“The Most Honest Confession: Chang Ucchin Retrospective” Installation view at MMCA Deoksugung ©MMCA
From September 14, 2023 to February 12, 2024, a retrospective exhibition of Chang Ucchin (b. 1917) The Most Honest Confession will be on view at the National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Korea (MMCA) Deoksugung.
Chang Ucchin was the first generation of Korean modern art, working for more than 60 years from the 1920s until his death in 1990. For more than six decades, he painted limited subjects such as magpies, trees, and the sun and moon, yet he expanded his oeuvre by changing his materials and styles. This exhibition presents more than 270 works by Chang Ucchin and aims to not only provide a comprehensive look at the artist’s oeuvre but also to re-evaluate his works through academic research.
The exhibition is organized into four parts, with the first and fourth parts examining the works from his youth, middle age, and old age. By following the trajectory of the artist’s activity through the years, we can capture the Korean modernism that he created and the changes that occurred as he approached old age. Part 2 highlights the motifs he focused on and traces their formation and transformation in his work. Part 3 delves deeper into the artist’s world by exploring his Buddhist worldview and philosophical thoughts. In addition, the exhibition will reveal the results of new research on Chang Ucchin through archives related to the artist’s early life, correcting errors in titles of works, chronology.
