Works from the Whanki Museum Collection
WHANKI MUSEUM Highlights
환기미술관 하이라이트
This exhibition highlights the unique value of the Whanki Museum as the world’s only single-artist museum dedicated to Kim Whanki, drawing on approximately 2,000 works that form the foundation of its collection and presenting key works from different periods of the artist’s career.
More than a presentation of artworks, it reflects the devoted efforts of its founder, Kim Hyang-an, who sought to preserve the life and legacy of a single artist, while also bringing together selected works that have been continuously added to the collection since the museum’s founding, revealing its gradual evolution and growth.
Organized along a chronological framework, the exhibition traces Kim Whanki’s artistic journey from his early formative experiments to the all-over dot paintings of his New York period, presenting works across a range of media, including oil on canvas, cotton, and paper, as well as gouache, drawing, and object, in a way that conveys the breadth of his artistic exploration. Each period is further articulated through key themes and guiding cues that invite viewers to trace the aesthetic concerns and artistic inquiries that shaped his practice.
The collection that the Whanki Museum has carefully built over time stands as a living history of the institution, and this exhibition invites visitors to engage with and discover the enduring essence of Kim Whanki’s art.
Art is neither a diamond nor a block of gold.
While the value of diamond or gold remains regardless of its owner, the value of art shifts according to the values of the person who holds it.If someone buys a painting for its weight in gold and then locks it away in a dark storeroom, it loses its meaning.
A painting radiates its true brilliance only when it shares the same air and gathers the same dust as we do, living alongside us as a vital, breathing being.— KIM HyangAn, “The Meaning of Collecting – Artworks as Living Beings,“ February 9, 1987
Guiding cues: New acquisitions, New York period, For HyangAn, Paintings by HyangAn, Oil on newspaper, Four-directional composition, Cross composition, Collage, Line drawing, Dot painting, Where, in what form, shall we meet again