Yoo Young-kuk’s inner landscapes spotlighted in Seoul retrospective

The Seoul Museum of Art (SeMA) has opened its largest-ever retrospective of pioneering Korean abstract painter Yoo Young-kuk, marking the 110th anniversary of the artist’s birth with an exhibition that traces his lifelong exploration of color, form and inner landscape. Tittled “Yoo Youngkuk: A Mountain Within Me,” the exhibition will run through Oct. 25 at SeMA’s Seosomun branch, bringing together 178 works, including 115 oil paintings, alongside drawings, photographs and archival materials. Notably, several previously unseen pieces and BTS RM's collection “Mountain” are on display. Widely regarded as a forerunner of Korean abstract art, Yoo (1916-2002) developed a distinctive visual language inspired by mountains and sea of his hometown Uljin, North Gyeongsang Province. His paintings are characterized by geometric compositions and bold primary colors that move beyond representation toward an expression of rhythm and inner structure. Rather than following a chronological format, the exhibition adopts an unconventional structure that begins in 1964 — a pivotal year when Yoo,

Original source: Korea Times