Busan Museum of Art and Lee Ufan

When you leave Haeundae without seeing Lee Ufan's sculptures and paintings, you must miss someting significant in life.

The Busan Museum of Art and Annex (이우환 공간) are located on the opposite side of BEXCO near the northestern tip of the GwangAn Double Deck Bridge. It is the place of tanquility beyond the Sea Cloud Beach (해운대) and Centum City.

Upon my first visit to the museum, I felt like the sense of art or harmonized beauty could be found here in the busy and bustling daily life.

 

 

Since it was the first time to visit to this museum, I was surprised to see unusual and extraordinary exhibits.

The admission fee is temporarily free owing to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Anyhow, my family including a little boy grandchild had a good time enjoying the displays and atmosphere at the inside and outside of the museum.

 

 

On the third floor, there is an exhibition of "On my way to the Museum" (나는 미술관에 ♣♣하러 간다).

The exhibits were the mixture of light and color, real world and science fiction, and so on. So, viewers are accustomed to those displays.

 

 

On the second floor, I felt like that I'm standing in an anatomy classroom of the school of medince.

At the center of the main hall, a giant pink-colored sculpture like bowels was hung.

In the next room, it looked like an exhibition of skeletons of various animals. It was the fourth event of a series of "Highlighting Korean Contemporary Artists." At present, the host is sculptor Hyungkoo Lee.     

 

 

At the entrance of the museum, the busts and name plate of respectful donors are on display.

In the Space Lee Ufan, some art works have been donated by the world famous sculptor and paintor, Lee Ufan (이우환/李禹煥, 1936~  ) himself. This is the second personal museum next to Naoshima, Japan. The third one has been established at Arles, France in April 2022.

 

 

Now we were moving to the famous Lee Ufan Annex and saw the outdoor still-life sculptures made of boulders and metal plates. Inside, there are tens of sculptures and color paintings aiming at simple and minimal composition.

For example, on a large blank canvas, there are painted lines or dots, which seem to emerge out of the canvas and make the surrounding space resonate. Otherwise, they seem to contend each other for a prize.

 

* "Relatum: Outside-Inside" (관계항-안과 밖의 공간) donated by Lee Ufan.

* "From Line" series donated by Lee Ufan are on display. Source: Busan Museum of Art

 

After the whole museum tour, we had a coffee break at the in-house cafe.

Upon entrance, I noticed its owner has a high sense of art and music.

Look at a violinist playing on the wall and a high-end audio system at one corner. Even the fire alarm bell provides a set of display of green plants!

 

 

Note

1] 2015년에 개관한 ‘이우환 공간’은 부산시립미술관의 별관이다. 1960년대부터 현재까지 이우환 예술의 진수가 모여 있는, 일본 나오시마에 이어 세계 두 번째로 설립된 개인미술관이며 2022년 4월에는 프랑스 아를에 세 번째 미술관이 들어섰다.

이우환 화백 본인이 직접 입지 선정부터 건축 기본설계와 디자인에 참여한 ‘이우환 공간’은 대표작들을 나열하는 보통의 전시관과 달리 건물 자체가 하나의 예술품으로, 공간과 작품 어느 한쪽으로 치우치지 않고 모두를 함께 보여주고 있다. 부산의 이우환 공간에서는 에밀레 종소리가 은은하게 울려 관람객으로 하여금 시각과 청각에 동시에 반응하면서 명상에 잠길 수 있게 하는 것이 특징이다.