Contemporary Korean Art
New Directions Since the 1960s
Presenting fresh and thematic interpretations, this book showcases a collection of the most visually captivating, socially intriguing and often overlooked examples of Korean art.
Set against the backdrop of a tumultuous history, artists in Korea embarked on explorations of themselves, society and the profound forces shaping their world. Mina Kim highlights the artistic output of the 1960s and '70s, providing crucial context for understanding the work of later twentieth-and twenty-first-century artists. Key themes, including performance art, gender and identity, the interplay of local and global influences, and the evolution of contemporary multimedia practice structure Kim's study of Korean art across the last sixty years.
By placing artists' creations at the core of Korean culture and society, this exploration sheds new and revealing light on the role of Korean art within global visual culture.
Mina Kim is Assistant Professor of Art History at the University of Alabama. She has published many articles on East Asian visual and material culture and is the author of Jung Yeondoo’s Media Art (2018).