Titles, Dates, and Reconstructed Works: Four Documentary Histories of Korean Experimental Art

Working paper · Version 1.0 · 10 November 2026 · 16 pages · 21 references

By Dorian Vale · Museum of One

Canonical DOI 10.5281/zenodo.24095953. Prepared for scholarly circulation. This working paper has not undergone independent peer review.

Abstract

A work can retain its title and historical date even when its materials, arrangement, or means of presentation have changed. This working paper examines four Korean archival and museum cases: Kim Yong-Ik’s Plane Object photographs and the history of “plain” and “place”; the differing production years assigned to Park Suk-won’s Jeok–Eungnyeok; the 1975 historical reference and 2016 materials of Lee Kang-so’s Untitled 75031; and Kim Kulim’s Mediator, used by the National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Korea, to exemplify compound dating. MMCA’s acquisition narrative and publication guidance acknowledge remaking as part of collecting an experimental past. The paper reads that institutional practice alongside scholarship on the relations among images, material traces, and artwork identity. Aga Wielocha’s discussion of Danh Vo’s chandeliers provides a particularly revealing comparison: a title can date an object’s removal and transformation into art rather than its fabrication, just as a museum’s leading year can identify an earlier work rather than the age of its present components. These different histories require the event dated by each title or caption to remain explicit. Neither artist authorisation nor institutional recognition settles every claim about an earlier condition. The paper credits the overlapping demonstrations in the author’s Relational Archival Investigation papers and develops their implications for collecting, editorial preference, and historical inference. Its contribution is a comparative account of how names and dates sustain continuity without making the evidence for that continuity interchangeable.

Four documentary histories

• Kim Yong-Ik (김용익). Plane Object / Flat Object (평면 오브제). SeMA’s portfolio descriptions distinguish the titles attached to images and Kim’s recollection of “plain” and “place.” A shared series title cannot identify an individual work.
• Park Suk-won (박석원). Jeok–Eungnyeok (적-응력). The annual report and collection entry assign different leading years. The work’s remaking is documented. The reason for the discrepancy remains open.
• Lee Kang-so (이강소). Untitled 75031 (무제 75031). The record distinguishes a 1975 historical reference from printing and remaking in 2016. The acquisition narrative discusses Painting–78–1. The 1976 Untitled paintings belong to a separate comparison.
• Kim Kulim (김구림). Mediator (매개항). MMCA’s publication guide uses this work to explain how a compound date preserves a historical reference while specifying later material production.

Limits of the evidence

The study is based on documentary sources. The physical artworks, original photographic versos, complete 1978 printing proofs, and object-specific acquisition and conservation dossiers remain unexamined. The two published dates for Park’s work establish a discrepancy. The date of any catalogue amendment and the original year remain open. Jung Eun Young is cited through the published abstracts. Ryu Ji-yeon and Kaeun Park were consulted in full. The selected cases support case-specific findings about museum records and artwork identity.

Relationship to Relational Archival Investigation

The author’s RAI working paper and supplements already compare the naming evidence and Park’s published date discrepancy. They also establish why a series title cannot identify an individual Kim work and why Lee’s eight- and ten-photograph accounts cannot establish a sequence of additions. This paper develops those results through a sustained comparison of MMCA’s acquisition narrative, its dating convention and Mediator, alongside expanded Kim evidence and engagement with Ryu Ji-yeon and Aga Wielocha. The bibliography identifies the November 2026 RAI releases and the exact OSF files consulted.

• Relational Archival Investigation: Identity, Chronology, and Historical Judgment in Korean Experimental Art
• Documentary Evidence and Source Comparisons
• Extended Case Studies and Methodological Demonstrations

한국어 연구 개요

이 워킹페이퍼는 김용익, 박석원, 이강소, 김구림의 작품에 관한 기록을 비교한다. 작품명과 제작연도가 작품의 동일성을 유지하는 방식과, 과거의 재료·전시·행위를 뒷받침하는 증거를 구분한다. 재제작 연도, 사진의 촬영 장소, 제목의 변형과 미술관의 표기 관행을 각각의 출처에 따라 검토하며, 네 사례를 한국미술 전체의 일반적 경향으로 확대하지 않는다.

Evidence and source access

These links lead to the institutions that hold or publish the records. The manuscript provides a pinpoint source register and 21 references. Reuse terms are set by each rights holder.

• SeMA photographic portfolio, MA-05-00049360. Images 13–14 and 17–18, with catalogue descriptions of title variants.
• SeMA Gallery Te exhibition file, 1978. Leaflet, invitation and guest book for the Tokyo exhibition.
• SeMA 1997 remake photographs, MA-03-00002265. The archive describes an earlier four-sheet arrangement and a later five-sheet configuration.
• MMCA 2016 Annual Report. Read pp. 34–35 for the acquisition narrative and pp. 39–40, entries 73 and 76, for the separate object entries.
• MMCA Guide to Publication, 2020 edition. See §3.74, pp. 134–35, for the museum’s compound-date convention and the Mediator example.
• Ryu Ji-yeon’s Korean-language study. Institutional full text. Pages 14–20 examine Lee Kang-so’s 1976 Untitled paintings.
• Jung Eun Young’s article record. The paper draws on the published Korean and English abstracts.

Companion study. When Documentation Becomes the Work. Browse Museum of One Research Working Papers.

Cite this working paper

Vale, Dorian. 2026. Titles, Dates, and Reconstructed Works: Four Documentary Histories of Korean Experimental Art. Working paper, version 1.0. Museum of One. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.24095953

© 2026 Dorian Vale · Museum of One. In Copyright.

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