South Korea: cubism opens Korean branch of Centre Pompidou

By Nathan Joubioux with AP & AFP Published on 20/05/2026 - 17:55 GMT+2 Share Comments Share Facebook Twitter Flipboard Send Reddit Linkedin Messenger Telegram VK Bluesky Threads Whatsapp

Through the museum’s Constellation programme, works will be loaned to Seoul over the next four years under a deal with the Hanwha Cultural Foundation, offering the Centre Pompidou a fresh opportunity to expand internationally.

The Centre Pompidou continues to grow and reach across borders. The Paris museum is now setting up in South Korea under its Constellation programme, which allows it to loan works in France and around the world.

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The Korean branch will open on 4 June in Yeouido, the main financial district of Seoul. It will be the institution’s second Asian site, after the one opened in Shanghai.

“To mark the 140th anniversary of diplomatic relations between Korea and France, we are inaugurating the ‘Centre Pompidou Hanwha’ as part of a partnership with the Centre Pompidou in France,” said Jade Kaunhye Lim, director of exhibitions at the Hanwha Cultural Foundation.

A four-year partnership has been signed to stage, in the Korean capital, two exhibitions a year drawing on the modern and contemporary collections of the Paris museum. “We plan to present world‑renowned masterpieces of modern art, as well as international art exhibitions curated by our own team,” she explained.

Cubism as the first exhibition

Cubism has been chosen to launch this new Korean cultural venue: “The Cubists: Inventing Modern Vision”. According to the Hanwha Foundation for Culture, the exhibition will present more than one hundred works on loan from the Centre Pompidou in Paris. It will showcase pieces by 54 artists, including major names such as Pablo Picasso, Georges Braque and Fernand Léger.

“Cubism is a demanding choice, and I believe I can say that this is the first major exhibition devoted to cubism in Asia in fifty years, with more than one hundred works, many of them from the Centre Pompidou,” said Laurent Le Bon, president of the Centre Pompidou.

“This represents a fundamental dynamic that we felt was essential, and choosing cubism simply means choosing the greatest artistic movement of the early 20th century, the one that helped us see the world in a different way. For us, embarking on this project meant sending a strong signal,” he added.

But beyond simply presenting foreign works of art to the Korean public, “we want to act as a springboard to propel Korean art onto the international stage thanks to the Centre Pompidou’s wide‑ranging global network,” concluded Jade Kaunhye Lim.

After cubism, artists such as Henri Matisse and Marc Chagall will be exhibited at this new cultural venue in Seoul.

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