Abstract

During the Japanese colonial period (1910–1945) in Korea, the Japanese constructed new architecturally modern buildings in Korea, applying Japanese style-architecture and elements of Western architectural derivations. Under the political strategy of cultural ruling (bunka seiji) in 1920, the new Korean style of architectural forms and styles interestingly burgeoned, boosted by ideas of progress and modernity in Korea. The artistic forms and the contained meanings of institutional buildings and museum architectures of the colonial period, however, have yet to be explored in modern scholarship, even though most major museums in Korea were built during the colonial period. In this article, the National Museum of Art, Deoksugung is examined to seek the progressive transition and transformation to art museum buildings during the Japanese colonial period. The contemporary exhibits, exhibition spaces, and architectural forms of collaborative expositions in Japan and Korea, such as the Keijō Exhibition of 1907, and the Colonial Expositions held in 1915 and 1929 in Korea, which defined the conversion of display and the perception of art during the colonial period, will also be analyzed. Finally, how Korea realized modernization based on traditional art and culture under Japan’s colonial rule is hoped to be explored.