Preface

 

 

Art Museums: Their History, Present Situation and Vision: The Case of the Republic of Korea
- Through historical survey, the case studies of Private Art Museums and the “Mo-am Collection”

Preface

“A museum is a non-profit making, permanent institution in the service of society and of its development […] which acquires, conserves, researches, communicates and exhibits, for purposes of study, education and enjoyment, material evidence of people and their environment１”.

Entering into the twenty-first century, works of art have taken on an important role in modern life. In this atmosphere, a variety of art institutions, such as museums and galleries, have been founded and have been aggrandizing their role in society. Practically speaking, museums, galleries and other art-related institutions have played a prominent role not only in preserving and conserving a priceless and irreplaceable cultural, moral and spiritual heritage including art works, but also in educating the general public through the exhibitions and other educational programs such as public lectures, seminars, and so forth. This means that museums are not just places to display the works of art but they are complex and comprehensive cultural Institutions. The role of the museum in societies is still in motion and moving forward.

However, in Korea a unique and different history is evident. Before 1910,

 

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１ Ambrose, Timothy and Paine, Crispin, “Some Definitions of Museum” <Museum Provision and Professionalism> 1994, pp. 15-16. See also, http://icom.museum/definition.html : ICOM Statutes art.2 para.1
ICOM (International Council of Museums) and AAM (American Association of Museums) define the term, “Museum” as above. As we can see from the statement above by ICOM, the main purpose of museums is to show the audience their cultural, historical and aesthetic heritages through exhibitions, and to educate the audience for cultivating the importance of our invaluable heritage throughout diverse programs as a public non-profit institution.
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Korea did not have any modern art museum. Even the concept and the term “museum” did not exist prior to the Japanese Invasion Period (1910 to 1945). only some archetypes of museum are found in the history of Korea. The unusual historical experience of domination has created important and unique historical circumstances. The experience has influenced almost all internal and external aspects of Korea culture and commerce and this includes Korean art, and the formation of art museums. Several Korean museums, including the first modern Korean museum, the Lee (or Yi) Royal Family Museum, was built during the Japanese Invasion Period. Yet, the role of museums during the Japanese occupation was different from the role of original museums. This is to say that the museums during the Japanese colonization of Korea were built up for political reasons２.

However, in recent times, art museums in Korea have developed both in terms of quantity and quality. Now, in Korea, many individual art collectors play a significant role in the Korean art society and art market. Personal art collections exist in a variety of forms, such as art museums, galleries and independent collections. According to the recent research statistics that was collected by the Korea Culture & Tourism Policy Institute in 2002, private art museums and galleries made up over half (51.3%) the total number of museums and galleries in Korea３. Many private and public museums, art museums, and

 

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２ The museum project was a part of the Korea modernization plan during the Japanese Invasion Period. Through the exposition Japan tried to justify its domination on Korea to show technical advances during the domination period. The museum was a part to show the developments. But the museum in the end became an institution that plundered legally ancient graves and other Korea’s cultural heritages.
３ Korea Culture & Tourism Policy Institute, 21C Plan for Museums in Korea (Seoul: Korea Culture & Tourism Policy Institute, 2002), p. 31; this is somewhat out of dated data.

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galleries have been founded and these institutions are trying to establish those art institutions on the basis of effective and rational administrative systems４. But, in contrast, there are still a number of outstanding issues and problems which should be solved. According to representatives of private Korean art museums, due to the lack of appropriate support, governmental policy for private art institutions, with the exception of a few special cases, most of Korea’s private art museums are suffering from financial difficulties. This thesis will carefully investigate the present situation of private art museum management in Korea, asking how they are run, what the difficulties are that they face in maintaining their institutions, and how they are affected governmental policy.

This thesis will introduce the general history of the Korean art museums and survey the present circumstance of Korean art museums, focusing on non-profit private institutions. For getting a concrete understanding of the history and present situation of Korean art museums, this thesis will survey several types of written texts, including monographs, independent volumes, source books published by the National Museum of Contemporary Art, Korea and the Korea Art Museum Association, on these issues. After this process, I will explain the circumstances on the basis of the interviews with representatives of the government and private art museums (the Korean Art Museum

 

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Based on the most recent research performed by the same institution, private art museums, excluded museums and galleries, make up 78%.
[Unprinted Edition] The National Museum of Contemporary Art, Korea (The Korea Cultural Policy Institute), [Tentative Project Title] Art Museum Development Vision 2020 (2008 ~2020), The National Museum of Contemporary art, Korea (Gwacheon: Dec. 2006), p.3.
４The term Museum and Art Museum have a different meaning and function in Korea. I will explain this issue in Chapter 2.
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Association). I will then access approaches and reviews for creating policy for the support of such institutions.

The function of the thesis is to review and investigate the history, the present situation, and vision from the past to the present and to look towards the future. Each chapter will deal with one of these questions in turn. The first chapter is about the history of Korean museums and this chapter is composed of two sections. The first part surveys the origin of “museum.” Due to the absence of the concept and meaning of “museum” in Korea’s museum history, I will investigate its origin, brief history and meaning in relation to the Western history of museums to better understand its origin, meaning, and role. The second section is a general history of Korean museums. In this part, I will discuss some archetypes of the museum and modern museums during and after the Japanese Invasion period in the history of Korea.

Then, in the second chapter, I will comment upon the present situation of Korean (non-profit) private art museums５. This chapter is composed of three sections. The first section describes the circumstances and background of Korean museums during the modern period by studying the brief histories of two major institutions such as the National Museum of Korea and the National Museum of Contemporary Art, Korea. The second observes and explains the general situation of Private Korean art museums and the third investigates the governmental policy. The third reviews the Nam-june Paik Museum

 

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５ ‘Private Korean art museums’ indicate ‘Korean non-profit art museums’ in this paper.
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project by the Gyeonggi Cultural Foundation (the Gyeonggi-do) and points out several serious problems in that project. After these, I suggest some recommendable remedies for the project.

The third chapter is an attempt to anticipate expectations of private Korean art museums. After careful review and observation of present situation, and the future master plan (Art Museum Development Vision 2020 (2008 ~2020)) made by the National Museum of Contemporary art, Korea in collaboration with the Korean Art Museum Association, I would suggest some possible directions. This chapter is made up of three sections. The first part explains the future plans of private Korean art museums based on the future master plan, and the second carefully prospects the vision of the governmental policy for supporting the private art museums. The last introduces the Mo-am collection, Korea, and posits a possible vision of the collection.
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ⓒ 모암문고 www.moamcollection.org