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MMCA retrospective explores the man behind the waterdrops: Kim Tschang-yeul

Published: 21 Aug. 2025, 15:59 Updated: 22 Aug. 2025, 09:06

LEE JIAN
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"Waterdrops" (1986) by Kim Tschang-yeul is on display at the National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art in Jongno District, central Seoul, as part of the artist's retrospective exhibition set to open on Aug. 22. [MMCA]

A massive retrospective on Kim Tschang-yeul, or "Mr. Waterdrops" as he was affectionately known abroad, will open at the National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Arts (MMCA) in Jongno District, central Seoul, on Friday.

The exhibition, set to run through Dec. 21, features over 120 works, including 31 that will be unveiled to the Korean public for the first time. The display space was designed in collaboration with museographer Adrien Gardère, known for designing shows at the Louvre-Lens and the Grand Palais in France.

Kim Tschang-yeul's artworks displayed at the National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art in Jongno District, central Seoul, for the artist's retrospective exhibit set to begin on Aug. 22. [MMCA]

“With many visitors from around the world coming for Frieze Seoul in September, we wanted to showcase an artist who could really speak to what Korean contemporary art is to a global audience," Director of MMCA Kim Sung-hee told the reporters during the exhibition’s press conference on Thursday at the museum.

“Despite the familiar, even commercial, associations with Kim Tschang-yeul, I myself only recently learned how the iconic water drops came to be, and there were so many pieces of his that I saw for the first time. It goes to show that though Kim Tschang-yeul is famous, there is so much more to discover about the artist besides the waterdrops drawn after the '60s, and his creative journey leading up to them.”

Those droplets are, of course, part of the MMCA exhibit. But the show also covers a decade before the first waterdrop painting's public display, unveiling the traumatic origins behind the innocent, clear globules.

"What Happened at Night" (1972), the first waterdrop painting by Kim Tschang-yeul to go on public display, is on display at the National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art in Jongno District, central Seoul, as part of the artist's retrospective exhibition set to open on Aug. 22. [MMCA]

Kim was born in 1929 in present-day North Korea. When the Japanese occupation of Korea (1910-1945) ended, he escaped to the South alone at the age of 15. In 1949, Kim entered Seoul National University as an art major, but was forced to flee at the outbreak of the Korean War (1950-53). After the war, he entered the Police Academy and was deployed to Jeju Island.

These experiences produced dramatic and noticeably grim early works, collectively dubbed “Rite” in the first part of the museum’s exhibition titled “Scars.” Their rough brushstrokes and small circular dents made with thick paint — an early form of his later emblematic waterdrops — are interpreted by the MMCA as the scars of war imprinted onto canvas, like bullet holes or the tracks of tank treads.

"Rite" (1964) by Kim Tschang-yeul is on display at the National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art in Jongno District, central Seoul, as part of the artist's retrospective exhibition set to open on Aug. 22. [MMCA][MMCA]

"Rite" (1966) by Kim Tschang-yeul is on display at the National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art in Jongno District, central Seoul, as part of the artist's retrospective exhibition set to open on Aug. 22. [MMCA]

Part two, “Phenomenon,” showcases Kim’s more experimental works created in New York, a period which the artist calls “a nightmare harder to endure than war.” With no money and recognition, Kim at this time pivoted to a much smoother, geometric and polished style of painting. Those structures gave way to fluid, viscous organic forms, meant to resemble spilling human entrails, or “intestine art,” as Kim called them.

These mucous-like shapes transformed into water droplets in the 1970s, which Kim produced for five decades until his death in 2021. They are showcased in part three, “Waterdrops,” and part four, “Recurrence.”

"Untitled" (around 1969) by Kim Tschang-yeul is on display at the National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art in Jongno District, central Seoul, as part of the artist's retrospective exhibition set to open on Aug. 22. [MMCA]

Yet, before Kim died, he is recorded by his family as saying: "There are still many waterdrops that I haven’t drawn."

So what do these waterdrops on canvas mean?

“Kim Tschang-yeul drew the droplets in almost a maniacal sense," said MMCA curator Seol Won-ji. "Looking over his oeuvre, it becomes evident that painting these drops was an act of mourning — a requiem for his family and his friends he lost during the war, the moments of death he came so near.

"The ephemeral yet enduring nature of life.”

"Waterdrops" (1979) by Kim Tschang-yeul is on display at the National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art in Jongno District, central Seoul, as part of the artist's retrospective exhibition set to open on Aug. 22. [MMCA]

BY LEE JIAN [[email protected]]