Kahyun Lee

Kahyun Lee

Reading Room: Behind the Display of Gutai (2024)
Books, digital prints, a desk and a stool
Dimensions Variable

In 2000, Tate Modern was founded at a pivotal conjuncture of internationalist vision restructuring the art
world. The global shift underpinned curatorial practices aiming to showcase a multitude of art practices
transnationally and transhistorically. The turn was a drive to depart from the perpetuated singular art
historical doctrine of modernism rooted in the Euro-American axis.

Directed by a vision to replace one history with many histories of art, Tate Modern introduced a thematic
curating of the collection display. In contrast to a chronological or regional display, a thematic display
allowed art and ideas from plural locations and time to intersect. Newly acquired works by artists from Asia,
Latin America, Africa and beyond informed the collection to devise multiple modernism narratives.
Currently, under the theme of ‘Performer and Participant’, Gutai art display demonstrates the possibility of
transnational curating of modernism. The Reading Room presents a series of materials charting different
interpretation of Gutai art within Tate Modern and beyond.