Shim Moon-seup explores aesthetics of nature

Shim Moon-seup’s “Re-present” is on view at the National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Gwancheon. / Courtesy of MMCA

By Kwon Mee-yoo

Artist Shim Moon-seup, who dedicated his life to capture the aesthetics of the nature, holds a retrospective at the National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Gwacheon.

The exhibit is the last of MMCA's Korean Contemporary Artists Series, highlighting prominent senior artists who hold important positions in the history of Korean contemporary art.

"Shim's works are born from nature and signify simplism within different materials such as soil, stone and wood. He respects nature and explores the relation between substances," Bartomeu Mari, director of MMCA, said.

"Shim Moonseup, Sculpture of Nature" uses two galleries and the Main Hall on the first floor of MMCA, Gwacheon, which is available thanks to Shim's prolific career.

Shim's oeuvre is displayed in chronological order, starting with the 1970s when the artist won the National Art Exhibition. He won a series of awards from the late '60s at the national contest, which was the only gateway for young artists back then.

"People get several chances throughout their lives and my first chance came when I was born in Tongyeong, South Gyeongsang Province. I grew up communing with nature," the 74-year-old artist said. "Back then, the National Art Exhibition was the only art contest in the nation. If I missed one, I had to wait a year to present my work. So I had to put everything in my work and explored what my art was while preparing for the competition."

His works drew international attention as Shim took part in the Paris Biennale on three occasions from 1971 to 1975. It provided him with rare chances to travel abroad and extend his horizons.

“Shim’s works attempt to reveal the phenomena of nature left intact rather than embodied. The exhibit explores how concepts of materiality, which emerged in Korean sculpture in the ‘70s, have both influenced and evolved through Shim’s work,” MMCA curator Park Su-jin said.

His early works "Relations," "Opening Up" and "Thoughts on Clay" series use common materials such as earth, tree branches, rocks, cement and ropes and in rather crude, natural shapes.

"It demonstrates how Shim used simple materials to reveal the symbolism latent in the relationship among different materials," curator Park said. "Viewers will see the meaning of circularity that governs nature ― how a rock becomes earth and how earth becomes a rock ― of which humanity is just a tiny part of.”

Later in the '90s, Shim revisited his works to produce his "Re-present" series, in which he reinterpreted his own works.

The exhibit runs through Oc. 9. Admission is 2,000 won. For more information, visit www.mmca.go.kr or call 02-2188-6000.