More info on the Leeum Samsung Museum in Itaewon.
This museum has 3 cool buildings of different architectural styles; 2 house permanent collections (inc. modern Korean and foreign art), and one has a temporary exhibit.
Highlights of the museum (IMHO):
- 2 funky huge spider sculptures by Louise Bourgeois in the courtyard
- Museum 1: some small but impressive ceramic vases
- Museum 2 upstairs: a tall thin bronze woman statue (Susan would like this one!)
- Museum 2 main floor: a shiny smooth blue egg with a pink-red bow on top (sculpture) by Jeff Koons
- Museum 2 main floor: a large mosaic-like painting of a face
- Temp exhibit: When I visitied, it was Joseon era paintings, including surprisingly explicit erotic art, as well as:
a 1760 painting of the Cheong-gye-cheon (canal) being uncovered and cleaned up (recall that this was just done 5 years ago, so history does repeat itself!)
Misc notes:
- Cool technology: touch-screens that let you scroll and zoom in on digitized versions of some fragile paper art
- the light in the temporary exhibit was so dim you could barely read the descriptive signs
Unfortunately no photos were allowed inside, but here are the spiders in the courtyard:
- Louise Bourgeois’ Spider Statues
Cost: W13000/$11.50 for all 3 museums
Directions: M6 to Hangangjin station x1, go south and then follow signs to “Leeum Museum”