09.09. - 29.10.2005 Frankfurt am Main
Sep 14 - Oct 29, 2006 New York

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BAE Bien-U
*1950 in Yosu, South Korea

> Biography
> Solo Exhibitions
> Group Exhibitions
> Collections
> Bibliography

The works of BAE Bien-U
- A point of contact between the heavens and the earth -

The unique eye of BAE Bien-U can be equally identified in his series skyscape, seascape, sonamu, hyangilam, orum, landscape, mountain works when he deciphers the point of contact between the visible world and the invisible world in nature as well as in the landscape. It is well known that BAE Bien-U has been greatly inspired by pines and pine groves. In the photographs of pines, setting the dominant line vertical in accordance with the image of standing trees, he seems to have expressed them as creatures which rejoin the heavens and the earth (and the nether world). He apparently perceived an invisible horizontal line, which connects the divided regions, inhered in the succession of vertical trees. We can even say that individual pines suggest human beings, while a pine grove reminds us of a thick, jostling crowd.
He has preferred to photograph the pines on the hills in the suburbs of the old town of Gyeongju. Although pine trees can be seen anywhere in Korea and a pine grove is a landscape familiar to the Koreans, these photographs are more than visual records of a typical images of the nature in Korea. The architecture of Jongmyo (the ancestral shrine of the royal family), which he photographed before, is a work of formative art itself, while a pine grove or a landscape and nature in general, always exists chaos.
When a photographer triggers a camera at nature, he will automatically record an aspect of the chaos. Whether the photograph is deserving of the name of art is another question. Taking an artistic photograph would need an eye to decipher an artistic form in the middle of the chaos. A photograph as a work of art would give some formation to the chaos, while a photograph in the usual meaning just clips an aspect of the chaos in a photographic frame. In the photographs of BAE Bien-U, the pine grove is not taken simply as a landscape, that is, a part of the nature. You would feel as if the trees or the grove, given a clear formation by the photographer, was coming out of the landscape and approaching you directly. Such an impression on his works tells you that they should be called artistic rather than photographic.
Text by Shigeo CHIBA

Biography
1950 born in Yosu, South Korea
1974 BFA Applied Arts, Hong-ik University, Seoul
1978 MFA Applied Arts, Hong-ik University, Seoul
Professor, Department of Photography, Seoul Institute of the Arts

Solo Exhibitions
2008 Palace Alhambra, Spain
2008 Phillips de Pury, London
2007 K Collection Bien-U Bae, Lee C Gallery, Seoul
2007 Sea & Island, Gana Art Busan, Busan, Korea
2006 'sonamu’, Galerie Poller, New York
2006 BAE Bien-U / Elger Esser, Gana Art Gallery, Seoul
2006 BAE Bien-U - La Línea de Sombra, Galería Álvaro Alcázar, Madrid
2006 « sonamu », Galerie Poller, New York
2006 Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza - PHotoEspaña2006, Madrid
2005 « sonamu », Galerie Poller, Frankfurt am Main
2004 « Le Vent de TAHITI », Galerie Gana-Beaubourg, Paris
2002 Artsonje Center, Seoul, South Korea
2001 ISE Gallery, New York, USA
2000 Galerie Bhak, Seoul
2000 Sigong Gallery, Taegu
1998 OZ Galerie, Paris
1993 Seoul Art Center, Seoul
1989 Hochschulgalerie, Bielefeld, Germany
1988 Raiffeisen Bank Galerie, Bamberg, Germany
1985 Hanmadang Gallery, Seoul
1982 Kwan Hoon Gallery, Seoul

Group Exhibitions (selection)
2007 Void in Korean Art, Leeum-Samsung Museum of Art, Seoul
2007 MoA Picks: Reminiscing the Medium – a 'Post-' Syndrome, Seoul National
             University Museum of Art, Seoul
2006 Centre PasquArt, Biel, Switzerland
2006 The Modern Photography, Gwangju Museum of Art, Gwangju, Korea
2005 MANIFESTATION D'ART CONTEMPORAIN .ANGERS
2005 Korea guest of honour, Frankfurt book fair
2005 Atta KIM & BAE Bien-U, Galerie Gana-Beaubourg, Paris
2005 Photo London, by Galerie Gana-Beaubourg, Royal Academy, London
2005 Art paris 2005, by Galerie Gana-Beaubourg, Musée du Louvre, Paris
2004 Art paris 2004, by Galerie Gana-Beaubourg, Musée du Louvre, Paris
2004 Treasures of Angkor Wat, Museum of History Seoul, South Korea
2004 Real Reality, Galerie Kookjae, Seoul, South Korea
2004 International Korean Fair 2004, COEX, Seoul, South Korea
2003 Le temps de la Nature, le temps de l’humain, Municipal Museum of Daejeon
2003 Projet Chunggaechun- Les gens qui marchent à la surface de l’eau, Municipal Museum of Seoul,
2003 International Korean Fair 2003, COEX, Seoul, South Korea
2003 Paysage Réelle- Nouvelle Proposition, National Museum of Contemporary Art, Seoul, South Korea
2003 Le temps et l’instant, Galerie Gana-Beaubourg, Paris, France
2002 15 photographes coréens (La galerie photo, Montpellier, France)
2002 2nd Photo Festival, Centre Gana Art, Seoul
2002 Photo Festival, TAHITI
2001 Looking East Dialogue. Selections from the LeWitt Collection (Central Connecticut State University, USA, Germany, Seoul)
2000 Fotofest, Contemporary Photographers from Korea, Williams Tower Gallery, Houston, USA
1999 Figure and Landscape in Korea, Hanlim Museum, Taejon, South Korea
1998 Defrost, Sonje Museum of Contemporary Art, Kyungju, South Korea
1997 Fast Forward, The Power Plant, Toronto, Canada
1996 Photography-New Vision, National Museum of Contemporary Art, Seoul, South Korea
1995 Photography Today, Sonje Museum of Contemporary Art, Kyungju, Korea
1993 Photography Today in Seoul, Walker Hill Art Center, Seoul, South Korea

Collections (selection)
The LeWitt Collection, Chester, CT (USA)

Elton John Collection, London (GB)
C21 Museum, Louisville, Kentucky

Bibliography (selection)
CHONGMYO - Der königliche Ahnenschrein (UNESCO-The World Heritage in the Republic of Korea); texts (engl./german): Lee Sang-hae, Song Hye-jin, photos Bae Bien-u; 190 pages, numerous color and b/w illustrations; 1998 Samsung Foundation of Culture, 2005 Ernst Wasmuth Verlag, Tübingen; 28x23,5 cm / 11"x 9,3", ISBN 3-8030-0656-2

The Beauty of Korea - Bae, Bien-U Photographs (2003-2005); text (korean/engl.) by Yi Chong-jun 142 pages, numerous color and b/w illustrations; AMOREPACIFIC Corp. and Youlhwadang Publisher; 30,5x27,5 cm / 12"x10,8", ISBN 89-301-0176-3

Bae Bien-U; text (korean/engl.): Shigeo CHIBA; 35 b/w photographs of the series skyscape, seascape, sonamu, hyangilam, orum, landscape, mountain; 2005, Sizirak Publishing Co., Seoul; Edition of 500; 27x37,5 cm / 10,6"x14,8"

BAE Bien-U - Sacred Wood, Text von Wonkyung Byun, Thomas Wagner (Englisch), Hatje Cantz Verlag, Ost-fildern, 2009. ca. 156 pages, ca. 70 Ill. (20 in colour), 34,00 x 28,00 cm, hardcover, Januar 2009
ISBN 978-3-7757-2283-4

1982 Works - BAE Bien-u, Medang Publishing Company. Seoul. Korea.
1985 Marado, Ahn Graphics and Books, Seoul, Korea
1993 Sonamu. Ahn Graphics and Books, Seoul, Korea
1995 Art Vivant - BAE Bien-u’s Works, Sigongsa, Seoul, Korea
1998 Chongmyo Royal :Ancestral Shrine of the Chosun Dynasty. Samsung
Foundation of Culture, SeouI, Korea
1999 Horizon, Hong Design, Seoul, Korea
2005 BAE Bien-U, Hong Design, Seoul, Korea
 

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