White&White: a dialogue between Korea and Italy

The exhibition White & White: Dialogue between Koreaand Italy presents a convergence of two cultures on the color of white and its creative examination of it. As in the late 50’s, the works from the exhibition traces an imaginary, monochromatic line that connects the West and the East.  White & White also offers a space for delving into the two cultures that are on the threshold of remarkable social changes.

The exposition began as a reflection on the different artistic and historical value of western avant-garde in relation to figuration and to the concept of void in Korean traditions. Aside from the traditional Korean aesthetics on white, the Korean scholars of art recognize the artistic movements of the West and Japan from the early 1950s and 1960s as an important influence on the Korean monochromatic tendencies of the 1970s, in which the Korean artists have found a way to incorporate the elements from the West and their local roots. White & White retraces this history and examines the connection among Italy’s Arte Povera, America’s Minimalism, and Japan’s Monoha.