Kim Chung-young's Suwon Microscope (134) Kim Lee-hwan, Founding Director of the Hwaseong Research Institute (Director of Lee Young Art Museum) and His Connection to Suwon

In the early 2000s, Suwon had not a single proper art museum or museum of its own. However, in 2001, a private art museum called "Lee Young Art Museum (Director Kim Lee-hwan)" opened in Yeongdeok-dong, Giheung-gu, Yongin, at the boundary of Suwon, housed in a converted pig farm. This was welcome news like a timely rain for the Suwon-Yongin region, which lacked art-related facilities.

Lee Young Art Museum houses works by many painters, but it is particularly known for its concentrated collection of paintings by Park Saeng-gwang and Jeon Hyeok-rim, two leading figures in Korean art circles.

Kim Lee-hwan, director of Lee Young Art Museum, grew up exposed to calligraphy from an early age, as his father served as a teacher at a traditional Korean school in Goseong, South Gyeongsang Province. After graduating from university and working in the civil service in Busan, he came across an art framing shop near his home and could not pass it by. This chance encounter became the beginning of his connection with art.

One day, the shop owner suggested he purchase a fine plum blossom painting and asked how he would like to own it. It was a work by Hwang Mae-san, who was quite well-known in the Yeongnam region for his plum blossom paintings. With his modest salary at the time, he impulsively paid a substantial sum, which he later recalled as the moment he "took the wrong path." From that point on, with his wife's encouragement, he scraped together his salary to purchase small antiques and paintings.

Later, when his job transferred to Seoul, a friend happened to open a shop in Insa-dong. Through the friend, he heard that a painting titled "Black Peony" by Park Saeng-gwang was excellent. The friend mentioned he was from Jinju.

Park Saeng-gwang was living in Suyu-ri, Seoul. In late spring of 1977, upon hearing news of Park Saeng-gwang's exhibition, he visited the exhibition hall hoping to see the black peony, only to find it had already been sold. His interest in the black peony became the impetus for his visits to Suyu-ri.

He began visiting Suyu-ri frequently, and seeing Park's difficult circumstances, he felt sympathetic and began offering small help. One day, Park said, "Now at the end of my life, I want to focus on my work with peace of mind..." and trailed off.

From that point on, he decided to become Park's patron. By providing hard-to-find painting materials and pigments, Park Saeng-gwang was able to create masterpieces of a lifetime. The Lee Young Art Museum came to possess 100 immortal masterpieces, including "Empress Myeongseong" painted during this period.

The other notable collection at Lee Young Art Museum consists of works by Jeon Hyeok-rim. Jeon Hyeok-rim was from Tongyeong. Beginning in 1987 when his wife, Shin Young-sook, brought home a painting by Jeon Hyeok-rim, he became fascinated by the intense colors of the sea off Tongyeong and began collecting his works. From 2003 to 2008, every Saturday without fail, the couple commuted round-trip 760 kilometers between Seoul and Tongyeong.

On each trip to Tongyeong, the couple gave the painter spending money and asked, "Please paint until we see you again next week." Jeon fulfilled this "assignment" faithfully and completed over 1,050 "New Mandalas" expressing cosmic truths in five years. The Lee Young Art Museum now holds approximately 200 paintings created during this period.

Following this, Director Kim became interested in building an art museum.

Around the time he was concluding his 20-year public service career, he was recruited by the Hyosung Group to serve as CEO of Singal Golf Club when they were planning to construct a golf course in Singal.

Kim Lee-hwan first purchased land and proceeded with golf course construction. While doing so, thinking ahead to his retirement, he secured land in two locations. One was designated for building a pig farm, and the other was secured for the purpose of building an art museum.

Once the golf course construction site was secured, administrative procedures needed to be implemented. However, Singal Golf Club (now Taekwang Golf Club) was administratively in Yongin County, but half of it was included in Suwon's urban planning zone, requiring permits from both Suwon and Yongin.

At that time, I first met Kim Lee-hwan, CEO of Singal Golf Club, as an urban planning staff member in Suwon City's Urban Development Department. When Singal Golf Club was completed, Kim presented certificates of appreciation to those who had helped, and I received one as well.

Later, when Hyosung sold the golf course to Hanbo Group, Director Kim had to move on. He next went to a golf course construction site in Gwangju, Gyeonggi Province, being developed by the LG Group. After managing the completed LG Hyesung Country Club, he made the decision to establish an art museum.

He sought permits from Yongin City to build an art museum on the land he had already secured at the entrance of Singal Golf Club. Yongin City said that area was included in a national land use planning district with no established urban plans, making it impossible to grant permits.

Uncertain how to resolve the difficult situation, he recalled me, who had long handled urban planning in Suwon City. This was around 1998 when I was the head of Suwon City's Urban Planning Department. My connection with Director Kim Lee-hwan was renewed in this way.

At that time, I suggested that permits would be difficult for the site in front of the golf course due to delays in urban planning procedures, and that he should consider alternative plans. The pig farm operations were difficult at that time and had been closed. When I visited, the access road was inconvenient and multiple pig farm buildings were scattered throughout, making it unsuitable for use as an art museum. However, I thought there was a way to utilize the hill to the east.

Despite the constraints of the pig farm facilities, Director Kim Lee-hwan pursued a reversal of its image, transforming and elevating it through art. By actively utilizing the hill to the east, he transformed it into a unique art museum unlike anything else in the world.

After approximately two years of preparation, Lee Young Art Museum formally opened in June 2001 in Yeongdeok-dong, Giheung-gu, Yongin.

Prior to this, on December 6, 1997, Suwon Hwaseong was registered as a World Heritage Site, and around that time, those of us leading the effort formed "The Association of Those Who Love Suwon Hwaseong" and were active in it. When membership grew to over 30 people, opinions emerged about establishing a formal incorporated association. At that time, membership was already secured, and we were looking for an impartial leader with a cultural mindset.

This was the time when the pig farm improvement project was in full swing, and Director Kim Lee-hwan possessed considerable interest and knowledge about Suwon Hwaseong. I and Kim Woo-young, the editorial director of "Evergreen Suwon," a Suwon City publicity magazine at the time, proposed that Director Kim serve as the representative. Many members agreed.

With Director Kim Lee-hwan of Lee Young Art Museum accepting our earnest proposal, "The Association of Those Who Love Hwaseong" underwent approximately two years of preparation and finally launched as "Incorporated Association Hwaseong Research Institute" on May 21, 2001.

Crisis struck around the 4th to 5th anniversary of Lee Young Art Museum's opening. The Korea Land Corporation designated the Yeongdeok area as a housing development project, and plans proceeded for an expressway between Yongin and Seoul to pass through Lee Young Art Museum. The museum faced a question of survival.

At that time, Director Kim Lee-hwan proposed, "Since we must relocate anyway, let's build Lee Young Art Museum adjacent to the World Heritage Suwon Hwaseong," but Suwon City did not accept the proposal and it fell through.

As urban planning procedures for the area at the entrance of Taekwang Golf Club were completed around that time, on June 2, 2008, the museum was newly constructed and opened at 55-1, Yeongdeok-dong, Giheung-gu, Yongin.

Director Kim Lee-hwan took on the role for approximately two years as "The Association of Those Who Love Hwaseong" and four years as director of "Incorporated Association Hwaseong Research Institute" for two terms, overseeing the first decade of the Hwaseong Research Institute's activities and played a major role in developing it into a model organization among the nation's cultural heritage preservation groups.

Founding Director Kim Lee-hwan of the Hwaseong Research Institute (Director of Lee Young Art Museum) made significant contributions and participated in bringing honor to Suwon and the World Heritage Suwon Hwaseong. He donated 15 pine trees to Hwaseong Haenggung (Palace) and Haenggung Plaza, donated eight stone sculpture works to Ilwol Arboretum, and served as an advisory committee member in Suwon's cultural arts field and as a board member of the Suwon Cultural Foundation, providing consultation in the art field.

Founding Director Kim Lee-hwan of the Hwaseong Research Institute (Director of Lee Young Art Museum) took the lead in bringing honor to the World Heritage Suwon Hwaseong and, by actively supporting painters Park Saeng-gwang and Jeon Hyeok-rim, enabled both artists to leave immortal masterpieces. He walked the path of a pioneer, quenching the thirst of artists in the Suwon-Yongin region, and passed away peacefully at age 89 on March 11 last.

We pray for his soul.