Bringing the art world closer

By Agnes Yu

While visiting the enviable art galleries and museums in London many years ago my companion remarked how lucky young English schoolchildren were, to be able to see such impressive paintings and historical items on field trips and whenever they wanted actually. As an aspiring industrial designer, he commented that just having that kind of exposure to eclectic art and diverse motivating influences from early on automatically nurtured a better, more enlightened aesthetic. He compared it to his own childhood, growing up in a design desert, thirsty for more inspiration and creative nurturing.

Indeed, despite the grander art exhibits these days, 25 years ago a childhood in Seoul would have been rather lacking in chances to see foreign artwork. Efforts have been made gradually to change this and one significant exhibit was the Keith Haring show held in 2010 at the SOMA Museum of Art in Seoul Olympic Park.

Bringing a world famous art exhibit to Korea is a major undertaking that requires a great deal of money, a notable venue and much collaboration. An American who has lived in Seoul for over 17 years, Todd Sample was integral in making this happen. He is currently a vice president of the International Strategy Department and the only foreign employee at KEPCO. But before this, he worked at the Korea Trade-Investment Promotion Agency (KOTRA), studied at the Korea Development Institute (KDI) and developed an extensive network of connections that presented him with opportunities beyond his work responsibilities. It helped that Sample is fluent in Korean and has a background in art history, making his contributions significant.

After analyzing the level of art appreciation of the general population some foreign artists were approached but their representatives did not respond. In his letter to the Keith Haring Foundation, Sample highlighted the artist’s desire to make people happy, his interest in children, education and political issues such as apartheid. The letter struck a chord, received a positive response and so began the logistics. Securing funding remained a challenging obstacle but one that proved to be an essential learning experience.

``Companies have only recently become eager to upgrade their reputation by sponsoring cultural events and supporting the marketing of them. In 2008 and 2009 and before the efforts of Hyundai Card for example, convincing large companies to sponsor a large scale showcase of a foreign artist was not an easy task,’’ said Sample.

From June 17 until Sept. 5, 2010, well over one hundred thousand people visited the Keith Haring exhibit, a project realized in just eight months of preparation. Despite dying at a very young age - he was only 31 - Keith Haring was a prolific artist. Today the Keith Haring Foundation manages some 6000 of his artworks. He was an impassioned social activist and his images reflect the New York City street culture of the 1980’s where he moved to when he was 19. Recognized for his use of bold lines, vivid colors and active figures, Keith Haring’s artwork symbolized life and unity.

For the exhibit, 130 pieces of his artwork traveled to Seoul and took up the entire 3300 square meters of SOMA. Silkscreens, lithographs, an animation video and even three sculptures borrowed from a local gallery came together to allow visitors a consummate experience of the artist. The first room displayed Keith Haring’s pictures under black lights that caused the images to literally pop out at the viewer. One room was recreated as the ‘Pop Shop,’ a store in Soho that the artist had opened during his lifetime, which he considered an extension of his creative expression with walls that he had painted himself.

Throughout the exhibit wall stickers were used to keep it visually stimulating and as the picture accompanying the article shows, Sample bears a strong resemblance to Keith Haring. In between jobs Sample attended the exhibit almost daily and he mentioned that visitors, especially children often mistook him for the deceased artist or perhaps the artist’s younger brother.

Some people went to see the exhibit more than once, such as Sam Jeon, a Ph.D. candidate at Seoul National University. He said, "I loved the artworks on display at the Keith Haring show. Upon walking into the exhibit, I spontaneously realized that I had already seen a lot of Haring's impressive works before. However, I didn't know that Haring first gained fame by creating his images on the walls of New York subway platforms. The exhibit was a great opportunity for me to appreciate and understand pop art, as well as the painter's underlying stories."

Upon wrapping up in Seoul, the exhibit went on to Busan in one of the galleries in the Lotte Department store there and then to Gwangju for another three-month run.

As a self-described ``outsider on the inside’’ in Korean society, he does his best to avoid being marginalized and allows his ambition to mesh with the ambitions of the country to where he has expatriated. His roots are rather entrenched now and among his many pursuits, Sample is writing a book about doing business in Korea filled with suggestions and insights from his extensive career within local bureaucracy. He was the lecturer at the last `Lunch and Learn’ hosted by LinkedSeoul and you can follow him on Twitter: @artfultoddger.