Kunsthaus Zürich masterpieces at the National Museum of Korea — KRW 12,000 early bird until 17 Dec

The Kunsthaus Zürich, Switzerland's leading art museum, is lending part of its collection to Seoul. From 27 November to 18 April the following year, the National Museum of Korea and the Kunsthaus are staging an exhibition that uses 85 works to show how modern art began and spread. On 13 October, about six weeks before opening, the museum started selling discounted early-bird tickets for the first three weeks. If you plan to go early, picking a slot now is the cheapest way in.

How is the early-bird ticket different from a standard ticket?

Two things differ: the price and the dates you can go. The early-bird ticket saves an adult KRW 8,000 and a youth KRW 6,000, but it only covers the first three weeks after opening. Child and senior prices, who gets in free, and the date standard tickets go on sale have not been announced yet.

What will be on show?

The exhibition starts with painting from just before modern art took hold, then runs through Impressionism to Surrealism. Swiss-born artists Paul Klee, Sophie Taeuber-Arp and Alberto Giacometti hang alongside Rodin, Monet, Cézanne, Picasso, Munch, Kandinsky, Dalí and Magritte. The museum says the exhibition also gives a large share of the space to Ferdinand Hodler, often described as Switzerland's national painter, and to Zurich Dada, the art movement that began in the city during the First World War. These are names rarely seen together in Korea.

The ten main works named in the museum's press release are below. This is the museum's own selection and only part of the 85 works in the exhibition.

1. Albert Anker, Two Girls Asleep on the Stove Bench (1895)
2. Claude Monet, The Houses of Parliament, Sunset (1904)
3. Félix Vallotton, Sunset, Villerville (1917)
4. Henri Matisse, Marguerite (1906)
5. Auguste Rodin, The Age of Bronze (1875/1876, bronze)
6. Ferdinand Hodler, Song from Afar (c. 1914)
7. Ernst Ludwig Kirchner, Sunday on Lake Zurich (1925)
8. Sophie Taeuber-Arp, Triptych, vertical-horizontal composition with reciprocal triangles (1918)
9. Paul Klee, Hunter Tree (1939)
10. Alberto Giacometti, The Forest (1950, bronze)

Artists worth looking at before you go

Klee is the Swiss artist at the centre of this exhibition. Once you know how he reduced a landscape to small patches of colour and signs, it is easier to see how the exhibited Hunter Tree simplifies trees and figures.

Hodler, known for his Alpine landscapes and symbolic figure paintings, is often called the painter the Swiss know best. Cézanne and Munch are also on the list of artists in the exhibition.

Taeuber-Arp was one of the leading figures of Zurich Dada and an early experimenter with abstraction that divides the picture into geometric shapes. The exhibited Triptych belongs to that line of work.

What is the Kunsthaus Zürich?

The Kunsthaus Zürich is run by the Zurich Art Society and is one of Switzerland's leading art museums. It lent the works and co-organises the exhibition. Its stone main building on Heimplatz, designed by the architect Karl Moser, opened in 1910, and an extension by David Chipperfield opened across the square in 2021. Rodin's The Gates of Hell, which stands beside the entrance, is almost the museum's emblem, but it is not coming to Seoul.

How do you buy an early-bird ticket?

1. Open the early-bird product on Ticketlink with the booking button on this page (it is listed in Korean as 얼리버드 모던 아트의 탄생).
2. Choose a date between 27 November and 17 December, then a 30-minute entry slot. Avoid Monday 7 December, when special exhibition hall 1 is closed for maintenance.
3. Pay for up to four tickets per person. Each slot has a fixed allocation, so weekend slots may go first.
4. If you will be in Seoul after 18 December, the early bird is no use to you: wait for standard tickets to be announced.

Getting there and what to expect on the day

The National Museum of Korea is at 137 Seobinggo-ro, Yongsan-gu. Take Line 4 or the Gyeongui–Jungang Line to Ichon Station (이촌역), leave by Exit 2 and follow the covered Museum Path for about 150 m, roughly five minutes. From Incheon Airport, take the AREX all-stop train to Seoul Station and change to Line 4 southbound for Ichon, about 75–90 minutes. Entry to the museum itself is free; only this special exhibition needs a ticket. The permanent galleries are labelled in Korean and English, staff at the main information desk speak English, and the museum's English phone line is +82-2-2077-9000. For this exhibition, the press release does not say whether labels will be bilingual or whether there will be an English audio guide. Plan for Korean-first wall text until the museum announces otherwise. On booking: Ticketlink also runs an English storefront (ticketlink.co.kr/global/en), but we could not confirm that this early-bird product is sold there or that it accepts a foreign phone number or card. If the Korean page blocks you at sign-up, ask the museum, or wait for standard tickets.