"I know Picasso and Van Gogh, but I didn't know Korean artists" BTS RM debuts as a curator of Korean art at a U.S. museum [K-EYES]

*This content was translated by AI.

Exhibition held at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art on October 3

RM introduces 145 works from his personal collection... featuring representative artists of Korean modern and contemporary art such as Jang Uk-jin, Kim Yun-sin, Kwon Ok-yeon, Park Rae-hyun, Do Sang-bong, and Yoon Hyung-geun

Korean artworks collected by BTS member RM will be displayed at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (SFMOMA) in the United States starting October 3.

This marks RM's first museum exhibition centered on his personal collection, with RM personally serving as curator.

According to SFMOMA, the exhibition titled 'RM x SFMOMA: Between You and Me' will feature approximately 200 works in total, combining 145 pieces from RM's collection with items from SFMOMA's own holdings. The display includes Korean modern and contemporary artworks alongside works by various international artists. Many of the pieces from RM's collection are being shown publicly for the first time in the United States.

In an interview with The New York Times last August, RM revealed how he became interested in Korean art. He recounted visiting the Art Institute of Chicago during BTS's 2018 tour. At that time, he saw firsthand the works of world-renowned artists he had previously only known through textbooks and other materials at the museum.

Then a question arose: "I know Picasso and Van Gogh, so why don't people know any Korean artists?"

RM realized that although he is an artist active in Korea, he knew little about Korean art itself. He felt he needed to "find his roots," and from then on began seeking out works by Korean artists.

Thereafter, RM visited museums and exhibitions to study Korean artists and collect their works. In a 2023 interview with Vogue Korea, he also explained that seeing works by Monet, Van Gogh, Seurat, and others at the Art Institute of Chicago in late 2018 was what sparked his deep immersion into art.

The first artwork known to have been purchased by RM is Lee Dae-won's 1976 painting "Mountain." In a 2022 interview, he explained that during his U.S. and European tours, whenever he had free time, he began visiting museums. After seeing artworks at the Art Institute of Chicago, he started studying Korean artists and exploring museums dedicated to their works.

The collected works are now being presented not just in RM's private space but publicly at a major U.S. museum. The question RM posed at an art gallery in Chicago in 2018 has led, eight years later, to a full exhibition at one of America's most prominent museums.

RM's collection includes works by representative figures of Korean modern and contemporary art such as Jang Uk-jin, Kim Yun-sin, Kwon Ok-yeon, Park Rae-hyun, Do Sang-bong, and Yoon Hyung-geun. SFMOMA will complement this with works by Kim Whanki, Mark Rothko, Agnes Martin, Henri Matisse, Georgia O'Keeffe, Paul Klee, Donald Judd, Yves Klein, and others.

The exhibition is not simply a display of RM's collection. Instead, it juxtaposes artworks from different eras and regions to explore shared themes. In effect, Korean modern and contemporary art meets American and European art within the same space.

RM described the SFMOMA exhibition as one that reveals boundaries between East and West, Korea and the United States, modernity and contemporaneity, and the personal and the universal. Rather than prescribing how viewers should interpret the works, he expressed hope that each visitor will engage with them through their own curiosity and perspective.

SFMOMA took notice of RM's collection and proposed creating an exhibition to showcase his works for the first time, leading to RM's direct involvement as curator. The exhibition will be co-curated by SFMOMA curator America Castillo and Kim Hyo-eun, deputy curator of painting and sculpture at SFMOMA.

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*This content was translated by AI.