Large-scale retrospective of late painter Lee Dai-won to open this week

SEOUL, Aug. 5 (Yonhap) -- A large-scale retrospective exploring the works of Korean painter Lee Dai-won (1921-2005), known for his vivid landscapes of orchards, mountains and ponds, will open this week at the Deoksugung branch of the National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art (MMCA), the museum said Wednesday.

Titled "Lee Dai-won: Nothing Here Makes You Sad," the exhibition will bring together about 120 oil paintings and around 100 archival items, antique artworks and documents spanning his near 70-year art career, according to the MMCA.

It marks the first large-scale retrospective of the renowned painter, dubbed "gentleman of the art scene," "magician of color," and "happiest painter in the world."

Instead of simply following popular Western trends, Lee blended colors and light of Korean traditional crafts, such as embroidery and najeon (mother-of-pearl inlay), as well as East Asian painting brushwork and techniques to pursue a distinct direction for Korean contemporary painting.

At the same time, he was known for running Bando Gallery, the country's de-facto first commercial gallery, and introducing works of prominent Korean artists, such as Park Soo-keun, Chang Ucchin, Kim Ki-chang, Kim Whan-ki and Yoo Young-kuk, to international audiences.

"Lee Dai-won was a cultural intellectual who contributed profoundly to laying the groundwork for exhibiting, teaching, and introducing Korean art to the world, and, in his own painting, an artist who spent a lifetime exploring the possibilities of a distinctly Korean contemporary painting," MMCA director Kim Sung-hee said.

The exhibition runs through Nov. 8.