The Fondazione Querini Stampalia in Venice is shown in this photo taken on April 17, 2024. (Image courtesy of Yonhap)
VENICE, Italy, Apr. 17 (Korea Bizwire) — With its lush garden and sunlight filtering through 19th century windows, the Fondazione Querini Stampalia in Venice provides the perfect backdrop for the long-awaited debut of Korean abstract art master Yoo Young-kuk (1916-2002), who dedicated his career to capturing the simple lyricism of nature on canvas through his bold abstractions.
As one of Italy’s oldest cultural foundations established in 1869, the Querini Stampalia is not just an exhibition venue but an architectural masterpiece in its own right. A longstanding fixture on the Venetian cultural landscape, the building is housed in a 16th century mansion along the Grand Canal, designed by the renowned Venetian architect Carlo Scarpa.
Today, the exquisite cultural institution serves as a temporary home to some of the late artist’s most iconic paintings.
Yoo Young-kuk’s photo is shown on the wall of the Fondazione Querini Stampalia in Venice on April 17, 2024. (Image courtesy of Yonhap)
The exhibition, titled “A Journey to the Infinite,” displays the artist’s 29 vibrant, color-driven paintings and 11 prints that have seldom been exhibited publicly. Also on display are drawings and archival materials, offering a comprehensive and essential introduction to the artist’s remarkable artistic legacy.
Notable pieces include Yoo’s final painting from 1999, two paintings from the late Samsung Electronics Chairman Lee Kun-hee’s collection, and a work from the private collection of RM, the leader of K-pop juggernaut BTS and one of the country’s young and most influential art patrons.
The exhibition’s curator, Kim In-hye, explains Yoo Young-kuk’s art world at the Fondazione Querini Stampalia in Venice on April 17, 2024. (Image courtesy of Yonhap)
The exhibition’s curator, Kim In-hye, said Wednesday the artist began to fully dedicate himself to painting in 1964. Over the next four decades, Yoo maintained a strict daily regimen, spending hours in his studio meticulously crafting and exploring compositions and new avenues of abstraction.
“I often describe him as a man of self-control and self-discipline,” she said.
The late artist’s predominantly large oil paintings were created during the late 1960s, a period when he produced some of his most remarkable works. Inspired by the mountainous landscape and the deep blue sea near his hometown in Uljin County, North Gyeongsang Province, his art captured the essence of the natural surroundings.
“There is everything in a mountain: The triangle of the peak, curves of the ridges, cross sections of perspectives and multifarious colors,” he once wrote.
Visitors check out Yoo Young-kuk’s paintings at the Fondazione Querini Stampalia in Venice on April 17, 2024. (Image courtesy of Yonhap)
Yoo’s work has largely remained unknown outside of his native Korea. In fact, his first major retrospective took place at the National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art in Seoul only in 2017. This is partly due to his low-profile and rather solitary life as an artist.
However, this landmark exhibition in Venice marks a momentous introduction to a global audience of the innovative vision of the artist, who drew upon traditional Korean aesthetics as well as international modernist influences.
Yoo’s abstractions, which transcend geographical and cultural boundaries, align with the theme of this year’s biennale, set to open Saturday under the theme of “Foreigners Everywhere,” the curator said.
(Yonhap)
