Works by Ha Chong-Hyun and Lee Seung Jio are on view in the group exhibition Only the Young: Experimental Art in Korea, 1960s–1970s, held at the Guggenheim Museum, New York, USA. Previously presented at the National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art (MMCA) Seoul in May, this traveling exhibition focuses on the avant-garde activities of young Korean artists in the 1960s and 70s and brings together more than 80 significant works by leading figures in experimental art of the period.

Korean experimental art emerged in the late 1960s and 70s, a period marked by turbulent socioeconomic, political, and cultural changes spurred by the rapid urbanization and modernization following the Korean War. Young artists in this period sought to confront the ever-changing present by creating boundary-pushing works, including new media and art forms such as objects, happenings, film, and video, beyond the realm of conventional painting and sculpture. Originating from issues shaped by the authoritarian state of the Korean military regime in the 1960s and 70s, Korean experimental art is clearly distinct from its American counterpart. This exhibition holds significance as the first dedicated to Korean experimental art in a North American museum, reflecting these pivotal phases of Korean history.

In this exhibition, Ha presents four early works integral to Korean art history, including White Paper on Urban Planning (1967), which encapsulates the artist's interest in urbanization in Korea in the late 1960s with its distinctly compartmentalized geometric forms. In Work 73-13 (1973), the grid-like barbed wire recalls the post-war situation in Korea, while its pointed ends that pierce the back of the canvas resemble the bars of a prison cell, signifying the artist's silent resistance to the dictatorship of the time.

Nucleus F-G-999 (1970) by Lee Seung Jio, a pioneering figure in Korean geometric abstraction, stands in stark contrast with the dominant style of the time. Featuring a V-shaped arrangement of pipes, the work demonstrates the artist's precise visual language, responding to the turbulent time through the illusion of metallic surfaces achieved through simple forms and tonal variations within a rigid order.

The exhibition at the Guggenheim will remain on view through January 7, 2024, and then travel to the Hammer Museum in Los Angeles on February 11, 2024.