Yoo Youngkuk(1916-2002)’s five newly discovered artworks are exhibited under the title “Yoo Youngkuk’s 1950s and the First Modernist Generation” along with signature pieces by leading figures of the first generation of Korean modernists Kim Whanki(1913-1973), Lee Kyusang (1918-1964), Chang Ucchin(1917-1990), Lee Joongseop(1916-1956) and Paek Youngsu(1922-).These artists are the members of the “Neo Realist” group that emerged and became the mainstream art movement of Korea after Korean War. This exhibition provides an opportunity to explore how these artists influenced each other within the context of war and how they have transcended the trauma to open up a new vision in the world of art.

The time the ‘first modernists’ had to confront was the chaotic 20th century of progression, imperialism, fascism and war. (… ). However, the Korean War remained as a harsh scar in their lives; the war completely ruined their promising thirties’ career. Lee Jooongseop who moved to the South during the war had to cope with poverty, pain, separation from his wife and children and his unexpected death. Kim Whanki had to resign a professor at Seoul National University in September 1949 and experienced the war. Yoo Youngkuk got involved in a trouble with the “Korean Art Exhibition” due to his decision to participate in the “Year 1950 Art Association Exhibition” instead of taking part in the “Korean Art Exhibition”. He also resigned a professor at Seoul National University for this yet war broke out before the exhibition was held. No one could be an exception of this tragic history.

The Korean War was an unavoidable tragic historical incident yet the ‘first modernists’ overcame their distress through art. Despite the poor condition, these artists executed various art activities; Kim Whanki and Paek Youngsu organized solo exhibitions in cafes (New Seoul, Mildawon and Nokwon) during their refuge period in Busan. Kim and Paik together with Lee Joongseop, Lee Kyusang and Chang Ucchin held group exhibitions and even participated in the “3.1 Celebration Exhibition”. (…) As part of their art scheme to overcome devastation and to outlook the future, they also started to rehabilitate the “New Realism”. Kim Whanki, Yoo Youngkuk, Lee Kyusang and Chang Ucchin along with Lee Joongseop who had moved to the South and Paek Youngsu who had just stepped into his thirties organized its third show at the Temporary National Museum of Korea, Busan. (…) Yet the participation of Yoo Youngkuk is more interesting since Yoo, instead of taking refuge in Busan, made his living in a brewing industry in Gangwon-do, Uljin during war time.

Thus, the five newly discovered works of Yoo Youngkuk created during wartime are notable pieces. Yoo Youngkuk is known for his artisan concentration and is one of the leading figures who introduced the idea of a professional artist as a profession. Despite the chaos of the Pacific War and Independence, Yoo participated actively in various shows including the Independent Art Association Exhibition “Dokuritsu-Ten”, the Liberal Artists’ Association Exhibition “Jiyu-Ten”, the “NBG Exhibition” and the “New Realism”. The amount of artworks Yoo has prepared for these shows rounds up to approximately a hundred and twenty pieces but most of them are still missing.

Let us look into the newly discovered works. Two of the pieces are clearly signed as ‘53KUGG’, which evidently shows that they were produced in 1953, the year the artist turned thirty-seven. The three other works can be assumed to have been created in the same year. Yoo took refuge in his hometown Uljin, Gangwon-do and was earning a living by operating a brewing plant and during this time stopped any artistic activity. The third “New Realism” was his first exhibition in three years after the “1950 Art Association Exhibition” in Art Museum Gyeongbokgung was cancelled in 1950 due to the war.

According to the exhibition leaflet, Yoo had put four pieces on show including “Mountain”, “A Tree”, “On the Beach A” and “On the Beach B”. None of these works have been found so far yet the recently discovered pieces are assumed to be part of the works that were produced during that time.

The five pieces were all painted in oils and four of them are painted on a canvas. The two signed pieces in sizes 65.2×50.2cm(fig.1) and 65×53cm(fig.2) are abstract expressions of trees and shows much similarity with his work (assuming as one of the “Composition with Lines” A-D) for the second “New Realism” and “ A Tree” which was exhibited in the third “New Realist Exhibition”. The 45.5×33.5cm sized piece(fig.3) depicts a tree with its background a sea and the 53.2×46cm sized piece(fig.4) is an abstract painting of two ships floating in the sea, which corresponds to his work “On the Seaside”. Their canvases have thick grains that are assumed being made of sacks Yoo had been using in the brewing plant. The four pieces show Yoo’s interest in forms in nature, prominent in his works after the Independence. The 27.5×33.5cm sized piece(fig.5) however, shows a rather abstract constructive composition that reminds of his geometrical abstract works of the time Yoo lived in Tokyo. This piece is painted on a 5mm-thick hardboard paper. Such conditions of the discovered works vividly reflect how difficult it was for artists to acquire material during the wartime.

The newly discovered five artworks of Yoo Youngkuk will become important evidences in unveiling Yoo’s artistic activity during the Korean War period. Moreover, these works take precious value as a bridge between Yoo’s artwork before the war and of the late 1950s. At the present, the closest work produced before these five pieces is the 1949 work exhibited in the “New Realism Exhibition” and after, three pieces created in 1955. “Yoo Youngkuk’ 1950 and the First Modernist Generation”, as the title speaks of itself, is a great opportunity to inspect how the ‘first modernists’ were affected and influenced by the experience of war and how they reflect these experiences in the climax of their works of art. Also, it is a chance to read the newly discovered pieces of Yoo Youngkuk in such historical context and to confirm their status in the history of Korean modern art.
The Korean War brings together the ‘first modernists’, the generation sharing a common experience, with a common issue. It would arouse the question of what they would have longed for through their art in such cruel reality. War however, cannot be presented as a sole image or a symbol. Each artist reflects the war in different spectra through their works. As Yoo Youngkuk, who took refuge in his hometown Uljin and later recollects the secluded three years by calling it the ‘lost time’, Kim Whanki, whose hometown is Gijwado, Jeollanam-do, Paek Youngsu, who spent his youth in Japan, Lee Joongseop, who was married to a Japanese woman, and Chang Ucchin, who was born in Yeongi, Chungcheongnam-do, each present different aspects of the war through their work.The experience of war is interpreted in different ways by each of the artist and the different interpretation and presentation eventually become a basis for the artist to transcend reality and find their own vision. Kim Whanki went to Paris in 1956. Yoo Youngkuk establishes the “Association of Modern Art” to get ready for the Informel era. Lee Kyusang develops an abstract world that reveals religious symbols and Chang Ucchin, as if to cure the wounds of war, explores innocence. Paek Youngsu moved towards illustration and interior design. Lee Joongseop on the other hand early confronted death.

For the ‘first modernists’, the Korean War was a trauma yet at the same time was an event that formed the basis of their artistic identity. Despite Korea’s long history of its stubborn attitude to maintain its conservative identity due to incidents such as the Japanese Invasion of Korea in 1592, the Second Manchu Invasion of Korea in 1636-1637 and, the ‘first modernists’ take their wartime experiences as an inspiration for their innovative artistic execution and by surpassing the old Japanese aesthetics of reproduction, they set up agendas and open up a new era of Korean modern art.