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We took advantage of a stop in Seoul to see 이대원 : 당신을 슬프게 하는 것은 하나도 없다 — "Lee Dai Won: Nothing Here Makes You Sad" — at the National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art (MMCA), in the Deoksugung Palace annex. A fitting address for an exhibition just as charming: two tickets at ₩1,000 each, and a line to get in.

Lee Dai Won's name almost always comes with the same nickname: "the happiest painter in the world," thanks to his color-drenched landscapes. But from the first, darker rooms, the show pushes back against that label.

Painting of bamboo under a full moon, in a dark room — A more nocturnal, quieter canvas — far from the image of a painter who's only "cheerful."

Who was Lee Dai Won

Lee Dai Won (1921–2005) opened his own gallery in Seoul and held his first solo exhibition as early as 1957 — long before becoming the name we know today. This retrospective deliberately refuses to settle for the image of a naturally optimistic painter: the light that seems to burst from his canvases is the result of decades of work, experimentation, and formal discipline. Dot by dot, stroke by stroke, he builds a light that doesn't float on the surface of the canvas — it accumulates within it, year after year.

Archival photos: Lee Dai Won in front of the poster for his first exhibition in 1957, then in his studio — 1957: the poster for his very first solo show at Shinwha Gallery — and the painter, later, in his studio.

What stood out to us

Still life of persimmons — A still life of persimmons, in a gilt frame that's just as ornate as its subject.

Snow-covered mountain landscape — A snow-covered mountain — the palette turns blue as the season changes.

Abstract painting of colorful mountains — Another mountain, far more abstract — Lee never boxed himself into one style.

We lingered a long time in front of the persimmon still life — the kind of painting you'd swear looks flat in a photo, but has an almost sculptural texture in person: Lee builds up paint in successive layers rather than spreading it thin. Up close, each fruit is a mosaic of colored dots; from three meters away, it's a persimmon that looks almost good enough to eat.

A lone tree against a stone wall — A solitary tree against a white stone wall — one of the few paintings in the show to strike a more melancholy note.

It's actually one of the only paintings in the whole show that breaks from the rest: a single red tree, alone, against a wall of white stones. After several rooms of orchards in bloom, that silence stands out — probably not by accident, given the exhibition's title.

The exhibition runs through November 8, 2026 at MMCA Deoksugung — budget a good hour if you don't plan to linger in front of every canvas, an hour and a half if (like us) you can't help it.

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We went: Lee Dai Won, "Nothing Here Makes You Sad" at Deoksugung