'Water Lily and Chandelier': From Monet to Ai Weiwei at MMCA

Occasionally in Korea, museums present their exhibitions under two entirely different titles — one in the native tongue, the other in English — instead of having them simply mirror each other in translation. Such is the case with the new show at the National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Gwacheon (MMCA) in Gyeonggi Province. Its English title, “Highlights of MMCA Global Art Collection,” does its job with plainspoken clarity: a survey of 44 works by 33 international masters from the museum’s holdings, etched with familiar names like Claude Monet, Pierre-Auguste Renoir, Marcel Duchamp, Andy Warhol and Niki de Saint Phalle. The Korean version, however, strikes another chord altogether. Translating to “Water Lily and Chandelier,” at once evocative and layered, it is less a description than an invitation, its spare words hiding more stories than they first let on. The title itself derives from two key works that bookend the exhibition: “The Water-Lily Pond” by celebrated Impressionist Monet and “Black Chandelier” by Chinese dissident artist Ai Weiwei. Monet’s wWeiter zum vollständigen Artikel bei Korea Times Weiter zum vollständigen Artikel bei Korea Times