Artist No Eun-nim’s Taoist Visions Return in Seoul Retrospective
Creatrip Team
4 months ago
A retrospective of late Korean-German painter No Eun-nim (1946–2022) titled “With the Red Bird” is on view at Hyundai Gallery in Samcheong-dong, Seoul through the 23rd. The show focuses on her energetic creative decade in the 1980s after graduating from Hamburg Art Academy, featuring large mixed-media works on hanji (traditional Korean paper) that blend human, plant and animal forms in spare black-and-white and occasional vivid red. Influenced by Taoist (Do/道) ideas, No’s paintings suggest humans as part of nature and a cyclical, liminal life force; imagery includes leaf-like figures, “tree families” sprouting from people, and consoling red birds. The exhibit also highlights her personal journey—from leaving patriarchal Korea as a 파독간호사 (Korean nurse dispatched to Germany) to study and art success in Europe—and explains why many 1980s large works are being shown in Korea for the first time. The early works’ philosophical, subtly surreal tone contrasts with her later, brighter pieces created after moving to southern Germany in 2000. Curators note the show’s contemporary resonance with posthumanist themes and its comforting, anti-materialist imagination.
