UNESCO, which held its founding General Conference in London in November 1945, became a key platform for international cultural exchange, advancing its mission to prevent war and build peace through global cooperation in education, science, culture, and information. For the Korean art world, which in the aftermath of the Korean War found itself in a cultural vacuum—devoid of exhibitions and largely isolated from international exchange—UNESCO’s programs served as a window to the world. However, among the many initiatives carried out by UNESCO, relatively little scholarly attention has been paid to those related to the arts, particularly the visual arts. This paper investigates UNESCO’s initiatives during the 1950s and 1960s that fostered international exchange of Korean art and analyzes their role in advancing its presence on the global art stage.
Several exhibitions held during the 1960s were implemented as part of UNESCO’s Major Project on the Mutual Appreciation of Eastern and Western Cultural Values. This Major Project, which commenced in 1957 and continued until the end of 1966, was among UNESCO’s most significant initiatives aimed at enhancing international understanding of diverse cultural values. As part of this initiative, exhibitions aimed at fostering Western understanding of Eastern cultures occasionally featured Korean art, notably in Art in Asia and the West(1957) and 《Orient-Occident: Rencontres et Influences durant Cinquante Siècles d’Art》(1958). Nevertheless, these exhibitions—conceived predominantly from American and European perspectives—ultimately undermined the intended objective of fostering mutual understanding between Eastern and Western cultural traditions. Instead, they revealed a profound lack of awareness regarding Asian art and, paradoxically, under the auspices of UNESCO’s ideals of peace and harmony, served to obscure the historical realities of aggression and cultural appropriation. This underscores the fundamental limitations embedded within the Major Project.
South Korea became a member of UNESCO in 1950. The outbreak of the Korean War, however, redirected UNESCO’s activities in the country toward supporting the reconstruction of the war-ravaged education system. In 1955, the Korean Fine Arts Association assumed the role of Korea’s representative organization in the Association Internationale des Arts Plastiques, thereby facilitating the exchange and touring exhibitions of artworks initiated by UNESCO. These developments contributed significantly to raising awareness and fostering interest in international artistic exchange within the Korean art community. South Korea, however, constrained by its political and economic circumstances during the 1950s, was unable to actively participate in UNESCO’s programs. Furthermore, the bureaucratic structure of the Korean National Commission for UNESCO posed additional limitations: from 1958 to 1963, during the implementation of the Major Project, the Korean art community had no members in the Korean National Commission for UNESCO. Consequently, the Korean art community was largely excluded from opportunities to be involved in UNESCO-led activities. The increased artistic exchanges with other Asian nations during the 1960s indicate a paradigmatic shift in the perception of UNESCO. However, a more in-depth exploration of this shift remains a subject for future research.