The Cubists: Inventing Modern Vision

Centre Pompidou Hanwha will present The Cubists: Inventing Modern Vision as its inaugural exhibition from June 4 to October 4, 2026. Centered on works from the collection of Centre Pompidou in France, the exhibition offers a broad survey of Cubism from its emergence around 1907 through the 1920s, taking a contemporary perspective on this revolutionary movement in 20th-century art .

By spotlighting Cubism, the movement that opened a new chapter in the history of art, the exhibition symbolically marks the beginning of Centre Pompidou Hanwha. Rather than depicting objects from a single fixed viewpoint, Cubism reconfigured subjects seen from multiple perspectives within a single pictorial plane, reflecting the new visual experiences of modern life shaped by industrialization and urbanization.

Organized through a joint curatorial approach between Korea and France, the exhibition brings together 112 works by 54 artists. It presents Cubism not as a single style, but as an international artistic movement shaped by intersecting experiments across regions, groups, and media.

The exhibition also introduces a wide range of Cubist developments that have been less comprehensively presented to Korean audiences. Beyond the early experiments led by Picasso and Braque, it explores Orphic Cubism, which focused on color and rhythm; Salon Cubism, which spread through public exhibitions and theoretical discourse; and the changing forms of Cubism after the First World War. Visitors will be able to experience Cubism not as a movement limited to a few artists or a particular pictorial style, but as a dynamic current that continued to diversify and expand in response to the changing times and the varied concerns of artists.

By presenting paintings alongside sculpture, drawings, design, and archival materials, the exhibition offers a multilayered view of how Cubism transformed not only painting but the broader sensory and visual systems of contemporary culture. It also includes works by artists who may be less familiar to Korean audiences, such as Sonia Delaunay, Natalia Goncharova, Albert Gleizes, and Jean Metzinger, allowing visitors to consider the international expansion and transformation of Cubism from a broader perspective.

The exhibition is organized into nine sections. Beginning with early experiments shaped by the influence of Cézanne, it traces Analytic Cubism, Orphic Cubism, Salon Cubism, postwar transformations, and stylistic developments after the 1920s within one overarching narrative. Through this structure, the exhibition reveals Cubism not simply as an art-historical movement that fragmented form, but as a visual revolution that changed the very way the modern world was perceived.

A key pillar of the exhibition is the special section “KOREA FOCUS: A Dream Map Toward the Modern Avant-Garde,” located in the mezzanine space of Gallery 2. This section revisits the symbolic and cultural significance of Paris in the formation of Korean modern art in the early 20th century, and examines how modern visual languages after Cubism were received and transformed within Korean modern and contemporary art. Through works by major figures in Korean art history, including Kim Whanki, Yoo Youngkuk, Park Rehyun, and Lee Soo-eok, the section will illuminate how the Western avant-garde was newly translated within Korean realities and sensibilities.

Events
Special lecture—Cubism and Korean Modern Art: June 6, 3–4:30pm, Speaker: Kim Youngna, Former Director of the National Museum of Korea. Auditorium, Centre Pompidou Hanwha

Special lecture—The Expansion of Cubism: June 17, 7–8:30pm, Speaker: Woo Jung-A, Professor, Division of Humanities and Social Sciences, POSTECH. Auditorium, Centre Pompidou Hanwha

Curator talk: July 2, 3–5pm, Panelists: Christian Briend, Chief Curator, Centre Pompidou and more. Auditorium, Centre Pompidou Hanwha