(1) http://www.daljin.com/219/386041

1) The term 'Zeitgeist' refers to the prevailing spirit or mood of a particular period, encompassing its cultural, intellectual, and artistic trends. Originating as a philosophical concept, it gained prominence in the art world with the International Art Exhibition, Zeitgeist(Ausstellung) (October 16, 1982 - January 16, 1983) held at the Martin-Gropius-Bau, Berlin. This exhibition, showcasing Neo-expressionism, captured the dynamic energy of the late 1970s and served as a global inspiration for curatorial practices, evident in subsequent exhibitions like Zeitgeist Korea at the National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art in Seoul, South Korea. Kim Beom's appearance in the 1990s, a pivotal era in Korean art history marked by significant changes, makes 'zeitgeist' a focal point of this article. For the exhibition, Zeitgeist(Ausstellung), refer to Jea-won Kim (2003), “Neo-Expressionism and the Zeitgeist-Exhibition: Its Art-historical Implication,” Journal of the Association of Western Art History 19 (June 2003): 207-241.

2) The table of contents of the book is as follows: 1. How to Become a Tree 2. How to Become a Door 2. How to Become a Grass 4. How to become a Rock 5. How to Become a Stream 6. How to Become a Ladder 7. How to Become a Leopard and 8. How to Become a Air Conditioner.

3) Henri Matisse, “Notes of a Painter,” 1908. Originally published as “Notes d’un peintre” in La Grande Revue, Paris, (December 25, 1908); first published in English translation in Henri Matisse (New York: Museum of Modern Art, 1931). 

4) Kim Kyungwoon, “Globalism and Contemporary Korean Art,” in Korean Art 1900-2020 (Seoul: National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art), 419-422. 

5)  To name a few: Sungkok Art Museum(1995), Ilmin Museum of Art and Kumho Museum of Art(1996), Art Sonje Center(1998), Rodin Gallery(1999), Art Center Nabi(2000), Seoul Museum of Art(2002), and Leeum Samsung Museum of Art(2004). 

6)  In 1998, Gana Art, Weekly Art, Hyundai Art, Art News, Photo 291, Design Journal, and Design News published the first issues and in 1989, Monthly Art, Plastic Arts, Art Era, Art Life, etc.

7) Beginning with Alternative Space Loop on February 6, 1999, Art Space Pool, Project Space SARUBIA opened the doors the same year, and in 2000, Insa Art Space(May), and SSamzie Space(June).

8) Established in 1993, KNUA inaugurated its School of Visual Arts in 1997, renowned for its stringent student selection process and innovative curriculum. Additionally, SADI, initiated by Samsung in 1995, adopted teaching methodologies inspired by its affiliate, Parsons School of Design. 

9) Jeong Youngmok, et al. “New Sensation and Communication—Public Media Art: Changes in Visual Environment and Search for New Ways of Communication,” Gana Art (January/Fenruary 1993): 82-83.

10) By the 1980s, economy in South Korea was unprecedentedly booming supported by the foundation of industrial generation before. Between the 1970s and the 1980s, foreign currency earned through the inpatriates of Korean construction companies in the Middle East countries considerably boosted the domestic market. Export-led industrialization under the Chun Doohwan administration enjoyed trade surplus leading to high increase of per capita income, and the three lows from 1986 to 1988—low oil price, low interest rate and the low (weak) Korean won—brought Korea its biggest rate of economic growth. Under these circumstances, “Myth of Middle Class” came up denoting over 60% Koreans believed they are middle class. Setbyol Choi, Looking through Cultural Sociology: A Chronicle of Generations in South Korea (Seoul: Ewha Womans University Press Council, 2018), 264-267.

11) Hahm Donkyoon, “From History to Consumer Society, from Community to Individuality,” Back to the Future, An Exploration of Contemporaneity in Korean Contemporary Art (Seoul: National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, 2003), 53. 

12) Huh Hyobin, “Small Groups of New Generation in the 1990s,” in Korean Contemporary Art: After 1990, ed. Yun Nanji (Seoul: Sapyoung, 2017), 113-114.

13) Kim Beom, Artist Talk in Leeum Museum of Art (September 6. 2023)

14) Kumho Museum of Art and Wellside Gallery, “Roundtable: Mo Bach, Park Chan-kyong, Ahn Kyuchul, Um Hyuk, and Jung Hun Yee,” Mo Bach (Seoul: Kumho Museum of Art, 1995): 10-31. 

15) Kumho Museum of Art and Wellside Gallery, Mo Bach, 27.

16) “Such a trend appears to be provoking a profound dematerialization of art, especially of art as object, and if it continues to prevail, it may result in the object’s becoming wholly obsolete.” Lucy R. Lippard and John Chandler, “The Dematerialization of Art 6,” in Conceptual Art: A Critical Anthology. ed. Alexander Alberro and Blake Stimson ( Cambridge, Mass. : The MIT Press, 1999), 46. 

17) “Concept art” is first of all an art of which the material is “concepts,” as the material of for ex. music is sound. Since 'concepts' are closely bound up with language, concept art is a kind of art of which the material is language.” Henry Flynt, “Concept Art,” in Theories and documents of contemporary art: a sourcebook of artists' writings, ed. Kristine Stiles and Peter Selz (Berkeley, Calif. : The University of California Press, 2012), 974.

18) Kumho Museum of Art and Wellside Gallery, Mo Bach, 10.

19) Kumho Museum of Art and Wellside Gallery, Mo Bach, 27.

20) Kumho Museum of Art and Wellside Gallery, Mo Bach, 31.

21) Kumho Museum of Art and Wellside Gallery, Mo Bach, 11.

22) “I consider the ‘post-medium condition’ a monstrous myth.”, R. Krauss, Perpetual inventory (Cambridge: The MIT Press, 2010), p.14. as cited in' Jong-Chul Choi, 'Notes on the Duality in Rosalind Krauss' Post-Medium Condition,' The Journal of Aesthetics and Science of Art 46 (2013). Through his post-medium theory, Krauss critically reflects anti-aestheticism of conceptual art, performance art, institutional critique, relational aesthetics, overturned medium specificity of modernism. Rosalind E. Krauss, Under Blue Cup, (Cambridge: The MIT Press, 2024, originally published in November 10, 2011). 

23) Sol Lewitt, “Paragraphs on Conceptual Art,” in Conceptual Art: A Critical Anthology (Cambridge, Mass: MIT Press, 1999), 12.

24) The exhibition Information (1970, Museum of Modern Art, New York), which showcased conceptual art works from the 1970s, described conceptual art through the following four characteristics: First, the 'ready-made,' which refers to objects that take on a separate purpose beyond their original function. Second, 'intervention,' which involves placing images, texts, or objects in unexpected contexts. Third, 'documentation,' which incorporates records, maps, charts, and photographs. Lastly, 'language' is also highlighted as a key feature. Kynston L. McShine, Information (New York: Museum of Modern Art, 1970), 49; Tony Godfrey, Conceptual art (London : Phaidon, 1998), 7.

25) The artwork description on the website of Leeum Museum of Art. 

26) “Offering an excellent illustration of Kim Beom’s expressive vocabulary with the use of different materials on the canvas, the work does not present an image directly; instead, it uses the physical aspects of the materials and the text to invoke imagery within the viewer’s mind. With the contrast between the nonchalant, functional prose and the clumsy, bucolic material, the work evokes a mental image that connects the space of the artwork and viewer with another space of fields and birds.” The artwork description on the website of Leeum Museum of Art.

27) 1. The artist may construct the piece. 

    2. The piece may be fabricated. 

    3. The piece need not be built. 

    Each being equal and consistent with the intent of the artist the decision as to condition   rests with the receiver upon the occasion of receivership. Lawrence Weiner, “Declaration   of Intent”(1968), as cited in Susan Heinemann, “Lawrence Weiner: Given the Context,” Artforum (March 1975): 36. 

28) The selection criteria for the works were as follows: (1) individuality and autobiographical narratives that depart from collective logic and expression, (2) creation of practical or fictional stories as nonlinear narratives(stories), (3) on-site installation works that transform a place into a logical space of a 'non-place,', and (4) a 'quasi-scientific' or 'contextualist' approach to social phenomena or physical and psychological phenomena. Lee Youngchul, 'The Space of Complexity, the Disjointedness of Time: On the organization and production of ’Seoul in Media ’98-Food, Clothing, Shelter’,' Seoul in Media – Food, Clothing, Shelter, the Department of Culture in Seoul Ministry of Culture and Tourism Archive, Seoul, South Korea.

29) Yang Sung Hee, “Seoul in Media – Food, Clothing, Shelter,” Munhwa Ilbo, October 16, 1998. 

30) Lee Youngchul, Seoul in Media.

31) Lee Youngchul, Seoul in Media.

32) Kim Beom, Hometown(published by the artist, 1998), 5. The book is reprinted in 2020 by Art Sonje Center in conjuntion with the exhibition, Kim Beom (2010).

33) Chong Doryun, and Kim Sunjung, Kim Beom (Seoul: Samuso, 2010), 86.

34) To know more about the new realities of Korea society in the 199s and critical discussion on the newly located position of art, refer to Research Society for Art Criticism, Cultural Turbulence and a Response of Art Criticism: Exploring the Realities and Direction of 1990’s Korean Art (Seoul: Vision and Language, 1994). 

35) The exhibition space, 600th Year of Seoul Memorial Hall’ (now located in the Gyeonghui Palace grounds), was opened by Seoul city government in 1994 and its management was transferred to Seoul Museum of Art afterward holding regular exhibitions. 

36) Ki Heykyung, 'Paradigm Shift in Korean Art Scene in 1990s: Focusing on Two Exhibitions,' Korean Bulletin of Art History 41 (2013): 60

37) Yun Nanji, The identity of Korean Contemporary Art (Seoul: Hangilsa, 2018), 36.

38) To know more about the contemporaneity of Korean art: Chung Yeonshim, “What is Contemporary Art in Korea: Notes on Critical Discourse,” Journal of Korean Modern & Contemporary Art History 46 (December 2012): 89-118.

39) Shin Chunghoon, “90’s Korean Art as ‘Historical Necessity’”, in Seoul Museum of Art, X: Korean Art in the Nineties (Seoul: Hyunsilmunhwa, 2016). 42-43.

40) In 2006, Peter Weibel explained in his curated exhibition Post-Media Condition that even traditional forms of art — painting and sculpture — are now influenced by new media, specifically digital media. In the same year, Marisa Olson, in an interview, mentioned a term 'post-internet' to describe a condition where art exists not only online but also offline. Choi Soyoung, 'A Study for the Transition in the Internet Art,' Journal of History of Modern Art 50 (December 2021): 198-200; The emergence of artificial intelligence (AI) as a medium in contemporary art is highlighted in that AI art encompasses a broad range of artistic practices, including creations generated by AI algorithms, the objects and images produced by these algorithms, and aesthetic explorations of algorithmic systems. This new art form involves recursive neural networks that process and learn from data, thereby generating creative outputs. The scope of AI art also includes interactive installations that explore new experiences of time and space, formed through the aesthetic examination of algorithmic processes. Lee Imsue, 'Thoughts on Artificial Intelligence and Contemporary Art - From Cybernetics to the Neural Network,' The Korean Journal of Arts Studies 15 (March 2017): 23.

41) Kim Hyungmi, “Back to the Future: An Exploration of Contemporaneity in Korean Contemporary Art,” in National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Back to the Future: An Exploration of Contemporaneity in Korean Contemporary Art (Seoul: National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, 2003), 13.

Alberro, Alexander and Blake Stimson, eds. Conceptual Art: A Critical Anthology. Cambridge: The MIT Press, 2000 (originally published in 1999).

Choi, Jongchul. 'Notes on the Duality in Rosalind Krauss' Post-Medium Condition.' The Journal of Aesthetics and Science of Art, Vol. 46 (2013): 211-263.

Choi, Setbyol. Looking through Cultural Sociology: A Chronicle of Generations in South Korea. Seoul: Ewha Womans University Press Council, 2018.

Choi, Soyoung. 'A Study for the Transition in the Internet Art.' Journal of History of Modern Art 50 (December 2021): 189-213.

Chung, Yeonshim. “What is Contemporary Art in Korea: Notes on Critical Discourse.” Journal of Korean Modern & Contemporary Art History 46 (December 2012): 89-118.

Godfrey, Tony. Conceptual Art. London: Phaidon, 1998.

Heinemann, Susan. “Lawrence Weiner: Given the Context,” Artforum (March 1975): 36-37. 

Jeong, Youngmok, et al. “New Sensation and Communication—Public Media Art: Changes in Visual Environment and Search for New Ways of Communication.” Gana Art (January/February 1993): 82-95. 

Kim, Hyoungmi, et al., eds. The Selected MMCA Collection—Back to the Future: An Exploration of Contemporaneity in Korean Contemporary Art, exh. cat.  Seoul: National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, 2003. 

Ki, Heykyung, “Paradigm Shift in Korean Art Scene in 1990s: Focusing on Two Exhibitions.” Korean Bulletin of Art History 41 (December 2013): 43-77.

Kim, Beom, Hometown. published by the artist, 1998 (reprinted by Seoul: Art Sonje Center, 2020). 

Chong Doryun, and Kim Sunjung. Kim Beom, exh. cat. Seoul: Samuso, 2010.

Kim, Hyoungmi, “Contemporaneity in the Global Context—Activities of Korean Artists since the 1990s” Ph.D. dissertation. Seoul National University, 2019. 

Kim, Jeawon. “Neo-Expressionism and the Zeitgeist-Exhibition: Its Art-historical Implication.” Journal of the Association of Western Art History 19 (June 2003): 207-241.

Kim, Pilho, et al., eds. SeMA Gold—X: Korean Art in the Nineties, exh. cat. Seoul: Seoul Museum of Art; Seoul: Hyunsilmunhwa, 2016. 

Krauss, Rosalind E. Under Blue Cup. Cambridge: The MIT Press, 2024 (originally published in November 10, 2011). 

Kumho Museum of Art and Wellside Gallery. “Roundtable: Mo Bach, Park Chankyong, Ahn Kyuchul, Um Hyuk, and Jung Hunyee,” Mo Bach. Seoul: Kumho Museum of Art, 1995. 

Lee, Imsue. 'Thoughts on Artificial Intelligence and Contemporary Art—From Cybernetics to the Neural Network.' The Korean Journal of Arts Studies 15 (March 2017): 5-28.

Mun, Hyejin. 90s’ Korean Art and Postmodernism: Searching for the Origin of Contemporary Art. Seoul: Hyunsilmunhwa, 2015. 

Yun, Nanji, ed. Korean Contemporary Art: After 1990, Seoul: Sapyoung, 2017.

―――. The identity of Korean Contemporary Art, Seoul: Hangilsa, 2018.

Research Society for Art Criticism. Cultural Turbulence and a Response of Art Criticism: Exploring the Realities and Direction of 1990’s Korean Art. Seoul: Vision and Language, 1994.

Stiles, Kristine and Peter Howard Selz, eds. Theories and Documents of Contemporary Art: A Sourcebook of Artists Writings (2nd ed., rev. and expanded.), Berkeley: The University of California Press, 2012 (originally published in 1996).

Korean Art 1900-2020, Seoul: National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, 2021. 

Seoul in Media – Food, Clothing, Shelter, the Department of Culture in Seoul Ministry of Culture and Tourism Archive, Seoul, South Korea.