2013.2.6 MUSEUMS & GALLERIES

ANISH KAPOOR

Leeum, Samsung Museum of Art,

Yongsan District

To Friday: This is the first solo show in East Asia for Anish Kapoor, one of the world’s hottest contemporary sculptors. The 58-year-old India-born British artist’s show consists of 18 works, including his early “Pigment” series and latest stainless-steel sculptures as well as his “Void” series of the 1990s, which Leeum says show the “essence” of the artist’s philosophy.

One of the “Void” series on display, “Untitled”(1990), consists of three hemispheres covered with dark blue pigment. The concave sections of the hemispheres are dark, surprisingly without any tinge of light, so viewers experience the wonder and fear of unfathomable depth. Like this, the voids in Kapoor’s artwork are spaces of “nonexistence” but, simultaneously, spaces of “existence” as there exist nonphysical, nonmaterial things like darkness, infinity and human feelings, the artist said.

And the biggest piece among the “Void” series on display at Leeum, the 1999 work “Yellow,” leads viewers to feel like they have been sucked into a whole new space full of light.

Kapoor’s stainless steel sculptures since 2000, which include “Vertigo V & VII” and “Tall Tree and the Eye,” are on display now at Leeum’s garden.

Admission is 8,000 won ($7.36). A day pass including admission to the permanent exhibitions is 14,000 won. Hours are 10:30 a.m. to 6 p.m. Tuesday to Sunday. A docent leads tours in English at 2 p.m. Saturday and Sunday.

Go to Hangangjin Station, line No. 6, exit 1 and walk five minutes.

(02) 2014-6900, www.leeum.org

REFINED AND TASTEFUL LIFE OF THE

JOSEON DYNASTY

Gallery Hyundai, Jongno District

To Feb. 24: The exhibition includes 80 Joseon-era paintings about people’s daily lives, including 15 erotic paintings called chunhwa that have never been shown to the public.

chunhwa rarely contained the signatures of their artists and were passed around secretly, so their whereabouts have been difficult to determine. The 15 paintings in the exhibition are from two books presumed to have been made by two of Joseon’s most prominent painters, Kim Hong-do (born 1745) and Shin Yun-bok (born 1758), or by someone who emulated their styles.

Some paintings carry lyricism or humor rather than vulgar sexual excitement, such as the one depicting a man and a woman making love beside azaleas in full bloom. Still, many of them depict explicit sex, so minors are not admitted to this section.

The show runs at the main building of Gallery Hyundai plus Dogahun, another exhibition venue run by the gallery nearby.

Admission is 5,000 won for adults.

Go to Anguk Station, line No. 3, exit 1 and walk for 10 minutes.

(02) 2287-3591, www.galleryhyundai.com

TIM BURTON

Seoul Museum of Art, Jung District

To April 14: Tim Burton, whose movies contain some of the industry’s most unique animation and visuals, has done a number of drawings, paintings and sculptures that are in his private collection. So, curators at the Museum of Modern Art in New York selected some of Burton’s artwork for an exhibition highlighting the American director and producer’s off-screen talent.

The result, the “Tim Burton” retrospective, has now come to Seoul. The exhibition features 860 pieces by Burton, encompassing drawings, paintings, sculptures, short films, animations and costumes.

The exhibits include conceptual drawings from Burton’s films “Edward Scissorhands” and “Batman” series. Also among the exhibits are drawings not related to the movies that still reflect Burton’s trademark grotesque fairy tales and dark humor.

Admission is 12,000 won for adults. The museum is open 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. Tuesday to Friday and 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. Saturday and Sunday. The museum is closed on Mondays.

Go to Seoul City Hall station, line No. 2, exit 10 and walk five minutes

(02) 325-1077~9

www.superseries.kr/4072

MEMORY OF A LANDSCAPE I HAVE

NEVER SEEN

Deoksu Palace branch of the National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Jung District

To April 21: The exhibition of the National Gallery in Prague’s collection is the first to introduce Czech modern artists to Korea. It features 107 paintings produced by 28 Czech artists from 1905 to 1943. The title comes from a painting by surrealist Josef Sima (1891-1971) that is among the works on display.

The participating artists also include Frantisek Kupka (1871-1957), who is famous outside the Czech Republic as an early pioneer of non-figurative art or pure abstraction. His 11 works in this exhibition show how the artist evolved from a Symbolist with classical painting style to an artist of Orphism, an abstract style that looks like a visualization of resonating music.

The exhibition demonstrates that many other Czech artists went though dramatic changes, as Czech people of the time came to face not only modern art but also modern technology, a modern lifestyle and a modern political system.

Admission is 12,000 won for adults. The museum is open 9 a.m. to 7 p.m. Tuesday to Friday and to 9 p.m. on Friday to Sunday. It is closed Monday.

Go to City Hall Station, line Nos. 1 or 2, exit 1, 2 or 3.

(02) 6273-4242~3, www.praha2013.co.kr.

By Moon So-young