The Jeon Hyuck Lim Mueseum of Art

Jeon Hyuck-lim Museum of Art in Tongyeong, Gyeongsangnam-do, is the dedicated museum on the Tongyeong-born painter Jeon Hyuck-lim (1916-2010), one of the most-cited Korean modern painters and a central figure in the Korean modernist painting movement of the mid-20th century. Jeon's work — particularly his abstract compositions using the deep, luminous cobalt-blue-and-white color palette that has become his signature — is widely regarded as one of the most distinctive contributions to 20th-century Korean modernism. The museum sits in Tongyeong (Jeon's hometown), a coastal city on the southern Gyeongsang coast that has been Korea's most-cited artistic-cultural coastal destination for over a century (also the home of composer Yun I-sang and novelist Park Kyung-ni). The museum's permanent collection includes over 350 of Jeon's original works and rotating special exhibitions cover his contemporaries and Tongyeong's broader artistic-community heritage. Bilingual Korean/English interpretation. Admission typically KRW 3,000-5,000. Allow about 2 hours. Access: 10-minute walk from central Tongyeong. Pair with the Yun I-sang Memorial House, Dongpirang Mural Village (Tongyeong's iconic hillside mural district), and the Tongyeong Central Market for a full Tongyeong cultural-and-artistic day.