(Korean, 1920-1995)

Back Garden, 1957, signed and dated lower right "Kyung-chai Yoo, 1957.5", oil on canvas, signed, dated and inscribed verso, oil on canvas 45-7/8 x 35-7/8 in.; gilt wood frame, 47 x 37 x 1-1/4 in.

Provenance: World House Galleries, New York, NY (label verso)

Note: Ryu Kyung-chai was a pioneering figure in the development of modern Korean painting and a leading practitioner of Korean lyrical abstraction. Ryu studied modern Western painting at the Ryokuinsha Painting School in Tokyo, graduating in 1941. He came to national prominence in 1949 when Neighborhood of a Bare Mountain received the Presidential Award at the first National Art Exhibition of Korea. His early work, rooted in landscape and nature, gradually evolved toward increasingly abstract forms, culminating in the expressive and color-driven abstraction for which he became known.

Ryu was instrumental in the transformation of Korean painting in the postwar period. In 1957, he founded the Creative Art Association and became an influential advocate for new directions in Korean art. His artistic development moved from the lyrical realism of the 1940s and 1950s to the dissolution of recognizable forms in the 1960s and, by the 1970s, to a fully abstract language of color, gesture, and rhythm. Throughout these changes, his work retained a sustained sensitivity to the natural world.

The present work is particularly significant in light of its association with World House Galleries, New York. Ryu was among the thirty-five Korean artists selected by American art historian Ellen D. Psaty for Contemporary Korean Painting(s), held at World House Galleries from February 25 through March 22, 1958. Psaty traveled to Korea in August 1957, visiting artists and selecting works for the exhibition. Sixty-two works by thirty-five artists were ultimately presented, introducing a broad cross-section of contemporary Korean painting to an American audience in the years immediately following the Korean War.

The World House Galleries label accompanying the present work identifies the artist as “Yoo Kyun-chai,” exhibition no. 59, item no. 1. This contemporary designation, together with Ryu’s documented inclusion in the 1958 exhibition, provides an important link between the present painting and a landmark moment in the international presentation of postwar Korean modernism.

Exhibited: World House Galleries, New York, NY, Contemporary Korean Painting(s), February 25-March 22, 1958, No.59.