Especially the admiration of human bodies in nudes appeared utterly outrageous. Landscapes in Western paintings aligned with ink wash landscapes, flower bird paintings or plants and vase paintings may have prepared for embracing still life, but figure paintings were something entirely different. Figure paintings provided a key example of this digression. Installation view of the exhibition “Portrait, Figure and People - Modern and Contemporary Figure Paintings of Korea” in Gallery Hyundai, December 18, 2019–March 1, 2020Īs such, Western paintings were alien not only in material and technique but in theme or subject matter. Similar to these fields, Western paintings as foreign cultures came as a huge cultural shock for the public.įor instance, Maeil Sinbo reports on March 11th, 1915 concerning Ko Huidong’s return as the first from Joseon to study Western painting at Tokyo University of the Arts, under the headline The first Western painter: “It demonstrates major differences from Eastern paintings, from techniques of drawing to base material and coloring… This is painted by oily and thick pigments…”įrom left: Lee Insung, "One Autumn Day", 1934, Oil on canvas, 96 × 161.4 cm, Lee Insung, "Child", 1940s, Oil on wooden panel, 22.5 × 15.5 cm. Western paintings inevitably are accompanied with the arrival of other Western goods and cultures known at the time as “Western style” or “New style,” including transportations, communications, newspapers, clothes, buildings, educations and social institutions. Yet, the indisputable fact remains that Korean modern art emerged with the influx of Western paintings, a change that was well underway at the start of the 1920s, a century ago from now. In art also, it is difficult to pinpoint one decisive moment.
Thoughts vary on the exact point where modern society emerges in Korea, and on the conceptions of its modernity.
This entails a clear sense of thematizing human values - which is why this exhibition is entitled Portrait, Figure and People. Works depicting and closing up on an unspecific individual such as a country girl and a sitting woman, reflecting the melody of life and lyricism of human emotions. First of all, they foreground the figure in itself. Figure paintings in modern art, however, takes significantly different contents and forms. Portraiture would of course comprise its own category while genre paintings, paintings of Taoist hermits and those with figures within ink wash landscapes all adhere to the category of figure paintings. Traditional paintings, of course, also include a genre of figure painting. The history of Korean painting has also seen a similar development. until the 19th century, and that it was replaced by figure paintings only at the onset of the 20th century. James Cahill(1926-2014) writes in The History of Chinese Painting that East Asian(Chinese) painting was dominated by ink wash landscapes since 1000 B.C. At organizing this special exhibition for Gallery Hyundai’s 50th anniversary, it took five advisory members and multiple rounds of discussions to reach agreement on an exhibition of figure paintings that would best demonstrate the trajectories of Korean modern and contemporary art.įigure paintings were on the rise as a genre during a transition from the traditional to modern society.
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