For now, he is satisfied with his display in Seoul, despite the offending escalator. "I have still managed to make a good show," he said of the exhibition, which runs through March 23.

The artist's 2011 book, a Japanese-language volume called "Sense of Space," is akin to a Michelin Guide for the art world. It offers reviews—and star ratings out of five—of museum architecture by the likes of Mies van der Rohe, Renzo Piano and Jean Nouvel. The ideal museum, according to Mr. Sugimoto, is "a very simple...