Only the Young: Experimental Art in Korea, 1960s–1970s

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The exhibition "Korean Experimental Art 1960s and '70s" was co-organized by the National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art and the Guggenheim Museum in New York on the 26th.

Seoul Art Now Artist Tae-Hyun Lee's works has been exhibited.

https://www.guggenheim.org/exhibition/experimental-art-in-korea-1960s-70s

For his available works, please refer to link below:
https://www.seoulartnow.com/copy-of-portfolio/taehyun-lee

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About the painting

The title, ‹Order ›, refers to both command and mission. The title reflects the situation in the 1960s, when the government's strong command and control and the people's sense of mission for economic growth were mixed together.

The painting, the first of its five series, uses gas masks and backpacks as objects. These are chemical bomb masks and military backpack equipment used in actual military training, but if the mask implies the military regime's command to suppress protests, the military backpack implies the mission of military service experienced by young men in Korea.

The year 1967 when this work was produced was a time when many young people were dispatched to the Vietnam War, and when the conflict between the military and citizens was at its peak due to protests condemning the June 8 election fraud. At the time, the artist was an individual who opposed the government's oppression and at the same time a soldier who had to sympathize with it under the orders of the state, and as military equipment reveals the images of young people in this contradictory situation, the artist questions where and from whom these powerful and violent orders wielding individuals and society came from.

https://www.nocutnews.co.kr/news/5949960