Rizzoli publishes first monograph for Korean artist

Arts & Design

Published: 07 Dec. 2020, 19:42

Rizzoli publishes first monograph for Korean artist

The new book "Yoo Youngkuk: Quintessence″ is published by the New York-based art bookstore and publisher Rizzoli. [KUKJE GALLERY]

The new book ″Yoo Youngkuk: Quintessence″ published by the New York-based art book store and publisher Rizzoli. [KUKJE GALLERY]

Rizzoli published a monograph, or comprehensive art book, on Yoo Youngkuk (1916-2002), a leading figure in the so-called first generation of Korean abstract art, last week. It is the first time that the famous New York-based bookstore and publisher specializing in art and design published a monograph of a Korean artist, according to Kukje Gallery, which represents the artist in the global art market.

The English-language book titled “Yoo Youngkuk: Quintessence” shows “a broad spectrum of works including both widely recognized, seminal masterpieces and never-before-seen works,” the galley said.

Consistently throughout his life, Yoo studied and created abstract art based on nature — especially the mountains in Uljin County, where he was born. He once said in a note that, “The subject of my oeuvre is nature, which I have explored through non-figurative forms. That is abstraction. It is nature, not as a particular subject, but as lines, planes and colors.”

The authors include Rosa Maria Falvo, an independent writer and curator based in Milan; Gabriel Ritter, head of contemporary art at the Minneapolis Institute of Art; Kim In-hye, a curator at the National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art (MMCA) who organized the seminal retrospective of Yoo in 2016; and Bartomeu Marí, the former director of the MMCA and current executive director of the Museo de Arte de Lima in Peru.

The book is available for sale at the Rizzoli Bookstore and the Kukje Gallery website.

BY MOON SO-YOUNG [symoon@joongang.co.kr]