Youn Bum-mo, who has headed South Korea’s National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art (MMCA) since 2019, is leaving the institution nearly two years before his contract expires. His resignation, tendered last week and publicly announced today as having been accepted, is widely seen as the result of pressure from the conservative government of President Yoon Suk-yeol. Youn, a respected art historian, critic and scholar, was originally named by the administration of then-president Moon Jae-in, former leader of the Democratic Party of Korea. He was reappointed by the Moon administration in February 2022. Despite the fact that his reappointment came, as expected and unsurprisingly, at the end of his initial three-year contract, critics fumed that he had arrived a few weeks only before the presidential election that brought Yoon to power. These critics argued that the position should have been filled by Yoon.
While director of the MMC, Youn came under fire for organizing exhibitions that some considered overtly political. A former professor of art history at Dongguk University in Seoul, he had written extensively on Minjung (“people’s art”) art, the South Korean political art movement born in response to the Gwangju massacre. in 1980, which saw the murder of hundreds of peaceful people. pro-democracy protesters at the hands of an army controlled by then-President Chung Doo-hwan.
South Korea’s Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism said it would launch a public call for applications for Youn’s post in May. Although his current term as a director was set to expire in February 2025, the successful nominee will not exhaust his term but rather begin a full three-year term following his appointment. Park Jong-dal, general manager of planning and general management, will take over until a replacement is found.
