최근 국·공립 미술관의 한국 근현대 관련 전시기획의 개념과 방법론에 대한 고찰

Abstract

Recent exhibition plans adopted by national and public art museums in Korea have many common points in terms of size and theme. For “Korean Art from the Museum Collection Grand Narrative Part 1” by the National Museum of Contemporary Art, Korea, “The Centennial Celebration of Lee In-Sung's Birth” by Daegu Art Museum, and “Korean Art Special Exhibition : Here Are People” by Daejeon Museum of Arts, this study examines the intensions and methodologies of these exhibition plans multilaterally and investigates the exhibition plans of these national and public art museums critically. In contemporary arts, exhibitions are very meaningful, and the exhibition plan and methodology adopted by public art museums considering a public nature are also very important as indicators and criteria to judge the art history of a country. The first common point found in the above-mentioned museums is that they have obtained fruit in terms of exhibition culture as they have made efforts to re-shed light on Korea’s modern and contemporary arts and have realized the study on art history in the location of an exhibition. From this, we can know that public art museums run by local governments have developed their capabilities to plan and hold large-size exhibitions and that the viewers also have started to share the information and understanding of Korea’s modern and contemporary arts. The second common point is that these art museums try to hold differential, meaningful exhibitions, not fixed ones, by designing the structure of an exhibition based on chronology (National Museum of Contemporary Art, Korea), figures (Daegu Art Museum), and themes (Daejeon Museum of Arts). The third common point is that they have problems with the retarded methodologies of exhibitions which are distant from the intentions of the exhibition plans and with a remaining insufficient philosophy of an exhibition. The third common point can be explained in detail as follows. The National Museum of Contemporary Art, Korea has tried to evaluate Korea’s modern and contemporary arts from the viewpoint of Western art even though it is Korea’s representative museum. Daegu Art Museum has a positive aspect in holding an exhibition in an itinerate form with the National Museum of Contemporary Art based on the results of the national museum but has a negative aspect in failing to produce the fruit of its own study of Korea’s modern and contemporary arts. Daejeon Museum of Arts has revealed problems in the connection between keywords and artists or their works in its exhibition by just choosing seven keywords for convenience’s sake without examining art historic meanings in the title of the exhibition in detail. As a result, the intentions of exhibitions held by these public art museums failed to be delivered to viewers owing to insufficient study and unsatisfactory exhibition methodologies, and their exhibitions have fallen short of giving meanings and results of their exhibitions to their viewers. The public nature of an exhibition can induce various critical discussions and stir the interests of viewers. When the philosophy a public museum must hold is thought to be in a public nature that pursues a harmonious life and co-prosperity with other people that confirms a civil society, curators who plan and go ahead with exhibitions in national and public art museums must be faithful to their role in leading this public nature. It is urgent that they secure the development of more various exhibition methodologies and a more creative view on Korea’s modern and contemporary art history in order to commune with the viewer as those who deal with artistic works that are public goods.