The Fourth Group

The Fourth Group
제4집단
FormationJune 1970
DissolvedAugust 1970
TypeArts collective
HeadquartersSeoul, South Korea

The Fourth Group (Korean: 제4집단, romanized: Je Sa Jib-Dan) was a Korean avant-garde art collective that existed from June to August in 1970. Led by artist Kim Ku-lim, the group's membership was open to people hailing from diverse backgrounds. According to Kim Ku-lim, the reasoning behind the group's name was that, "By using the number 4, I attempted to break through conventions in the Korean art world as well as in Korean Society because this number carried negative nuances throughout our history."[1]

Although the artists could not express openly their anti-government sentiments under the totalitarian Park Chung Hee regime, they produced consciousness-raising art with the goal of realizing a radical utopian vision of society through nonviolent change, a philosophy they described as 'muche'. Under the guise of parodying imported art ideas of the Western avant-garde, The Fourth Group was able to stage their politically charged artwork within an oppressive society.[2]

The group's most notable performance was Funeral for Established Culture and Art, which was staged in 1970 on Korea's National Liberation Day.[3]

  1. ^ Cite error: The named reference :3 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  2. ^ Choi, Sooran (2021). Pyun, Kyunghee; Woo, Jung-Ah (eds.). In Interpreting Modernism in Korean Art: Fluidity and Fragmentation (1st ed.). Routledge. p. 169. ISBN 9780367367435.
  3. ^ Yoo, Jin-sang (2013). "The Fourth Group: The Production of Utopia". In Kim, Honghee (ed.). Kim Ku-lim: Like You Know It All. Seoul: Seoul Museum of Art. p. 224.