By Xu Aiying and Kim Young Shin

Museums across Korea are celebrating the new season by hosting exhibitions on many different themes, such as butterflies, spring flowers and the Hangeul alphabet.

The National Museum of Korea is presenting three specially-themed exhibitions of paintings and calligraphy works related to butterflies and seasonal flowers in its calligraphy & painting section on the second floor.

The exhibition, “Couples of Beautiful Butterflies Enjoy the Spring Scene” (고운 나비 쌍쌍이 봄빛을 탐하고), features collections of paintings from artists from the 19th century, such as “Butterflies” (나비) by Jo Hui-ryong (조희룡, 趙熙龍) (1789-1866), and "Butterflies and Flowers" (꽃과 나비) by Nam Gye-u (남계우, 南啓宇) (1811-1888).

Another themed exhibition, “Flowers That Bloom on Paper” (그림으로 피어난 꽃), is about the meaning of flowers, such as peonies that represent wealth, apricots that symbolize scholars, and peach flowers that represent utopia. Joseon artist Shin Myeong-yeon’s (신명연, 申命衍) (1809-1886) delicate “Painting of Flowers” (화훼도) and Jang Seung-eop’s (장승업, 張承業) (1843-1897) bold work “Birds, Flower, Animal and Fish” (화조영모도) on folding screens are both on display. The exhibitions continue until Aug. 5.



The National Hangeul Museum celebrates the 600th anniversary of King Sejong’s enthronement by presenting the special exhibition "Sound × Hangeul: Variations of the Korean Alphabet" from April 9 to June 3.

The 98 videos and sculptures on display represent the spoken sounds of the Hangeul alphabet. They are based on the preface of the Haerye edition of the “Hunminjeongeum” (훈민정음 해례본 ), the text that explains the design of the Hangeul letters and letter combinations. It says, “Alphabets are created based on the sounds, to make everything understandable.”

The items on display depict the process of creating Hangeul, which was to make letters based on their spoken sounds. Also, artists from many different fields, such as architecture, furniture design and graphic design, express their own impressions on the design of the Hangeul alphabet.



The Seoul Gallery of the National Museum of Modern & Contemporary Art, Korea, is presenting the exhibition “How Little you Know About Me,” which houses 21 items from artists working in eight Asian countries, including Korea, Japan, Taiwan and Indonesia, from April 7 to July 8.

The items on display in the exhibition represent the voice of the artists as storytellers who share their personal experiences related to Asia.

Here, creative items, such as Indian artist Yogesh Barve’s “Explaining Could be Exploiting Ⅱ,” which is a collection of thread disbanded from the flags of 77 nations, and Taiwanese artist Zhang Xu Zhan’s “Si So Mi,” which depicts traditional Taiwanese funeral rites in an animated video clip, are on display.

xuaiy@korea.kr