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

In the early 2000s, the Suwon area was a city without a single proper art museum or museum. However, in 2001, a private art museum called "Iyoung Art Museum (Director Kim Yi-hwan)" opened in Yeongdeok-dong, Giheung-gu, Yongin-si, at the boundary of Suwon, after converting a pig farm. This was welcome news like much-needed rain for the Suwon-Yongin region, which lacked art-related facilities.

Iyoung Art Museum holds works by many painters, but it is particularly known for intensively collecting paintings by Park Saeng-gwang and Jeon Hyuk-rim, two masters of Korean art.

Kim Yi-hwan, director of Iyoung Art Museum, grew up exposed to calligraphy from an early age, as his father was a teacher at a traditional study hall in Goseong, Gyeongnam Province. After graduating from university and working in the civil service in Busan, he found a framing shop near his home and could not pass by without looking inside, which became his connection to art works.

One day, the shop owner suggested he purchase a fine plum blossom painting. It was a work by Hwang Mae-san, who was quite well-known for plum blossoms in the Yeongnam region. On his modest salary at the time, he impulsively paid a large sum of money to buy it, which he later recalled as "the moment I went down the wrong path." From that point on, heeding his wife's encouragement, he scraped together his salary to buy small antiques and paintings.

Later, he was transferred to Seoul for work. Around that time, a friend opened a shop in Insa-dong. Through his friend, he heard that Park Saeng-gwang's painting "Black Peony" was exceptional. He was told that Park Saeng-gwang was from Jinju.

Park Saeng-gwang was living in Suyu-ri, Seoul. In the spring of 1977, upon hearing of Park Saeng-gwang's exhibition, he went to the gallery wanting to see the Black Peony, but it had already been sold. His interest in the Black Peony led him to make frequent trips to Suyu-ri.

He began visiting Suyu-ri often, and seeing Park's difficult circumstances, he felt compassion and began offering small help. One day, Park said, "Now at the end of my life, I want to focus on my artistic work without worry..." and trailed off.

From that point on, he decided to become Park's patron. As he began providing rare art supplies and pigments that were difficult to obtain, Park Saeng-gwang produced masterpieces of a lifetime. Iyoung Art Museum came to hold about 100 immortal masterpieces including "Empress Myeongseong," painted during this period.

Another notable work at Iyoung Art Museum is by artist Jeon Hyuk-rim. Jeon Hyuk-rim was from Tongyeong. Starting in 1987, when his wife Shin Young-suk purchased one of Jeon's paintings, he became fascinated by the vibrant colors of the sea in front of Tongyeong and began collecting Jeon's works. From 2003 to 2008, every Saturday without fail, the couple made the 760 km round trip between Seoul and Tongyeong.

Each time they visited Tongyeong, the couple gave the artist pocket money and asked him to "draw pictures for us to see when we return next week." Jeon faithfully completed the "homework" the couple gave him, achieving the accomplishment of completing over 1,050 "New Mandalas" expressing universal truth in five years. Iyoung Art Museum now holds about 200 of these paintings.

After this, Director Kim became interested in establishing an art museum.

Around the time he completed over 20 years of public service, Hyosung Group was planning to construct a golf course in Singal, and he was selected as the right person and appointed CEO of Singal Golf Club.

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

As the golf course site acquisition was completed, administrative procedures needed to be initiated. However, Singal Golf Club (now Taekwang Golf Club) was administratively located in Yongin-gun, but half of it was included in the Suwon urban planning area, requiring permits from both Suwon and Yongin cities.

At that time, as a practical working-level staff member in the Urban Planning Division of Suwon City, I met Kim Yi-hwan, CEO of Singal Golf Club for the first time. After the Singal Golf Club was completed, Kim awarded plaques of appreciation to those who had helped him during the process, and I also received one.

Later, after Hyosung sold the golf course to Hanbo Group, Director Kim had to move on. Awaiting him was a golf course construction site in Gwangju, Gyeonggi Province, being developed by LG Group. After operating the completed LG Heesung Country Club, he decided to establish an art museum.

To build an art museum on the land already secured at the entrance of Singal Golf Club, he inquired about permits from Yongin City. Yongin City said it could not grant permits because the area was designated as a national land use planning district and urban planning had not been established.

Facing this difficult situation, he remembered me, who had been handling urban planning in Suwon City for a long time. It was 1998 when I was director of the Urban Planning Division of Suwon City. The relationship between Director Kim Yi-hwan and I was reconnected in this way.

At that time, I suggested that the urban planning procedures for the land in front of the golf course were delayed, making permits difficult, so he should consider other alternatives. Around that time, the pig farm's operations had become difficult and it had closed. When I visited the site, the entrance road was inconvenient, and multiple pig farm buildings were scattered, making it unsuitable for use as an art museum. However, I thought there was a way to use the eastern hillock.

Despite the constraints of being a pig farm, Director Kim Yi-hwan reversed the negative image and pursued a transformation, elevating it through art. Additionally, by actively utilizing the eastern hillock, he transformed it into a unique art museum unlike any other in the world.

After about two years of preparation, Iyoung Art Museum officially opened in June 2001 in Yeongdeok-dong, Giheung-gu, Yongin-si.

Prior to this, on December 6, 1997, Hwaseong Fortress was inscribed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site, and a group called "Those Who Love Suwon Hwaseong" was formed with me and others at the center. By around that time, the membership had grown to over 30 people, and opinions emerged to establish a formal organization. At that time, we already had the members secured and were looking for an impartial leader with a cultural mindset.

This was during the period when the pig farm improvement project was in full swing. Director Kim Yi-hwan had considerable interest and knowledge about Hwaseong at the time. I and Kim Woo-young, editor-in-chief of Suwon City's promotional publication "Evergreen Suwon" at the time, proposed inviting Director Kim as the representative. Many members agreed with this proposal.

With Director Kim Yi-hwan accepting our earnest proposal, "Hwaseong Love Group" underwent about two years of preparation and finally launched as the "Hwaseong Research Society (registered organization)" on May 21, 2001.

When Iyoung Art Museum reached about 4 to 5 years of operation, a crisis arrived. Korea Land Corporation designated the Yeongdeok-ri area as a housing development project site, and a plan to construct a Yongin-Seoul expressway through Iyoung Art Museum was promoted. The museum faced the possibility of closure.

At this time, Director Kim Yi-hwan proposed, "Since we must relocate anyway, let's establish Iyoung Art Museum adjacent to the 'UNESCO World Heritage Hwaseong Fortress.'" However, Suwon City could not accept this proposal, and it came to nothing.

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

Director Kim Yi-hwan served as the director of "Those Who Love Hwaseong" for about two years and as chairman of "Hwaseong Research Society (registered organization)" for two four-year terms, managing the first decade of Hwaseong Research Society's activities and playing a major role in developing it into a model organization among cultural heritage protectors nationwide.

Kim Yi-hwan, founding director of Hwaseong Research Society (Director of Iyoung Art Museum), made significant contributions and participated in enhancing Suwon and the UNESCO World Heritage Hwaseong Fortress. He donated 15 pine trees to Hwaseong Haenggung and Haenggung Plaza, donated eight stone sculpture works to Ilwol Arboretum, and served as an advisor in the cultural and artistic fields for Suwon, including as a director of the Suwon Cultural Foundation.

Kim Yi-hwan, founding director of Hwaseong Research Society (Director of Iyoung Art Museum), led the efforts to enhance the UNESCO World Heritage Hwaseong Fortress and actively supported painters Park Saeng-gwang and Jeon Hyuk-rim, enabling them 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 the age of 89 on March 11 of this year.

We offer our condolences to his memory.