Korean Greats and International Icons: Frieze Masters at Frieze Seoul 2023
From Korean pioneers of abstraction to rare 19th-century manuscripts, this year’s Frieze Seoul Masters section presents art traditions and history from a global perspective
From Korean pioneers of abstraction to rare 19th-century manuscripts, this year’s Frieze Seoul Masters section presents art traditions and history from a global perspective
This year’s Frieze Seoul will see the return of the dedicated Frieze Masters section, led by Nathan Clements-Gillespie, and expanded in 2023 to feature more than 20 galleries offering a contemporary perspective on art history. The section will showcase works by internationally acclaimed artists modernizing Korean art traditions, alongside works from European galleries and remarkable historical manuscripts. Here are some highlights from this year’s section.
RHEE Seundja (1918–2009) started her artistic career in Paris just after World War II. While most of the well-known Korean male painters developed their careers after studying in Japan during the early 20th-century colonial era, Rhee absorbed the modernist influences of the French capital and pursued her own lyrical abstract language, employing geometric signs and symbols that transcend time and borders (Gallery Hyundai, Seoul, Frieze Masters Section).
Hakgojae Gallery will present a selection of first-generation modern Korean artists who worked on the global stage in the 20th century, along with contemporary artists who have modernized Korean traditions. KIM Po (1917–2014) paints a utopia transcending the boundaries of the East and the West with his free-spirited and expressive brushstrokes. BYUN Wol-ryong (1916–1990) depicts his homeland and its people with classical Western painting techniques. LEE Joon (1919–2021), a pioneer of Korean geometric abstraction, captures the forms of nature beyond sensory perception and RYU Kyung-Chai (1920–1995) depicts the emotions evoked by weather in a lyrical abstract style.
Working in quite a different vein, YUN Suknam is regarded as the godmother of Korean feminist art. Her figures and materials invoke the domestic while challenging the marginalisation of women in society through the hardship of different historical eras (Hakgojae Gallery, Seoul, Frieze Masters).
Wooson Gallery presents CHOI Byung-So’s series of intense newspaper works from the 2000s alongside his video works from the 1970s. The former consist of pencil and pen lines drawn on newspaper over and over again until the paper reaches its physical limits and can no longer be worked on, with ink and graphite covering the entire surface and even tearing the paper apart (Wooson Gallery, Daegu, Frieze Masters Section).
Tornabuoni Art explores the evolution of the canvas and sculpture in the second half of the 20th century including icons of postwar Italian art such as Lucio Fontana, Paolo Scheggi and Enrico Castellani from the Milanese School whose works are already known to Korean collectors. The presentation also provides a panorama of the larger context in which these emblematic artists are working. (Tornabuoni Art, Paris, Frieze Masters Section).
Daniel Crouch Rare Books will display a rare manuscript administrative map of Korea made in 1836, showing Dokdo island, while Dr. Jörn Günther Rare Books will showcase The Wedding Hours of Bianca Maria Sforza. This personal book of hours was a wedding gift by Ludovico Sforza to his niece, Bianca Maria, upon her marriage to Maximillian I, Holy Roman Emperor Elect (Daniel Crouch Rare Books, London, Dr Jörn Günther Rare Books, Basel, Frieze Masters Section)
![ANONYMOUS 東國輿誌 [동국여지 - Geographical depiction of the Eastern country - Korea], Korea, 1836. Hand-coloured manuscript map in eight parts, backed on paper with manuscripts, some tears and staining along the folds, sketch drawing on verso, folding into original pasted covers. 1003 by 584mm. (39.5 by 23 inches). Courtesy the Artist and Daniel Crouch Rare Books.](https://static.frieze.com/files/inline-images/19466_1.jpg)
Frieze Seoul
Frieze Seoul will return to COEX from September 6 to 9, 2023. Discover the best art from over 120 leading galleries from across Asia and beyond. Located in the Gangnam district in the heart of Seoul, the fair will run alongside Kiaf SEOUL, South Korea’s leading art fair.
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Main image: Pat Passlof, Atheneum, 1960–61, Oil on linen, 77h x 144w in, 195.58h x 365.76w cm, CREDIT: © Milton Resnick Pat Passlof Foundation. Courtesy of Eric Firestone Gallery
