Seoul Museum of Art (SeMA) presents "Yoo Youngkuk: A Mountain Within Me," the most comprehensive retrospective of Korean abstract pioneer Yoo Youngkuk (1916–2002), on view through October 25. Organized with the Yoo Youngkuk Art Foundation and The Chosun Ilbo, the exhibition features over 170 works and archival materials, including previously unpublished pieces, spanning painting, relief, photography, and drawing. It inaugurates SeMA's new "Korean Modern Masters" series, which reassesses Korean modern art from a contemporary perspective. The show traces Yoo's six-decade career from his studies at Bunka Gakuin in Tokyo to his later abstract works, using a non-linear structure pivoting around 1964 to highlight his enduring commitment to abstraction amid Korea's turbulent 20th-century history.
This exhibition matters because it positions Yoo Youngkuk as a foundational figure in Korean abstract art, offering a timely reassessment of his work as digital and AI technologies challenge traditional notions of creation. By launching the "Korean Modern Masters" series, SeMA signals a broader institutional effort to recontextualize Korean modern art for contemporary audiences. The retrospective also underscores how Yoo's meditative, mountain-inspired abstractions—born from personal conviction during colonial rule, war, and rapid modernization—remain visually compelling and philosophically resonant today, inviting viewers to reflect on the essence of artistic creation.