ART CITIES:Los Angeles-Dansaekhwa & Minimalism

Dansaekhwa, emerged in Korea in the ‘70s as a reaction against the academicism of the National Art Exhibition, which had been the dominant style. This distinction was in contrast to the activities of the 1967 Young Artists Coalition. By remaining true to their original focus, the Dansaekwha artists who had led the school of Art Informel in the late ‘50s were, by the ‘70s, the primary focus in Korea, becoming synonymous with contemporary art.

By Dimitris Lempesis
Photo: Blum & Poe Gallery Archive

The exhibition “Dansaekhwa and Minimalism” is the first survey of Korean monochromatic painting with American Minimalism. The Dansaekhwa artists’ radical approach to painting was embodied by fusing the Western concept of the surface with a distinctly Korean philosophy and aesthetic. This willingness to both adopt and modify ideas from Western modernity allowed for the movement to reach beyond the confines of its own regional influences and encouraged Dansaekwha to widen its horizons and become International. Despite the conceptual differences between Minimalism and Dansaekwha, upon seeing the works of Yun Hyong-keun, Chung Sang-wha, Ha Chong-hyun, Kwong Young-woo, Park Seo Bo, and Lee Ufan alongside Richard Serra, Carl Andre, Robert Mangold, Sol LeWitt, Robert Ryman, Robert Irwin, and Agnes Martin, their shared aesthetic sensibilities are immediately and strikingly apparent. Like the Minimalists, the Dansaekhwa artists shared a desire to explore the object through its most basic material properties. However, they made their work amid starkly different conditions, enduring the material deprivations experienced in the decades after the Korean War and an oppressive political climate in which civil liberties were suspended in the name of national security. Nonetheless, they succeeded in overcoming these difficulties and by the early 80’s Dansaekhwa had become the first Korean Art Movement to be recognized Internationally. Still, although the artists achieved renown in Seoul, Tokyo, and Paris, it was not until recently that they gained exposure in the U.S.A., and thus the aesthetic and contextual similarities and differences with American Minimalism have yet to be examined. The differences between the Dansaekwha and Minimalist works are not as readily apparent visually, but rather lie in their contrasting conceptual approaches to the work of art. Broadly, the Minimalists were more concerned with the perception of the work of art in relation to the viewer, while Dansaekwha centers on the artist’s fundamental, physical, sometimes spiritual, approach to paint and canvas. This exhibition aims to highlight the subtle diversity of aesthetics and ideas explored in these two movements. Neither Dansaekhwa nor Minimalism was defined by a manifesto or a unified conceptual approach. Artists from both movements have expressed differing perspectives on the links between their practices and those of their immediate peers. In turn, the Korean artists variously acknowledge or disavow a relationship between Dansaekhwa and Minimalism. As the first major exhibition to bring these works together, this survey is intended as a non-didactic starting point for broader critical discussion.

Info: Blum & Poe Gallery, 2727 S. La Cienega Boulevard, Los Angeles, Duration: 16/1-12/3/16, Days & Hours: Tue-Sat 10:00-18:00, www.blumandpoe.com