Chun Kyung-ja retrospective explores unconventional life of beloved Korean painter

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Chun Kyung-ja retrospective explores unconventional life of beloved Korean painter

Published: 03 Oct. 2025, 13:00

Audio report: written by reporters, read by AI

″Grassland II″ (1978) by Chun Kyung-ja [SEOUL MUSEUM]

Painter Chun Kyung-ja (1924-2015) defied convention both on and off the canvas — a flamboyant dresser, a fearless traveler and a pioneer of modern Korean color painting. Ten years after her death, a major exhibition in Seoul revisits the dazzling freedom that defined her life and art.

The retrospective at Seoul Museum in Jongno District, central Seoul, titled “The 101st Page of My Sad Legend,” offers a sweeping look at the artist’s career from the late 1940s to the 1990s. The exhibition runs through Jan. 15 next year and features some 80 of Chun’s signature color paintings alongside 150 illustrations, book covers, photographs and archival materials.

Painter Chun Kyung-ja (1924-2015) [SEOUL MUSEUM]

″Solitude″ (1974) by Chun Kyung-ja [SEOUL MUSEUM]

Chun, one of Korea’s most celebrated modern painters, was often described as a defiant artistic figure whose bold personality radiated through her work. In a poem, novelist Pak Kyong-ni (1926-2008) once described Chun as “neither approachable nor distant” and “a somewhat harsh artist,” adding that “dreams lie in her canvas, sorrows in her cigarettes.”

Pak said that seeing Chun in her flamboyant attire was like “feeling primary colors” and described her language as “sensual to the point of dizziness,” casting her as a free-spirited outlier in a society of polished manners. That very sense of freedom, many argue, is why her art continues to resonate.

The Seoul exhibition is the largest since Chun’s final solo show, “82 Pages of My Beautiful Memory,” held at Gallery Hyundai in 2006. Chun, who graduated from Women's Academy of Fine Arts, now known as Joshibi University of Art and Design, in 1944, built a pioneering career in color painting while teaching, exhibiting and later serving as an art professor at Hongik University.

″Someday that day″ (1969) by Chun Kyung-ja [SEOUL MUSEUM]

A lifelong traveler, she embarked on 13 journeys around the world over the course of 25 years, beginning at the age of 46, and also published around 20 books of essays and travel writing. In 1998, she donated more than 90 works to the Seoul Museum.

The exhibition begins with “The 49th Page of My Sad Legend” (1974), a piece from the Seoul Museum collection, completed after Chun left her post at Hongik University. It depicts a nude woman curled on the back of an elephant in a tranquil African landscape. Also on display is “Grassland II” (1978), which in 2018 became the first work by a Korean female artist to fetch more than 2 billion won ($1.42 million) at auction.

Highlights from earlier periods include “Someday that day” (1969) and “Spring Rain” (1966), marked by distinctive blue tones. The latter is a dreamlike landscape of her hometown Goheung County, South Jeolla. “Stillness” (1955), which won a presidential prize the same year, shows a girl in a red dress holding a black cat against a backdrop of sunflowers. Chun once said of painting it, “I don’t know why, but I kept crying as I drew it.”

″Stillness″ (1955) by Chun Kyung-ja [SEOUL MUSEUM]

The exhibition also presents many of Chun’s renowned portraits of women, reframed here as “female portraits” rather than the conventional term miindo, referring to paintings of beautiful women.

Kim In-hye, chief curator of the National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art (MMCA), argued that while miindo implies a male gaze that objectifies women, Chun’s portraits depict real-life models imbued with the artist’s own emotions, showing women as independent subjects.

Well-known works such as “Solitude” (1974) and her portrait of poet Noh Cheon-myeong (1912–1957), painted in 1973, are also on view.

The exhibition was organized in collaboration with 18 institutions, including the MMCA and Gallery Hyundai, with contributions from private foundations such as the Hansol Cultural Foundation and the Gana Foundation for Arts and Culture. Essays by seven figures, including Gallery Hyundai founder and President Park Myung-ja and Samseong Museum of Publishing founder Kim Jong-kyu, accompany the galleries to offer multiple perspectives on Chun’s legacy.

″Spring Rain″ (1966) by Chun Kyung-ja [SEOUL MUSEUM]

But Chun’s name remains tied to the 1991 “Beautiful Woman” forgery scandal, when she declared that a painting acquired and displayed by the MMCA was not her work.

Seoul Museum founder Ahn Byung-gwang alluded to the controversy on Sept. 23, saying, “We prepared this exhibition with the resolve that it may be the last chance. Chun should no longer be confined to the frames of ‘forgery disputes’ or ‘a woman painting sorrow.’ We hope visitors will encounter her life story directly through her works.”

The museum is offering a free audio guide narrated by television host Lee Geum-hee and will remain open throughout the extended Chuseok holiday from Oct. 3 to 9. Related programs include a walking tour in November that traces Chun’s footsteps across Seoul, and a play about her life will be staged at the museum on Dec. 6 and 7.

This article was originally written in Korean and translated by a bilingual reporter with the help of generative AI tools. It was then edited by a native English-speaking editor. All AI-assisted translations are reviewed and refined by our newsroom.
BY LEE EUN-JU [[email protected]]