The Cubists Inventing Modern Vision

'The Cubists: Inventing Modern Vision,' the inaugural exhibition of the Centre Pompidou Hanwha, marks the first project of the partnership between the Hanwha Foundation of Culture and the Centre Pompidou. The exhibition offers a broad overview of Cubism in Paris—its birthplace—tracing its development from 1907 to 1927.

Comprising eight sections featuring 91 works drawn from the Centre Pompidou’s collection, alongside a special section dedicated to the Korean context, the exhibition examines how Cubism emerged and spread. By fundamentally challenging the conventions of perspective and representation, Cubism introduced a new way of seeing—one that fragmented and reassembled the world—and became a decisive turning point in the course of twentieth-century art.

This experimental approach began with Pablo Picasso and Georges Braque, and soon expanded to include artists such as Juan Gris, Robert Delaunay, Albert Gleizes, and Fernand Léger. As it developed, Cubism diversified into multiple tendencies and evolved into an international movement, extending its influence beyond painting to sculpture, film, and other media.

The special section KOREA FOCUS, composed of 21 works of modern Korean paintings along with archival media installations and commissioned video works, highlights the symbolic and cultural significance of Paris in the formation of modern Korean art in the early twentieth century. By exploring the intersections between Cubism and various artistic fields in Korea—including visual art, literature, music, and dance from the 1920s onward—it offers a multidimensional perspective on how avant-garde movements that emerged after Cubism were received and transformed within Korean society.