art | RM x SFMOMA Preview: A Conversation
BTS's leader RM (Kim Namjoon) is a well-known art lover and collector. He has openly talked about how visiting exhibitions gives him inspiration for his work and his everyday life. Now, with his own collection alongside SFMOMA's, he co-curates RM x SFMOMA — his first time opening his collection to the public.
If you think about the meditative messages he weaves into his music as a singer-songwriter, the transcendent inspiration he seeks as an artist, and the sense of escape art provides from the pressures of living a global star's life — you can begin to understand the special relationship he has with it.
As he naturally shared his museum visits on Instagram, RM ended up influencing a whole generation of Korean Gen-Z and millennials. While spending weekends at galleries or catching late-night exhibitions has always been a part of Korean life, the introduction of younger generations to art collecting has been shaped, in no small part, by idol stars of their own generation like RM.
Images: RM's Instagram @rkive
And yet perhaps his greatest contribution has been creating a culture of appreciating art together. The kind of experience that can feel exclusive, like a privilege reserved for a certain class — he made it something to enjoy as a shared inspiration, with his characteristic cool ease. Among fans, a practice called the "RM Tour" has emerged, following the exhibitions he has visited — not only across Korea, but at major museums throughout the United States.
Images: RM's Instagram @rkive
He once explained his preference for collecting Korean art: "The more I traveled the world for performances, the more I felt that my roots are in Korea — and my attachment to Korean artists deepened. That led me to start buying their work." As he takes pride in his roots, he shows the appreciation through collecting works by Korean artists.
His collection, assembled with real conviction over time, numbers around 200 pieces — of which 70 to 80 percent are by Korean artists.
Images: RM's Instagram @rkive
The exhibition RM x SFMOMA, opening October 3, will be his first time sharing his collection with the public. Through co-curation with RM, approximately 200 works from his collection and SFMOMA's collection will come together in one place.
Here, we look at four artists who will be among the highlights of the exhibition.
Yun Hyong-keun, Blue-Umber '79-C6, 1979; Collection of RM; © Yun Seong-ryeol, courtesy PKM Gallery
Yun Hyong-keun
A leading figure of late 20th-century Korean modern art and a central voice of the Dansaekhwa movement, Yun Hyong-keun (1928–2007) worked almost exclusively in ultramarine and umber — two colors he described with cosmic significance: blue the color of heaven, umber the color of earth. He diluted pigment with turpentine and let it seep slowly into raw, unprimed linen, often returning to a single work over months or even years. This quiet, repetitive process was less about achieving a final image than about the act of mark-making as a daily practice — almost like keeping a diary. The resulting works carry an atmosphere of deep stillness; their portal-like forms have been said to turn a gallery into something closer to a chapel. RM keeps Yun's work on the walls of his home, and brought it into the visual world of his solo album.
Chusa Kim Jeong-hui, Orchid Paintings and Writings, 19th century, Joseon dynasty; Collection of RM
Chusa Kim Jeong-hui
One of the most celebrated scholars and calligraphers of the Joseon period, Kim Jeong-hui (1786–1856) created his own distinctive script — known as Chusa-che — by studying ancient Korean and Chinese epitaphs. His ink paintings of orchids are equally admired, prized for their spare, unhurried elegance. Remarkably, it was during years of political exile on Jeju Island that he arrived at his signature style — a testament to a practice rooted not in circumstance, but in inward stillness. His brushwork is bold yet carefully controlled, conveying both strength and quiet.
Mark Rothko, No. 14, 1960, 1960; San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, Helen Crocker Russell Fund purchase; © 1998 Kate Rothko Prizel & Christopher Rothko / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York; photo: Katherine Du Tiel
Mark Rothko
One of the most significant figures of American Abstract Expressionism, Mark Rothko (1903–1970) spent decades refining his practice down to its most essential form — large, luminous fields of color that seem to breathe and hover on the canvas. He worked in thin, translucent layers, building depth slowly and letting color radiate from within rather than sit on the surface. Rothko was insistent that his paintings were not about color or form, but about fundamental human emotions — tragedy, ecstasy, the weight of being alive.
Kim Whanki, 26-I-70, 1970; San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, gift of Mrs. Whanki Kim; ©Whanki Foundation · Whanki Museum; photo: Katherine Du Tiel
Kim Whanki
A pioneer of Korean abstract art, Kim Whanki (1913–1974) spent his final years in New York arriving at his signature practice: fields of shimmering dots, each one a quiet conversation with nature and memory. The process was slow and near-ritualistic — his wife recalled that the dots would come "flowing one after another, according to his mood," each enclosed in a rectangle of color until the canvas was full. Rather than planning a composition, he followed the rhythm of his brush, letting the work emerge through repetition and time. The results evoke the vastness of the cosmos while remaining deeply personal — rooted in the blues of the Korean landscape and the forms of traditional moon jars.
"The masters who have passed — it feels as though they are watching over me. They motivate me. I want to become a better person, a better adult. There's an aura that comes from these works. When I'm tired or going through something, I sometimes stand before them and have a conversation." - RM
This fall, RM invites us into a conversation with art.
RM x SFMOMA October 3, 2026 – February 7, 2027
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Created by JODE Team | Images Courtesy of @rkive, SFMOMA, @sfmoma | Front Image Portrait of RM with Yun Hyong-keun’s Blue (1972) on the wall; courtesy HYBE