In the 3rd floor lobby of LOTTE HOTEL WORLD is an abstract painting featuring sensory surface divisions. Entitled Welcome, the piece was created by Artist Lee Joon who introduced geometric abstract art in Korea. It depicts the sky and fields of Korea in structures and colors. The triangular patterns in particular appear to represent the mountain chains of the Korean Peninsula. In the context of the year 1988 when the piece was created amid the international event that was the Seoul Olympics, one must wonder if the artist’s intention was to welcome numerous foreign visitors with Korean landscapes. After graduating from art school in Japan in the 1940s, he wanted to express the essence of objects and the beauty of structure rather than external forms or physical appearances. Looking at the painting that consists of a canvas divided into precise grids, the diverse and rich colors and sensory forms still appear highly sophisticated and contemporary from a modern perspective. He passed away in 2021, leaving behind numerous pioneering works of the era, but his abstract paintings continue to welcome those who visit this place.

Artist Lee Joon introduced geometric abstract art in Korea. In the late 1930s, he moved to Japan where he graduated from the Western Painting program at the Pacific Art School in 1941 before teaching Western art at Ewha Womans University for 30 years starting in 1954. As a pioneer of geometric abstraction in Korea, he has played an important role in the transition from the figurative to the abstract in the Korean art world over the last 50 years, showcasing abstract colors that re-interpret nature as a pure shape. His work consists of split images and geometric patterns that are nevertheless neither rigid nor cold. The images of nature embedded in his mind, such as mountains, trees, the sun and the moon, are expressed in the form of subtle and small shapes that exude both a rhythmical and lyrical spirit. Since the 1970s, the artist has produced works of geometric abstraction with the most exquisite surface divisions and color bands, having held exhibitions in a number of art museums, including the National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art in 1994, Goyang Aram Nuri Arts Center in 2007 and the Gyeongnam Art Museum in 2018. He was awarded the Grand Art Exhibition of Korea Presidential Award in 1953, the Order of Civil Merit Camellia Medal in 1977 and the Eungwan Order of Cultural Merit in 1995. He passed away in 2021 at the age of 102.