia Cast-Sforzesco , Milan, Italy

30ème Salon de Mai , Musée d’Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris, Paris, France

1971

28ème Salon des Réalités Nouvelles , Parc Floral de Paris, Paris, France

Peintres Coréens Contemporains à la Cité Internationale des Arts , Cité

C.I.P.A.C Exposition , Paris, France

Internationale des Arts, France

Editions 1974 , Rue du Cygne, Paris, France

Mostra della Xilografia Contemporanea ‘Asia oggi’, Centro d’Arte Mediterranea,

Micro Salon 1974 , Iris Clert/Christofle, Paris, France 1973

27ème Salon des Réalités Nouvelles , Parc Floral de Paris, Paris, France

Naples, Italy 1970

Contemporary Printings of Sixteen Artists , Hongik Museum of Art, Seoul

2ème Foire de l’Estampe et du Multiple , Galerie du Centre Culturel Municipal de

2nd International Exhibition of Original Drawings , Museum of Modern and

Ville Parisis, Paris, France

Contemporary Art, Rijeka, Croatia

14ème Grands et Jeunes d’Aujourd’hui , Grand Palais, Paris, France

2nd International Print Biennale , Buenos Aires, Argentina

C.I.P.A.C Exposition , Paris, France. Organized by CREAC

L’ École de Paris , Borås Kunstmuseum, Borås, Sweden

Estampes Contemporaines , Bibliothèque Nationale de Paris, Paris, France

1969

1st International Triennale of Contemporary Xylograph , Musée de Gravure Ugo Da

International Exhibition of Miniature Graphy 1973 , Gallery Gamlebyen, Fredrikstad,

Carpi, Carpi, Italy

Norway

Les Peintres Asiatiques de Paris , Maison de l’Iran, Paris, France

L’ École de Paris , Borås Kunstmuseum, Borås, Sweden 1972

27ème Salon de Mai , Musée d’Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris, Paris, France

1968

Modern Painting in Korea , National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo, Japan

28ème Salon de Mai , Musée d’Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris, Paris, France

1st International Print Biennale , Buenos Aires, Argentina

Salon d’Automne , Grand Palais, Paris, France

12th Exhibition of Contemporary Artists , Svensk-Franska Konstgalleriet, Malmö,

2nd International Triennale of Contemporary Xylograph , Musée de Gravure Ugo

Sweden

Da Carpi, Carpi, Italy

L’Agrifoglio , Millano, Italy

4ème Festival International de la Peinture , Musée du Château de Cagnes-sur-Mer,

1967

Salon Comparaisons , Musée d’Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris, Paris, France

Cagnes-sur-Mer, France

7ème Biennale Internationale de gravure , Moderna Galerija, Ljubljana, Yugoslavia

4ème Biennale Internationale de Ravenna ‹Morgan’s Paint›, Ravenna, Italy

Salon d’Art Sacré , Musée d’Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris, Paris, France

1966

Salon d’Art Sacré , Musée d’Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris, Paris, France Salon Comparaisons , Musée d’Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris, Paris, France

1965

1964

1962

Salon Comparaisons , Musée d’Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris, Paris, France

Un livre, une gouache , Galerie Françoise Ledoux, Paris, France

17ème Salon des Réalités Nouvelles , Musée d’Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris,

Xylon IV Exposition Internationale de Gravure sur Bois, Salle des Casemates ,

Paris, France

Musée d’Art et d’Histoire de Genève, Geneva, Switzerland

18ème Salon de Mai , Musée d’Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris, Paris, France

6ème Biennale Internationale de Gravure , Moderna Galerija, Ljubljana, Yugoslavia

L’École de Paris 1962 “une mère que je connais”, Galerie Charpentier, Paris,

100 Gravures , Galerie Argos, Nantes, France

France

Estampes Contemporaines , Bibliothèque Nationale de Paris, Paris, France

4ème Salon de Peinture Crest , Drôme, France

Salon d’Art Sacré , Musée d’Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris, Paris, France

6 Rencontres Poétiques de Provence , Mairie de Coaraze, Coaraze, France

Salon Comparaisons , Musée d’Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris, Paris, France

Grand Prix de Biarritz de Peinture , Union Culturelle de Biarritz, Biarritz, France

20ème Salon de Mai , Musée d’Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris, Paris, France

Salon des Réalités Nouvelles , Centre Culturel et Artistique d’Antibes, Antibes,

Galerie Cavalero, Cannes, France

France

Exposition Internationale d’Art Sacré , Musée d’Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris,

Peinture et Lumière , Mairie de Vallauris, France

France

1961

16ème Salon des Réalités Nouvelles , Musée d’Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris,

L’École de Paris , Galerie Charpentier, Paris, France

Paris, France

Festival des Arts Plastiques de la Côte d’Azur, Cultural and Artistic Center of City

28ème Salon des Surindépendants , Musée d’Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris,

of Antibes, Antibes, France

Paris, France

Salon d’Art Sacré , Musée d’Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris, Paris, France

Grandes Toiles de Montparnasse , The American Center, Paris, France

Salon Comparaisons , Musée d’Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris, Paris, France

A la Recherche de la Nature Perdue , Galerie Ursula Girardon, Paris, France

Painter and Light , La Palissy, Vallauris, France 1963

Seundja Rhee et Lappien , Gallery Numaga, Neuchatel, Switzerland

1960

18ème Salon des Réalités Nouvelles , Musée d’Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris,

9 Peintres Coréens , Cercle Volney, Paris, France 27ème Salon des Surindépendants , Musée d’Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris,

Paris, France

Paris, France

1er Festival des Arts Plastiques , Bastion Saint-André, Antibes, France

Groupe Structures , Musée de la Ville de Toulon, Toulon, France

5ème Biennale Internationale de Gravure , Moderne Galerija, Ljubljana, Yugoslavia

1959

26ème Salon des Surindépendants , Musée d’Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris,

Art d’Aujourd’hui , Galerie Cavalero, Cannes, France

Paris, France

Blickpunkts Paris , Gallery Emmy Widmann, Germany

Aeschbacher, Arman, Fedor Ganz, Seundja Rhee, Sculptures de E. Blasco Ferrer,

Graphik 63 , Musee Albertina, Vienna, Austria

Galerie Bellechasse, Paris, France

La Lettre et Les Signes dans l’Art , Galerie Valérie Schmidt, Paris, France

Nouvelles Cantates de Theo Kerg et Groupe de Mai , Galerie Bellechasse, Paris,

France

2002

Officer of the Order of Arts and Letters, Academy of Arts, France

Prix de la Peinture Etrangère , Musée d’Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris, Paris,

2009

10th Cultural Prize of France-Korea

France 1958

Bogwan Order of Cultural Merit, Ministry of Culture, Korea

25ème Salon des Surindépendants , Musée d’Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris, Paris, France

Henri Goetz, Seundja Rhee, Rodolphe Buchi , Galerie 54, Saint-Imier, Switzerland

SELECTED COLLECTIONS

Salon des Indépendants 1958 , Grand Palais, Paris, France 1957

1956

7 Peintres de l’Atelier Goetz , Galerie Voyelles, Paris, France

Gyeongnam Art Museum, Changwon, Korea

Modern paintings by a selected group of Contemporary Younger French Artists by

Leeum, Samsung Museum of Art, Seoul, Korea

order of art investor corporation , Parke-Bernet Gallery, New York, USA

Lee Jung Seob Art Gallery, Jeju, Korea

3ème Salon des Structures , Galerie des Beaux-Arts, Bordeaux, France. Organized

Korean Stone Art Museum, Seoul, Korea

by Jean-Maurice Guy

National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Seoul, Korea

24ème Salon des Surindépendants , Musée d’Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris,

Museum SAN, Wonju, Korea

Paris, France

Rhee Seundja Jinju Museum of Art, Jinju, Korea

Salon des Indépendants 1957, Grand Palais, Paris, France

Wooyang Museum of Contemporary Art, Gyeongju, Korea

L’Esprit souffle , Galerie Bonaparte, France

Bibliothèque nationale de France, Paris, France

Première Biennale d’Art Abstrait , Galerie des Beaux-Arts, Bordeaux, France

Centre Pompidou, Paris, France

J. L. Bouvot, M. L. Hardy, S. Rhee, R. Roure , La Goujonnette, France

Château-musèe Grimaldi, Cagnes-sur-Mer, France

Société Nationale des Beaux-Arts , Musée d’Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris, Paris,

Embassy of France, Brasilia, Brazil

France

La France au Luxembourg, Luxembourg City, Luxeumbourg

Salon des Indépendants 1956 , Grand Palais, Paris, France

MAMC, Musée d’art moderne et contemporain, Saint-Étienne Métropole, France

Salon de l’Union des Artistes d’lle-de-France , Cercle Volney, Paris, France

Musée d’Art moderne de la ville de Paris, Paris, France Musée des Beaux-Arts de Nantes, Nantes, France Musée Magnelli, Vallauris, France

GRANTS AND RESIDENCIES 1991

Chevalier of the Order of Arts and Letters, Academy of Arts, France

1997

Art prize at the 7th KBS Overseas Koreans Awards, Korea

Musée National d’Art Moderne, Paris, France

KoRICA (Korean Research Institute of Contemporary Art)

Bartomeu Marí

Founded in 2021, KoRICA aims to highlight the historical status of Korean art and to

Bartomeu Marí is an unaffiliated Spanish curator and critic. His curatorial experience

link contexts between Korea and the rest of the world. Korean art history abounds with

extends from his position as Curator at IVAM-Centre Julio González, Valencia and as

narratives of artists who channeled the spirit of their time through art as they experienced

Curator of Exhibitions at the Fondation pour l’Architecture, followed by directorships at

the tumult of the 20th century. Contemporary Korean artists project universal human

the Witte de With, Centre for Contemporary Art, Rotterdam and Centro Internacional de

values while also striving to share with global audiences the autonomous and immanent

Cultura Contemporánea in Donostia-San Sebastián, Basque Country. From 2004 to 2008,

traditions passed down throughout Korean history, as interpreted through each of their

he served as Chief Curator and later—from 2008 to 2015—as Director at the Museum of

aesthetic sensibilities. In honor of such endeavors, KoRICA supports a range of ventures

Contemporary Art in Barcelona (MACBA), Barcelona. Between 2015 and 2018, he served

that bridge Korean and global art in hopes to actively contribute to the globalization

as Director of the MMCA, where he organized Seundja Rhee’s centennial exhibition, Road

of Korean art, including the international exchange of Korean artists, research and

to the Antipodes . He also co-curated the 2002 Taipei Biennial with Chia Chi Jason Wang

documentation of Korean modern and contemporary art, and provision of research grants.

and curated the Spanish Pavilion at the 51st International Art Exhibition - La Biennale di

In February of 2024, KoRICA inaugurated Sorol Art Museum in Gangneung, with the

Venezia in 2005. Marí has curated numerous exhibitions on modern and contemporary

mission “to discover the aesthetic connections between Korean art and global art, [and]

artists including Lawrence Weiner, Francis Picabia, Rita McBride, Marcel Broodthaers, Joan

aiming to promote the historical value of Korean art in the global art scene.”

Jonas, Francis Alÿs, and John Baldessari.

www.korica.org