[News Today] RHEE SEUNDJA’S ATELIER HONORED

[LEAD]
In southern France, home to ateliers of legendary artists like Marc Chagall and Pablo Picasso, stands the studio of Korea’s first female abstract painter, the late Rhee Seundja. The French government has designated her atelier a cultural heritage site. Here's more.

[REPORT]
In a typical rural village in southern France stands a modern circular building.

The structure is divided into two semicircles and a small stream flows between the two.

The architecture is the Milky Way, the late Rhee Seundja's atelier. She was Korea's first female abstract painter who moved to France in the early 1950s.

Rhee Seundja/ Painter (Jul. 1997)
I’ve turned my paintings on flat surfaces into sculptures.

Rhee designed the structure herself to express ying and yang, nature and the universe, which symbolize her body of work.

Her atelier was selected by the French Ministry of Culture as a notable contemporary architecture, a designation given to buildings less than 100 years old with artistic value.

The studio was applauded for Korean features such as a stream and stepping stones seen everywhere which were inspired by her childhood memories in Korea.

Damien Bagaria/ Honorary chair, Rhee Seundja Atelier Commemorative Society
The architecture is artistic, unique and has Asian features. That's what captivated the judges.

Most of the ateliers of Korea's first generation of abstract painters, including Kim Whanki, are now gone.

This is why Rhee's atelier being selected as a French cultural heritage is more meaningful.

Shin Pyeong-jae/ Rhee Seundja's grandson
The ties between Rhee and the city of Tourrettes-sur-Loup built since 1960s must have won high marks.

Milky Way will receive various support from the French government to preserve and publicize the architecture.