9th Anniversary of Yangpyeong Art Museum

Masterpiece of Light

December 23 (Wed), 2020 - March 1 (Mon) 2021

Yangpyeong Art Museum

600 years of western art history

Media Art, meeting with sciences and arts

Celebrating 9th anniversary, Yangpyeong Art Museum will hold Masterpiece of Light which will be the first special exhibition integrating great paintings of masters in the world art history with cutting-edge sciences and arts. In this exhibition, the most impressive and beautiful artworks in 600 years of the western art history will be displayed.

Among the artworks, those in the Renaissance era (14th to 16th century) will show you the shift of values from ‘God’ oriented world into ‘human’ oriented one (humanism), and those in the Baroque (17th to 18th century) will show the irregular dynamic arts combining with new skills of the Renaissance and emotional elements of the mannerism, splendid colors, abundant contrast effects with shades and textures, and liberal and dramatic features.

Those of Neo-Classicism will demonstrate the revival of the majestic classics through the collision between the conservative and the progressive; those of Romanticism will show the paintings that pursued the painters’ sensibility overcoming the gap between the ideal and the reality; and those of Realism are delicate enough to record the times, which you will meet those reminding the documentaries with the subjects of the daily life, “will draw only what I see.” On the other hand, the Impressionism era (late 19th to early 20th century) after the Realism is the times of outsiders’ uprising and the minority artists who refused the tradition got names. Focusing on the creative activities with colors and light, they studied the colors on “outdoor sunshine” in the nature, objectively.

Those of Post-Impressionism (late 19th to early 20th century) beyond Impressionism developed another artistic environment and sought the scientific and unique paintings modifying Impressionism. Together with a variety of expression types, Expressionism, Symbolism, Fauvism, and so on, which had been developed from resistance against the times upon digesting the painters’ feelings with light and colors of the things, brought today’s contemporary arts.

With respect to the exhibition, the spaces are organized by the times so as for people to understand easily, and the artworks are displayed to know the flow of the western arts at a glance moving the spaces.

O2 space of the ground floor is designed to recall 600 years of the western art history and to appreciate the great masters’ artworks in Yangpyeong with the chronology, systemically. The slope space where the world-famous artists in the western art history are introduced will be demonstrated with the main artists and their artworks by the times.  Most of the exhibited characters and artworks are included in the textbooks or loved by the general public, and they will be the educational space to understand the western arts.

Exhibition Hall 1 in the second floor is the space to see the artworks of the Medieval era. You can appreciate the paintings in the early era by the artists who believed in the Roman Catholicism. In particular, the paintings are from the walls and ceilings of the Catacombs (underground graveyard). You can meet St. Pietro Macelino’s painting on the ceiling of the Catacombs that followed the painting skills of pagan Rome. In other words, it shows the best work in the forms, signs, and symbolic structures that we cannot see with naked eyes because they belong to the other world.

In the Exhibition Hall 2 in the second floor, you can meet the artworks of the Renaissance era (14th to 16th century). This is called as the era of the geniuses and the revival of the arts. They shifted the values of the people from ‘God’ oriented world into the ‘human’ oriented one at this time. The values of Humanism were matured splendidly at this time and you can appreciate the artworks in the times when the passion was revitalized for ideal and science, mathematical symmetry, beauty of human-beings, and so on in the classic Greco-Roman arts.

In the Exhibition Hall 3 in the second floor, you can meet the artworks of the Baroque era. The Baroque art is a type of arts developed to fight against the Protestantism by multiple catholic countries in Europe. Compared to the classic form of the Renaissance with neat and elegant ways, it shows excessive decorations and has the meaning of contempt on the exaggerated architectures and sculptures. You can see the artworks at this era including irregular and dynamic ones combining with new skills of the Renaissance and emotional elements of the mannerism, splendid colors, abundant contrast effects with shades and textures, and liberal and dramatic features.

In the Exhibition Hall 4 in the second floor, the artworks of the Impressionism will be prepared. The Impressionism had affected throughout the society up to the arts since the industrial revolution era in Britain (mid-1700s). In 1858, instant camera was invented, which caused the substantial shock to the painters. Though the sponsors to support the artists’ activities had been decreased due to the collapse of the noblesse by the industrial revolution, development of portable tube paints initiated the significant milestone in the history of arts. You can appreciate the artworks that young painters in the camera era developed with liberal landscape of nature as if they saw the nature through the lens of the camera.

In the Exhibition Hall 5 in the second floor, the artworks of the Post-Impressionism will be prepared (late 19th to early 20th century). The painters of the Post-Impressionism called as the origin of the contemporary arts expressed the unique characteristics based on their own subjective experiences. Compared to somewhat disordered Impressionism styles, you can enjoy the artworks of the painters who pursued more robust and scientific paintings, which affected the contemporary arts such as Expressionism, Symbolism, Fauvism, Surrealism, and so on.

Along with the exhibition, Yangpyeong Art Museum will hold the creative field trip at the separated education hall by Weekend Children Creativity Art School to understand the artworks of the western great masters. Lastly, to celebrate the 9th anniversary, Yangpyeong Art Museum would like to thank to the local citizens and art lovers who have supported continuously to be able to grow as the top-level museum in Korea, and we will position as the sole county museum to lead the glocal culture as well as to develop local culture, seamlessly.