I love Seoul!
I’ve been to Seoul, South Korea, a couple of times now and the city has been a pleasant surprise for me.
You can find a lot of articles about Seoul on my blog. I recommend you start with this one and this one. These two articles summarize what I love about Seoul and they explain why you should try to visit this city too!
Art galore
One of the things I love about Seoul is the creativity and the art that is everywhere. There are numerous galleries and musea and the Leeum is one of the ones that I visited.
Approaching the Leeum, this wall with a picture from a then ongoing exhibit showed me the way.
Leeum Samsung Museum of Art is eclectic
Leeum, Samsung Museum of Art, is born from the private collection of the late Hoam Lee Byung Chui, the founder of Samsung.
The museum is built on a slope and therefor has different levels. This is the entrance.
The building is eclectic with three totally different ‘wings’ by three architects: Rem Koolhaas, Mario Botta and Jean Nouvel.
Three different architectural styles for the buildings that form the museum.
This part of the building looks like a medieval castle, doesn’t it?
The buildings look interesting inside as well. The snail house stairs reminded me of the Guggenheim in NY.
These are NOT the stairs I am referring to. This is an artwork by Do-Ho Suh, hanging in one of the regular stairs at the Leeum.
Also the Leeum’s collection is eclectic:
- museum 1 houses Korean traditional art
- museum 2 contains art by contemporary Korean and international artists
- further there is the Samsung Child Education and Culture Centre
- of course there are temporary exhibits
- and there is outdoor art on an elevated terrace
Art by Alexander Calder.
Unfortunately there were no pictures allowed inside, with a few exceptions, so I cannot show you much from the exhibits.
Art in central hall by Takashi Murakami.
Well worth the visit
The Leeum Museum can easily be ‘done’ in a couple of hours. It has a cafe with a cool design but a limited menu.
The cafe is spacious and the decor is special. There are just a few seats and the menu choice is limited.
All in all, I would definitely recommend a visit to this museum. I really enjoyed it!
Fun!!! Beautiful buildings too. I was quite surprised to learn that Rem Koolhaas isbone of the architects. Holland goes International !!
Greetje
Oh, yes, you come across Dutch architects and artists everywhere in the world. Amazing!