Contemporary Korean art in the 1960s and the 1970s reflects the social and political contexts in Korea from the 5ㆍ16 revolution through the Yoo Shin period. This paper investigates whether art has been free from power or not. It examines the power embedded in contemporary Korean art in the 1960s and the 1970s. This paper examines the historical moments of the Korean Art Exhibition, focusing on the complications between the abstract and figurative artworks of the 1960s. One of the significant art exhibitions since the 8ㆍ15 liberation of Korea, the Korean Art Exhibition witnessed conflict among Korean artists who wanted to have power in the art world of Korea. Institutional contradiction based on factionalism and conservatism prevailed in the Korean Art Exhibition was attacked by the avant-garde young artists in the 1960s. With the contact of Abstract Expressionism, young artists’ generation participated in the The Wall Exhibition. This exhibition challenged and established moral principles and visualized individual expression and creation similar to the Informal movement in the West. In the world of the traditional painting of Korea, the Mook Lim Exhibition of 1960, organized by young artists of traditional painting, advocated the modernization of Soo Mook paintings. Additionally, abstract sculptures in metal engraving were the new trends in the Korean Art Exhibition. In the 1970s, the economic development and establishment of a dictatorial government made the society stiffen. Abstract expression died out and monochrome painting was the most influential in the 1970s. After the exhibition of Five Korean Artists, Five White Colors in the Tokyo Central Art Museum in 1976, monochrome paintings were formally discussed in Korea. ‘Flatness’ ‘physicality of material’ ‘action’ ‘post-image’ ‘post-subjectivity’ and ‘oriental spirituality’ were the critical terms in mentioning the monochrome paintings of the 1970s. ‘Korean beauty’ was discussed, focusing on the beauty of white which was addressed by not only Yanagi Muneyoshi but also the policy of national rehabilitation under the Yoo Shin government. At this time, the monochrome paintings of the 1970s in Korea, addressing art for art’s sake, cutting of communication with the masses, and elitism, came to be authorized.

For us, any regional art exist? Almost all art events today take place mostly in Seoul. Concentrating on the reinforcement of its power, the regional art world remains isolated without any connection with the Seoul art community. It is completely closed off from the central art scene. The regional art world seems to consider that more helpful in consolidating its status. It is in real sense suffering the absence of art criticism and art media, lack of an understanding of art and backwardness of art education. Many regional artists are dreaming of moving out from their domain, aspiring to be a member of the central art world. They make an effort to assimilate into a refined, modern style of the central art circle, rather than striving to create works imbued with regionality and locality. As the artists living in the provinces, the characteristics of their district should be above all else reflected in their art. Although they are less informed about the latest trend of culture and art, their art has to be something passionately and obstinately embodying the intrinsic quality of their regions. They have to find a practical solution more positively, instead of merely complaining about the poor condition of the regional art community. There is the need to bring about a turnabout in our awareness that regional art is confined to any limit and cannot be in the center of the entire art world. What’s most significant is to dissolve factionalism and not to depend on school ties or regional networks. As a reaction against authoritarianism, regional art has to put emphasis on attaining its originality. For this, regional art should respect regional tradition, history and background and break away from an old convention of wielding power.

With the advent of the time when the competitiveness of a nation or a city can be evaluated by the extent of cultural reception, the art exhibitions, like other genres of art, are actively held in various ways by different institutions. The spaces of exhibition offered not only by public museums and galleries but also by private galleries, alternative spaces and open-air exhibition spots are being increased. Likewise, the number of exhibitions organized on a large scale by Biennales and local governments is on the increase. In accordance with actual tendency, the Ministry of Culture and Tourism has planned to increase the number of museums and galleries up to 500 by the year of 2011. Under these circumstances, the actual situation shows that the central and local governments are adopting beneficial measures to support the private galleries such as permission of construction on green belt areas and tax deduction. That is, our society has come to realize that the necessity and importance of public as well as private galleries to play their roles as cultural and educational institution. Now, the number of galleries is growing. Exhibitions are held everywhere. Therefore, spectators have more chance to visit them than before. With these conditions and the growing number of amateurs, social interest in curator organizing exhibitions is getting popular. Because of the rise of curatorial popularity on the social level, the influence of curators which is exercised within the gallery seems to become gradually enlarged. In reality, it is true that the curatorial influence cannot be ignored more than ever for appear in various fields their new features made from their professional cometence. The function of gallery is more strengthened and its position is more heightened than those in 80s. For these reasons, the curators whose playground is the gallery, they may be regarded as invisible power to the artists. Futhermore, their influence as such seems to be more likely because our world of art does not still have any reliable system of art criticism. Nevertheless, considering the actual situation in which national and public galleries as cultural institution would rather exist on the local sentiments or political dynamics than on autonomy, there must be some restrictions for the galleries and the curators to obtain the power. In this context, the actual moment is looked upon as transitional period to make the curatorship settled down. Before discussing the power relevant to curatorship, we are going to examine first the role and function of curator and then the new curatorial role and function at the age of information. Finally, we will see in sequence the development and problems of curatorship, the power and dilemmas of curator.

Since the evaluation of its intellectual activities and abilities is done by curator’s capabilities, planning exhibition is very important as the final result achieved by their own knowledge, information, and research. ARPA(Advanced Research Project on Arts) is suggested as the system which enables curators responding simultaneously to the society in the times, based on its special characteristics. If this system settles well, which means that the curators at NMCA(National Museum of Contemporary Art, Korea) play their roles as the professionals in each of their fields, the goal of consolidating the status of museum as the representative national museum, and building up competent department of curators, will be achieved at the same time. To clarify above, the curators set up the various assignments of research about the types of arts such as painting, Korean painting, sculpture, installation, new-media, design, craft, photogarphy, architecture, etc. And they establish the art objects classified by the regions, such as the Northern American, Southern American, European, Asian, and other Third World countries. They elaborate art objects more on the history, the work, the artist, and the issue of contemporary art. Furthermore, when the curators devote deeper study to those research subjects, they can have the opportunities to design an exhibition upon the research.Today, the museum of art is ‘The Place for Communication and Encounter’, it is regarded important to share the aesthetical, creative values with current artists, and to understand mutually with the spectators. It is needed to improve the curator’s work, in order to meet the demands of the times and even to advance. Because the form of ‘exhibition’ is the tool that reveals the identity NMCA aiming at, the motivation, the development, and the realization should be leaded by the curators, who are the mainstream of the museum. ARPA is a system for identifying the exhibition like mentioned above . The main purpose of this system is to produce synergy effect, having the researching, collecting work in liaison with planning exhibition. ARPA will be able to improve the quality of exhibition through the way of developing the exhibition, passing through the stable process in the long run. So far, I have referred to a new paradigm of the exhibition design at NMCA via ARPA. Yet, there still remain missions in reality, such as analyzing the previous exhibition and reshuffling personnel and system, which should be done. When these matters settled, these plans would be suggested practically. At this point, it is the most significant that NMCA is attempting to let others aware of the importance of exhibition planning based on research. when the ARPA and exhibition planning is conjoined together successfully, the competent exhibition will be achieved, which can offer a meaningful exhibition to the art world, strengthen infra structure thru exchanging with public museum in the region, and eventually, establish a network with museum in foreign countries.

As biennale exhibitions has been expanded into all of the world since 1990s, these trends of blockbuster exhibitions have caused several problems. For instance, some major curators monopolized most global size exhibitions despite of a variety of cultural and historical backgrounds. Besides, due to a strong connection between these curators and their own artists, the young emerging artists’ opportunities tend to be reduced as a result of the power game. In addition, major curators’ power have influence on the exhibition style as well as on the theme itself. Some artists who did not involved that kind of huge scale exhibitions dispute that the direction of the exhibition is concentrating on the curator’s interest instead of artists or viewers. Although these dissatisfactions could not portray correctly the process of organizing and managing system of a biennale exhibition, those biennale exhibitions held in recent have shown tautologic discourses without any passion and positive attitude direct to the exploitation of our society as a vanguard. In the process of comparing several kinds of biennale exhibitions, I could find that some artists who participated several biennale exhibitions at the same time did not present their creative vision, although the triumph of an exhibition was typically measured by the amount of visitors. Thus, the aim of this article is to prove that the biennale can show us new cultural discourse as well as progressive method of understanding our times. Is biennale producing the real ‘global standard’? If biennale has done it, could this global standard present up-to-date paradigm for the unique exhibition system? Is biennale providing an useful opportunity for the understanding and communicating of contemporary art through the re-contextualization which is pronounced by the publicity of curator and organizing committee? How can we find the distinctive strategy from each biennale exhibition including Venice Biennale? Biennale, as a blockbuster exhibition, always requires a degree of hype, otherwise it would not be a special event and would not attract a big enough audience. It is the actual reason why major biennale exhibitions seem to be similar artistic events. Unfortunately, it seems that the excess of biennale exhibitions might bring about the lack of contents. In this case, the biennale syndrome would being a kind of the center of poverty, in spite of the visual splendor. After all, following the global standard may not be a matter of great importance now. What really matters is how each biennale exhibition which started under the different conditions can search their own identity.

In the late decade of 1930, under the Japanese Imperialism, the Korean abstract art which was formed with affection by Japan and Europe. They say the early Korean abstract art is colonized, from a point that it derives from exterior impact. And they say also it is colonized not to be related to the representation of their own life world. On the other hand, the early Korean abstract art in 1930s is told as the prehistory of ‘Korean Modernism in Art’, which flourished in 1970s followed ‘Informal Art Movement’ in the late 1950s. Because the status of abstract art in 1930s was not more than a germ of ‘Korean Modernism in Art’, while they understand until 1950s as a period dominated by representational art based on Chosun Exhibition or Korean National Exhibition, the period until 1970s as a period ruled by abstract art which was accepted as ‘Korean Modernism in Art’, and the period after 1980s as a period by Min-jung Art and Post-Modernism Art. However, the historical value of Korean Abstract Art in 1930s cannot be passed over, if not trying to understand the development of ‘Korean Modernism in Art’ especially focusing on not their own history but the impact of Western and Japanese art. In the late colonial period, the Korean early abstract art was the strongest utterance of the time paradoxically, even if not related much to optical representation of the Korean subjectivity. Therefore the existing viewpoints about the early Korean abstract art should be changed.

Kim Whan-ki is an unusual instance in Korean modern artists, who payed attention to emotional and expressive effects of colors. The color of Whan-ki’s paintings have been recognized as linked with ‘blue’ in spite that he used colors within the category of ‘Colors of Five Directions(五方色)’, which are traditional oriental colors composed of red, blue, yellow, white, green and black. Kim Whan-ki unearthed upon similarity of Five Directions Colors to the three(five) primary colors which modern abstract painter like Mondrian layed down. Whan-ki switched the five directions colors to modern ones. Kim Whan-ki’s dot painting in which pure and watery color is sucked in ground is modernistic adaptation from ink painting. He packs a dot with sky and earth, moon and stars, forest and tree, birds and flowers, friends at his hometown, wind, sound and so on. Putting tens of thousands of these shapes and colors into a dot is modernistic version from ink painting. In that point there is a possibility to say that ‘dark blue’ of the dot painting is ‘Hyun-saec(玄色)’. Eventually we can make sure that Kim Whan-ki’s view of Art originated in oriental philosophy and beauty.

Yoo Youngkuk started his career as an artist when he entered Bunkagakuin of Tokyo in 1935 he actively participated in the Japanese art scene as a young Korean artist until 1943. In his earliest works, Rhapsody and Work B, Surrealist and abstract influences are manifested as these were prevalent in Japan at the time. With the exception of Rhapsody and Work B, all works available that were executed between 1937 and 1940 are abstract, which points to the fact that Yoo intended abstraction from the beginning. Surviving works in relief suggest his early style was founded on the abstractions similar to Russian Avant-Garde, Neo-plasticism and Bauhaus simplicity. His early abstractions were not the ideational images derived in the process of the abstraction of the representational image, but they arose from the constructive attitude in composing the already stylized non-representational geometries. It is worth noting that his early emphasis was on the pure and absolute geometric abstraction, rather than the images motivated from the figurative representation. Yoo differentiates himself from Kim Whan Ki in the following aspects: one, he eliminated the subject matter i.e. human figures and the nature; two, he maintained the constructivist attitude in creating a strict and absolute abstraction; three, he experimented with different styles without combining them. He manifests direct influences from the prevalent Western art influences, such as Futurism and Russian Avant-Garde, unlike Kim who vaguely references. In both paintings and reliefs, Yoo’s attempt in the realization of the pictorial depth and space seems cerebral and conceptualized compared with the other artists of the time who resolved abstraction via the constructive dimension. Uemura, a contemporary critic to the geometric abstractions in Japan, disapproves the stylistic bent in the adaptation of the abstract painting without the comprehension of its spiritual movement. As witnessed in other criticisms as well, contemporary Japanese critics’ interest lie mainly in the superficial observation such as the presence of representational elements, composition and use of color. Such formal and superficial understanding of the geometric abstraction resulted in the general appreciation of the style as the color-compositional design. Yoo’s works have been related to such design-like aspect of the abstract paintings, yet, some of his works attest to the visual shift from the constructivist to the painterly dimension. As witnessed in his photographic works taken in Gyeongju in 1942, Yoo’s interest lies in the geometric shapes of the photographic objects rather than the landscape or the documentary aspect of the view. Seen in the series of photographs, he began extracting the ideational images from the observation of the subject matter. The ideational images ultimately configure the geometric shapes, yet they differ from the previous abstraction in that they originate from the representation rather than the conceptual realm. I do not see such shift in style as a form of regression. Such change is only natural considering the artist’s move from Japan where the westernized civilization had created a geometric environment to Korea where the mountainous curves and nature still abounded.