South Korea: cubism opens new Centre Pompidou outpost in Seoul

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

Through the French museum’s “Constellation” programme, works will be loaned to Seoul for four years, matching its deal with the Hanwha Cultural Foundation and giving the Pompidou Centre a new chance to grow internationally.

The Centre Pompidou continues to expand and cross borders. The Paris museum is now setting up in South Korea thanks to its Constellation programme, which allows it to lend works both in France and around the world.

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The museum’s iconic building in Paris’s Beaubourg district, designed under the direction of Renzo Piano, has had to close for major renovation work until 2030.

With the museum closed and the artworks on the move, management has launched an ambitious programme of external loans.

On 4 June a Korean branch will open in Yeouido, the main financial district of Seoul. It will be the 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, exhibition director at the Hanwha Cultural Foundation, expressing her delight.

A four-year collaboration has been signed to stage, in the Korean capital, two exhibitions a year drawn from 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 space, with a show titled ‘The Cubists: Inventing Modern Vision’. According to the Hanwha Foundation for Culture, the exhibition will feature more than a hundred works on loan from the Centre Pompidou in Paris. It will showcase works by 54 artists, including major names such as Pablo Picasso, Georges Braque and Fernand Léger.

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

“This is a fundamental momentum that seemed essential to us, 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 out a strong signal,” he added.

But beyond simply presenting foreign artworks to the Korean public, “we want to serve as a springboard to propel Korean art onto the international stage thanks to the Centre Pompidou’s vast global network,” Jade Kaunhye Lim concluded.

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

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