Art history Paper(use source given only)

Japan and East Asia

1920-1960

Edited by

MARLENE J. MAYO

and

J. THOMAS RIMER

with

H.ELEANOR KERKHAM

University of Hawai'i Press Honolulu

WANG HSIU-HSIUNG

120

=0. For brief accounts of the Pacific War and Taiwan, see Kerr, Formosa: Licensed Revo- lution, 189-202. Also, Tsurumi, Japanese Colonial Education in Taiwan, 167 132, me udmg

population estimates, 131,280 (n. 43)- , _ 5, For example, Chen Qingfen changed to Tanaka Seifim Liao Jichun to Akmaga

KeisLn and Lin Zhizhu to Hayashi Rinnosuke. Nevertheless, they must stiU be regarded as Taiwanese painters. There were some other Taiwanese pamters who took Japanese names, but their number was limited and does not influence the statistics.

52 Clark, “Taiwanese Painting under the Japanese Occupation, 92. 53 Lin Boting, Guo Xuehe, Chinese introduction. With Japanese expansion into muc

of eastern China during the Sino-Japanese War. foUowed by Southeast Asia and “onesia early in the Pacific War, paintings began to appear that focused on the life of these areas. Good examples are Tokuhisa Tokuharu s Impraswns of Central ama (third Futen, 1940) and Mizuya Munemitsus Howes in Malaysia (fifth Futen, 194a), Wang Xiuxiong "Development ofthe Official Art Exhibition." 128, Figs. 60 and 61.

54 Wang Hsiu hsiung. "The Influences of Conservative and Authontanan of the First-Generation Taiwanese Western-Style Painters in Postwar ^^^an (Chmese text) in Taiwan meishufazhan sMun, 131-198. For the post-1945 provmcial ei^bitions and potLlonial Taiwan, see Jason Kuo, "After the Empire: Chinese Lneration in Taiwan,” in Clark, Modernity in Modem Asian Art, 105-127. Also see Marth Su Fu, “Chinese Painting in Taiwan,” in Mayching Kuo (ed.), 196-204.

55. See Shi, Chen Jin, for illustrations of the artist s postwar acrylic paintmg, 97

iQOi (Taiwan Fine Arts Series 2,101-192). 56. LaiTse-han. Ramon H. Myers, and Wei Wou. A Tragu: Beginning; ne ^

ingofFeì.rnaTy28,i947(Stanford:StanfordUniversityPress,i99i).AsrecollectedbyChen son, his fatto was executed, together with other members of the Nationahst Army firing squad in front of the Jiayi Station, the mo^g of March 25,1947 (Yan Juanying. Chinese introduction. Chen Chengho. Taiwan Fine Arts Senes 1)^

57. For Li Shiqiao's postcolonial poUtics and early postwar works, see D^^id TÆ ^ Wang Li Skniaa As Wang also illustrates (107). in later years Li painted a cane mre of Nationahst leader General Jiang Jieshi (Chiang Kai-shek). For a popular tnbute, see Liu,

“A Painter for All Seasons.

Artistic Trends in Korean Painting during the 1930s

Youngna Kim

The last two or three decades of the nineteenth century in China, Japan, and Korea can be characterized as a period of turmoil, foreign aggression, and rapid transformation to modernization as the region became a battleground for power struggles among technologically advanced Western countries. Against this tide of Western intrusion, China, Japan, and Korea reacted quite differently. While China could not effectively block foreign exploitation, Japan reorganized its political and economic systems, modeling them after modem European nations, and soon emerged as the dominant power in East Asia. Korea knew little of what was going on outside, and, insisting upon the preservation of its culture against the Western barbarians, was unable to escape the aggression of neighboring Japan, which suc­ cessfully forced China and Russia to give up their rights in Korea and finally

annexed Korea in 1910. The thirty-five years of colonial rule, which lasted until the end of World War

II in August 1945, were painful to Koreans, who had prided themselves as culmral mentors to Japan for centuries. As an act of imperiaUst subjugation, Japan argued diat Koreans were incompetent and unable to transform their country into a mod­ em nation. By emphasizing the difference before and after colonization, Japan claimed that it had brought progress to the Korean economy and society.^ In fact, Japan projected itself as a self-appointed purveyor of Western modernization to the colonized, thereby aligning itself with the Western powers. Despite its claim, Japan was not intent upon producing highly cultivated people in Korea, for it con­ sidered Korea as merely a stepping-stone for further aggression to China.^ The only university in Seoul, Kyongsong (Keijö) Imperial University, which subse­ quently became Seoul National University after independence, was primarily designed to educate Japanese residents in Korea, and only one-third of the stu-

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dents were Koreans.^ Koreans were permitted to run several private colleges, but students who aspired to higher or professional education and had wealth to afford it went to Japan, primarily Tokyo, where discrimination was less evident. In 1931, for instance, 3,639 Korean students were enrolled in schools in Japan.^ Many from this group of overseas Korean students later became the leaders of intellectual activities in Korea, with two conflicting results. On the positive side, they brought back home modem currents of thought and a new culture, while on the negative side they received Japanese versions of Western culture, which inevitably allowed an infusion of Japanese influence into the Korean intellectual world. Thus, this first phase of the modem period in Korea is generally characterized by gradual westernization under Japanese influence.

Art was no exception, especially since there was no formal art school in Korea until Korea gained independence. It has been said that Japanese Governor-Gen­ eral Saitö Makoto (1858-1936) attempted to establish professional art and music academies in the 1920s as part of the enlightenment poHcy but was discouraged due to a lack of funds. More likely this was an empty promise and is highly ques­ tionable.^ For Koreans interested in learning modem art, it was possible to acquire rudimentary skills at private art classes that were operated by individuals or by small groups. It was during the decade beginning in 1910 that the first generation of Korean painters wishing to take up Western-style art left for Tokyo to learn the techniques and aesthetics of oil painting.^ And these painters, after returning to Korea, taught students at various private art studios or institutions. Beginning in the 1930S, more and more artists went to Japan for formal training, actively par­ ticipating in group exhibitions not only in Tokyo but also in Seoul, as they could travel back and forth between the two cities easily.

In many respects, the 1930s represent a decade in which Western-style paint­ ing in Korea had already passed through an imitative technique-learning stage and was ready to embark upon the creation of new and various kinds of artistic ideas and expressions. But before this new art could blossom, Japan conquered Man­ churia in 1931-1932 and helped to create the tense international situation that ulti­ mately led to the Sino-Japanese War and World War 11,1937-1945. The patriotic military hysteria that swept Japan had, by the end of the 1930s, suppressed any free artistic experimentation, and all cultural activities became nationalized not only in Japan but in Korea as well. Korean artists were pressured to paint pro-Japanese themes glorifying the Japanese army. Korean notables, such as Yi Kwang-su (1892-1955?), a famous author, and Yu Chin-o ^1906-1987), a law professor at Posong Professional School, which later became Korea University, collaborated in exhorting Korean youth to join the Voluntary Student Army or to work in facto­ ries producing military supplies.^

The art of this colonial period has thus far received little attention from Korean art historians. It is only in recent years that a handful of scholars has begun to express interest in the early beginnings of Korean modem art and to uncover some hitherto unknown facts and documents, as well as works of art.® Since 1985.

Artistic Trends in Korean Painting

the Ho-am Art Museum in Seoul has held a series of retrospective exhibitions of early modem artists and pubUshed catalogues documenting artworks that have been scattered or are of unknown provenance. A groundbreaking boon for these historians has been the lifting in 1988 of the ban by the South Korean government on artists who voluntarily went to North Korea during the Korean War (1950- 1953). Since then, many unknown paintings (or at least photographs of them in art magazines or newspapers) produced by these artists during the 1930s were redis­ covered, and this made it possible to have a more balanced view of the period.^ Art historians and critics are also beginning to uncover the major issues raised among art critics and artists of the time, as well as the aspirations they had for expressing Korean identity in art. The purpose of this essay is to examine the evo­ lution of the first phase of modem painting, with a particular emphasis on the role Japanese art played as a mediator in this complex and dark period of early-twen-

tieth-century Korean art.

Education of Artists One of the earliest art studios for the public in Korea was Kyöngsöng Sohwa Misulwon (Kyöngsöng School of Painting and Calligraphy), later renamed Söhwa Misulhoe Kangsüpso (Söhwa Art Institute), which opened in 1911- Yet apart from encouraging its students to sketch outdoors, its training was not much different from conventional apprenticeship. As the number of Korean artists returning from Japan increased, they began teaching students at the Söhwa Misulhoe Kangsupso, various middle and high schools, and such institutions as the YMCA. Art institu­ tions were founded not only in Seoul but also in Pyongyang and Taegu, but, strictly speaking, they were informal art studios rather than formal art education institu­

tions.^® At this time, there were also many Japanese artists living in Korea who

opened art studios and helped create a climate of interest in new art. The earliest private art studio opened by a Japanese was in 1902 by Amakusa Shinrai (>-1917), a nihonga (Japanese-style painting) artist.^' The reason Amakusa a former assis­ tant professor in the Department of Nihonga at the Tokyo Bijutsu Gakko (Tokyo School offline Arts)—came to Korea is not certain, but he lived there until 1915- Shimizu Töun, another nihonga artist, also opened a studio in 1908 in Seoul and returned to Japan around 1920. In 1911, Yamamoto Baikai, a yoga (Western-style painting) artist, opened a studio in Seoul. Yamada Shin ichi, a Western-style painter and a graduate of the Tokyo School offline Arts in 1923, also opened a studio, the Choson Misulwön (Chosön Art Institute) in the early 1920s. and among his stu­ dents was Yi Ma-dong, who later went to Japan for study at Yamada’s alma mater. After teaching briefly at Che-i Kobo (Second High School), Yamada actively par­ ticipated in official art exhibitions in Korea from 1924 to 1926, and again from 1931 to possibly as late as 1944. and apparently remained in Korea until independence from Japan in 1945. Takagi Haisui (1877-1943), a Western-style artist who was a

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Student of famous Meiji painter Kuroda Seiki (1866-1924) at the Hakubakai Yoga Kenkyüshö (Western Art Institute of the White Horse Society), visited Korea in 1910 and opened his studio in 1916.^^ Takagi stayed in Korea until 192-5 ^iid even served as a judge in the first official exhibition in 1922. Although the presence of these Japanese was important, the details as to how many Korean students stud­ ied with resident Japanese art teachers and the nature of their relationships have not been confirmed.

On the other hand, since many art teachers at Korean public middle or high schools in the colonial period were Japanese, some students would develop an interest in modem art under their influence. Oil painter Hiyoshi Mamom, who graduated from the Tokyo School of Fine Arts in 1909 and came to Korea that same year, was such a teacher. He served at the Kyongsong Middle School (a school for Japanese students that later became the Seoul Middle and High School) and stayed in Korea until 1945. His brief memoir of his life in Korea gives us some information as to who came and what they did during the colonial period.^'’ In addition, the names of several other resident Japanese art teachers have recently become known.^^ Toda Katsuo and Ishikuro Yoshikatsu were oil painters and taught at Yongsan Middle School, which together with Kyongsong High School was basically a school for Japanese students. There were also Japanese teachers who taught at schools for Korean students. At Che-i Kobo or the Second High School (later Kyong-bok Middle and High School), Sato Kunio taught several Korean smdents who later became prominent Western-style painters with careers spanning the colonial and postcolonial eras, among them Yi Dae-won (1921-). Yu Yong-kuk (1916-), Chang Uk-chin (1917-1990), Kwon Ok-yon (1923-). Kim Chang- ok (1920-1997), and Im Wan-kyu (1918-).Yi Dae-won remembers that Yama- guchi Takeo (1902-1983), who was a pioneer of abstract painting in Japan, lived in Seoul until 1945 and briefly taught painting at Kyongsong Imperial University for a group of medical students in which Yi, then a law student, took part. Igawa Katsumi, a graduate of Osaka Bijutsu Gakko (Osaka School offline Arts), was an oil painter who taught at Söllin Sang-op Hak'kyo (Sollin High School of Com­ merce). In addition, there were frequent solo or group exhibitions in the 1910s by visitingjapanese artists, among them Takagi Haisui and Tsuji Hisashi (i884-i974) in 1914 and the even more eminent Ishii Hakutei (1882-1958) and Kobayas

Mango (1870-1945) in 1918. Some aspiring Korean artists venmred to Europe or to America to smdy Wes

em-style painting, despite the hardships in getting passports from the Japanese colonial government in Korea. Most of them, however, chose the Tokyo School o Fine Arts and subsequently became the leading artists upon their return to Korea. The Korean students who graduated from the Department of Western-Style Pam ing at the Tokyo School offline Arts before 1930 numbered sixteen; by ^^45. six students had graduated. Also by 1945, one Korean student had graduated tro^^ the school’s Department of Japanese Painting, seven from the Department

Sculpture, and one from the Department of Wood Sculpture.^^ emment encouraged this first generation of Korean artists by giving them o

Artistic Trends in Korean Painting

scholarships.!« From 1924, special admission for foreign students was extended to Korean and Taiwanese students with the proper recommendations.^’ From 1931 onward, however, foreign students were forced to take examinations and com­ pete with Japanese smdents on an equal basis.

The curriculum of the Tokyo School of Fine Arts was based on nineteenth- cenmry French Academicism.^o As a result, most of these early Korean pioneers of Western-style painting namrally transmitted this fashion back to Korea. Start­ ing in the 1930S, an increasing number of Korean art smdents flocked to private universities or art instimtions in Tokyo where the atmosphere for learning was less rigid than at the Tokyo School of Fine Arts.^’ Japan, which had begun to assimilate Western art in the 1860s, much earUer than Korea, had been introduced to most of the art from Europe by the 1930s. This was a time when modem art was being actively pursued in many official and private exhibitions. The exposure of Korean art smdents in Tokyo to new trends in the art world was not readily avail­ able through the convention-bound art schools but was possible through various exhibitions and art publications. Korean artists attempted to go beyond Academi­ cism as well as the prevailing Impressionism. They experimented with Postimpres­ sionism, Fauvism, Fumrism, even Constmctivism and Surrealism, not sequentially but all at once, and without fully understanding the meaning and significance of

these styles. The population of Western-style oil painters in Korea also increased as this

first generation began to train their own smdents. They were joined by self-taugjit artists who submitted their works for exhibitions. The debut of an artist was usu­ ally made through the Choson Art Exhibition, the influential annual art salon estabUshed by the Japanese government-general of Admiral Saito three years after the March First Movement in 1919^^ as a gesmre to promote culmre and to soften oppressive rule.^^ As journal articles and exhibition reviews in daily newspapers helped to spread more widely the fashion of Western oil painting, the Korean pub­ lic gradually came to realize that art was no longer just a gentleman’s avocation or a mere manual skill, but rather a legitimate expression of human creativity and individuality. Although Eastern- or traditional-style painters in Korea also were aware of the coming of a modem age and tried to cope with new concepts of form and style, they were not quite able to maintain leadership of the art community.

. One could also experience works by modem Japanese artists at the Museum of the Yi Royal Family, located at the SÖkjojön building of the Doksu Palace, Seoul. These were works purchased by the Yi royal family upon recommendation by Japanese authorities and placed on public display during the years i933-i943-

Western-Style Painting The main Western-style art activities in Korea during the 1930s were centered ®tt)und the annual showings of the Choson Art Exhibition. At the time, the exhi­ bition was known as Sönjön in Korean and Senten in Japanese. Recently, how­ ever, the term “Sönjön” has been replaced by Chosön mijön due to criticism that

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it is a Japanese term. Created in 1922 by Japanese colonial authorities, it was mod­ eled after the Texten (Imperial Exhibition), the state art salon of Japan, which in turn was modeled after the official Salon of France-^-^ Twenty-three exhibitions

126 were held from 1922 to i944- The first section, called nihonga in Japan, was cau­ tiously renamed tongyang-hwa, or Eastern-style painting, for Korea (and later dso for official exhibitions in Taiwan). The second section, as in Japan, was called söyang-hwa, or Western-style painting. The Choson mijon not only served as the gateway for promising young Korean artists but also became the main means for resident Japanese to exert influence on Korean art. This was because Japanese artists were allowed to submit works if they had lived in Korea for more than six months.^^ Whereas Japanese artists who were accepted in the first Chosön mijon in the Western-style painting section numbered fifty-five, only three Korean artists were accepted to display.“ Generally, Japanese artists constituted 65 percent of exhibitors,which indicates that the Choson mijon was in part a platform for Jap­ anese artists in Korea. Given the fact that Japanese Prime Minister Hara Takashi (1856-1921) had remarked in 1918 on the necessity of an all-out institutional refur­ bishing to assimilate Korea into the empire, it follows that the establishment of the Choson mijön would also have been a means of assimilating Korean artists into

the Japanese art community.“ Soon all of the judges were invited from Japan. Those who served more than

twice were mostly professors from the Tokyo School of Fine Arts^ such as Fuji- shima Takeji (1867-1943), Wada Eisaku (1874-1959), Minami Kunzö (1883-1950), Tanabe Itaru (1886-1968), Kobayashi Mango, and Ihara Usaburo (1894-19^6) in Western-style painting; and Komuro Suiun (1874-1948) and Yuki Somei (1875- 1957) in Eastern-style painting.“ This could mean two things. One would be that the organizers probably deemed Korean artists unfit to serve as judges. This would be conceivable for the Western-style painting section, where Koreans were lackmg in number and also without outstanding artists; but in the section on Eastern-style painting where Korean artists had a long tradition, such discrimination is mcom- prehensible. Another factor could be that it was intended for the Japanese senti­ ments to filter naturally into Korean art because the Japanese judges might natu­ rally favor works expressing familiar Japanese sentiments or representing Korean folk themes. Whatever the case might have been, such preferences were to deter­ mine the later course of the art presented at the Choson mijon. In other wor<K the Chosön mijön served the function of distributing Japanese versions of both Western- and Eastern-style painting. Since art professors from the Tokyo School of Fine Arts were regularly invited to serve as judges, inevitably the style of tms school, with its blend of Academicism and Impressionism, was the standard for acceptance in the Choson mijön. At the first and second exhibitions there was also a display of works by famous contemporary Japanese artists in each section to serve as reference works, but later this practice was abolished.

The Choson mijön was initially set up to replace or suppress the Hyöpjön, or Society Exhibition, a forum established by Korean painters in 1921, a year earlier than the opening of the Choson mijön.^“ Although some nationalistic-minded

Artistic Trends in Korean Painting

Korean artists boycotted the Chosön mijön. more and more pamters began ticipate in the official exhibition because it was viewed as a venue to P“bb<: recog S- Thus in X9aa, as noted, the number of Korean artrsts accepted by ffie Chosön mijön in the section on Western-style paintmg was only 3 out of 57- Ten vears lat™ ffi 193a. the number jumped to 86 out of ,37.“ In the sectron on East- Im-style painting, the total was only 15 out of 60. showmg how far modem parnt^

ing styles had ecUpsed traditional art. As a result of this competition. gridually declined in the 1930s. not only in the nurnber ^ ffie quality of paintings. In addition, ffie Hyöpjön did not publish any catalogues, as t¿ group W« always in financial difficulty, coming to an after nine menffi Äions. Th' Chosön mijön, backed by the wealth of the emment in Korea, provided catalogues with photographs of each entry. These

catalogues still remain as valuable documents of the penod. Gmup activities also increased in the 1920s and 1930s as artists

bitions in Seoul, Taegu, and Pyöngyang.« Alumni groups ïf°"„,e?rt move- groups of those who shared simUar interests or belonged to the same art move menf exhibited together. The most representative of these organizations m Korea was ffie Nok Hya^ Hoe (Group for a Green Country). This particular ^sociation Tf wtter^-stîe painters was o^ed in 19x8 by such artists as Kim Chu-gyong foD ar/sta yL-söp (>-?), both of whom were trained by Korean artists at the Koryö Misulhoe (AsLiation of Korean Art) and participated m Hyopjon Lws. Members stated clearly their ideological positffin J

Western painting that was ftt for the ethos of the Korean people. The biggest group overseas Jas ffie Paek U Hoe (White BuU Group) in 193X, an ff Korean art students in Tokyo whose core members were ‘“Pa­ riai School of Fine Arts, which by ffie 1930s had ffie largest number of Korean sm^ dene The Japanese police, however, suspected that ffie name bull symbolized Koman indSndence A buU or a cow does not have specific symbohc meai^g m ffie Korean people, but many artists at ffie time favored pamtmg oxen and as 80 percent of L population was in agriculmre, bulls and cows were the most

of animals in Korea.” As a result, the name bull was suspect m ffie lapanese poUce. In 1935 the group was forced to change its name to the Ch TonlytaTMisul HyöpL (Association of Artists in Tokyo). Later it was com-

pletdy’forbidden to exhibit. Korean smdents from the Tokyo School of Fme ^ joined the White Bull Group but also organized their own association calle

Tongmi Hoe (Group for ffie Tokyo School of Fine Arts).

Figures and Nudes AS mentioned earlier, the most prominent artists (19ZZ-I944) were ffie Academic painters. Academicism m the West to classicism, which is based upon ffie beUef that art can be rules set by ffie ancients and the great masters of ffie Renaissance. At the des Beaux-ArtI in Paris, the seat of Academicism in the mneteenth century, mstruc tion was centered on copying plaster casts and drawing from Ufe as a means

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gaining technical proficiency. But most important was the choice of subject mat­ ter, which had to show grandiose, noble, or moral themes of historical or religious

significance. When the first generation of Japanese painters, such as Kuroda Seiki, went to

Paris at the end of the nineteenth century, however, European art was in the midst of radical change. Although still adhering to the importance of line and finish, some Academic painters began to incorporate elements from Impression­ ism, taking everyday scenes as subject matter or adopting informal composition and showing the effects of light on objects. Raphaël Collin (1850-1917), who was the teacher of Kuroda and later of Kume Keiichiro (1866-1934) and Okada Saburö- suke (1869-1939), also professors at the Tokyo School of Fine Arts, was a good example of this eclectic Academicism. The education Kuroda received from Collin was Academic training. He was also, like Collin, interested in light and atmosphere, or in the play of direct and reflected colors. When Kuroda came back to Japan, he and his followers became known as the Impressionistic Academicists because of the bright colors and sense of fresh air in their work. Kuroda later became the chairman of the newly established Department of Western-Style Painting at the Tokyo School of Fine Arts, and his fashion became the dominant trend in modem Japanese Art.^^ As the mainstream Western-style painting in Tokyo, this Impres­ sionistic Academicism was introduced to Korean artists as the “Academic style without any proper historical context. Even today, the term Academicism is not correctly understood in Korea, where it has such diverse meanings as realistic art, orthodox art, official art, conservative art, and traditional art.

The most popular subject reflecting Academicism in Korea ft-om the 1930s until the 1960s was the seated or standing female or male figure. Good examples of such figures in the 1930s are A Man (Plate 41) by Yi Ma-dong (1906—1981), dated 1931, and a A Girl Reading (Plate 42) by Kim In-sùng (1913-), dated 1937. Since Yi graduated fi-om the Tokyo School of Fine Arts in 1932. this work was painted when he was a student. It is not clear whether Kim painted in Tokyo or Seoul, since he graduated from the same school in 1937 and returned to Korea that year. Yi studied with Fujishima Takeji; Kim with both Tanabe Itaru and Kobayashi Mango. Here the painters were very much concerned with the realistic rendering of fig­ ures, observing carefully the contrast of ligjit-and-dark to create volume as well as three-dimensional space. They emphasized the importance of good drawing, a quality that was at the core of the curriculum of the Tokyo School of Fine Arts. Like their professors, Yi and Kim probably thought that it was important to trans­ plant Academicism, with its emphasis on sound training in realistic drawing, to the old tradition of Korean-style Eastern art.

The nude genre, another frequently painted subject by Academic painters, was completely new.^^ Moreover, such painting caused a great deal of embarrass­ ment in the conservative Confiician society of Korea. Earlier, in 1916, when Kim Kwan-ho (already identified as the second-known Korean to study Western-style painting at the Tokyo School of Fine Arts) won a special prize at the Bunten in Tokyo with Sunset (Plate 43), a painting with two female nudes standing, the Mae^

Artistic Trends in Korean Painting

il Shinbo (Mae-il Newspaper) reported the news but with the explanation that it would not print the photograph in order to guard public morality. A similar inci­ dent occurred with his painting entitled Lake, submitted to the 1923 Choson mijon. The Japanese government-general gave permission to exhibit the work but banned its reproduction in the newspapers. Nevertheless, in art circles at least, it was widely understood that studying the nude figure was an important practice in learning Western-style techniques. But painters had a hard time finding nude models and sometimes had to recruit them firom feisaeng—courtesan houses.*^ In spite of this difficulty, many nude paintings were presented at exhibitions.

Kim In-siing’s Nude (Plate 44), painted when he was a student in Tokyo and accepted for the Teiten exhibition of 1936, is a study of a Japanese female model. The long legs and the proportion of the body indicate that this painter idealized the Asian model to the Ukes of nude figures in Western paintings. This also occurs in paintings by Kuroda, such as A Maiko Girl (1893) and Wisdom, Impression, Sentiment (1899). That is, to Kuroda and later to Kim In-sung, the Western nude figure was perceived as the ideal form that they then duplicated in their work. Not only the nudes by Kim In-süng but also many of the nude paintings that were submitted to the Choson mijon depicted the human figure according to set archetypes found in Western examples, where the figure is standing or reclining in a passive pose.

Kim repeatedly exhibited his works and won prizes at the Choson mijon, and he was designated one of the aristocrats of the exhibition.^^ His most successful piece was Spring Melody (Plate 45), painted during the war in 1942 and depicting a group of young men and women in one monumental composition. Kim, who is now in his eighties, recalls that it was a painting in praise of youth. One senses hints of Edgar Degas (1834-1917) or early Edouard Manet (1832-1883) in Kim s treatment of the music player, as well as in the compositional concept. Similarities with Japanese painter Koiso Ryohei (1903-1988) are also evident in his choice of subject matter, downward perspective, poses of the figures, and touches of highlight on the foreheads of the figures. One also notices the men’s Western-style attire and the modified version of Korean dress in the womens’ costumes. Above all, the theme of the cello player reveals the changed outlook of the new intellectuals in

Korea society, a representation of modernity. If the nude in Kim In-sùng’s painting is an ideal Western nude, the Reclining

Nude (Plate 46) by Im Kun-hong (1912-1979), painted in 1936, is a compromise between a Western and an Eastern nude. Im was an artist who took painting classes at the Kyongsong Yanghwa Yon’guso (Kyongsong Western-Style Painting Institute) while working at dentistry. Although he did not receive formal training, he submitted works at the Choson mijon as well as the Hyopjon. The reclining pose he utilized is certainly from the Western repertoire, yet it lacks the sense of exotic feeling that is found in Kim’s robust Westernized nude. The artistic inspi­ ration in such works as Nude with Her Left Hand on the Lips (Plate 47), painted in 1937 by So Chin-dal (1908-1947), another student of the Tokyo School of Fme Arts, may have come ffom Paul Cézanne (1839-1906), but the notion of a strong woman as an ideal female is also rooted in Korean tradition.

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YOUNGNA KIM

Modem Landscape Paintings Landscape was another favored subject matter of the early-twentieth-century Korean oil painters. Painting actual scenery from nature had a long history in

130 Korea, going back to the Koryo dynasty (936-1392), and it was popular during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries—the late Chosön period. Thus the Impres­ sionistic practice of recording the immediate visual phenomena of nature met lit­ tle resistance among modem Western-style Korean painters and, in fact, revived the practice among traditional ink painters of painting outdoors. During the late Chosön dynasty, it was famous scenic spots of topographical landscapes that had been favored. Now, ordinary urban or rural scenes became common subjects of modem artists. Yet few Korean oil painters really understood the lessons of the European Impressionists—above all, that color constantly changes according to varying conditions or light. Instead, early modem Korean artists were still very much concerned with form, volume, and line.

Perhaps the only Korean artist who could claim to be an Impressionistic land­ scape painter was O Chi-ho (1905-1982), who successfully conveyed sunlit provin­ cial landscapes. A student of Fujishima Takeji at the Tokyo School of Fine Arts from 1925, O participated in the Group for a Green Country upon his return to Korea in 1931. This association called for the rejection of Japanese sentiment and sought Korean colors, which they considered to be bright, clean, and radiant. Although its activities were short-lived, O continued to work at capturing the luminosity of nature that he saw in his Korean surroundings by adopting Impres­ sionistic or Neo-Impressionistic bmsh strokes. He believed that the Impressionis­ tic practice of painting outdoors was better suited to Korean weather, which is dry and clear compared to the dampness in Japan. He painted directly from nature and left notes; for example, he wrote that from May 8 in 1938, he painted The Field with Apple Trees (Plate 48) for three days, morning to night, and when he was fin­ ished the flowers began to fall. Another painting, A House Facing the South (Plate 49), completed in 1939, reveals strokes of brightly colored pigments to represent the transcending speckled light. O eliminated black shadows, so that the trees in the painting cast irregular violet and blue patterns diagonally across the wall and

the roof of the house. Another landscapist who should be mentioned was Kim Yong-jo (1916-1944)-

He first learned to paint from a well-known local artist. He was so talented that his work was accepted at the Chosön mijön when he was just sixteen and there­ after more than six times in the 1930s. He made his way to wartime Tokyo in 1940, where he worked for money during the day, painted at night for classes at the Tai- heiyo Bijutsu Gakko (Pacific School offline Arts), and submitted his works to the Shin Bunten. But his health could not withstand his workload, and after returning to Korea in 1943 at the age of twenty-eight, he died of tuberculosis, one of the most common causes of death in those days. The paintings he left are mostly seascapes produced during the 1930s while he was still living in his hometown in Taegu. Works such as Nakdong River and Seascape (Plate 50) show that he was interested

Artistic Trends in Korean Painting

in Fauvism in his arbitrary use of color and loose brush strokes. Leisurely scenes of people enjoying the beach were definitely a subject favored by Impressionists and Fauvists. But it was not common for Koreans in the 1930s to go out and have a leisurely time at the beach, so perhaps Kim was inspired by Fauvistic subject matter and style from the color reproductions found in Japanese art publications

available in Korea. The most successful and highly proficient painter of the decade was probably

Yi In-söng (1912-1950). His works were accepted at the Chosön mijön and won special prizes for six consecutive years, whereupon he became a "Select Artist” in 1937 at the age of twenty-five. He showed his talent early when he was in elemen­ tary school. In 1931, when he was nineteen, he went to Tokyo for two years and attended the Pacific School of Fine Arts. During this period, his works were accepted several times by the Teiten. His stay in Tokyo gave him the stimulus needed to assimilate his personal style with Postimpressionism. His watercolor entitled From the Summer Interior—the kind of work that Pierre Bonnard (1867- 1907) might have painted—was accepted by the Teiten in 1934. In this painting Yi used short, divisionistic strokes with patches of broad strokes to catch the sunny

atmosphere of the interior. Yi’s painting, A Day in Autumn (Plate 51), also done in 1934, won a special prize

at the Chosön mijön and is a good example of a composition combining rural land­ scape with a figure. Here his concern for conveying light with the divisionistic brush technique is minimized, and he brings back volume and composition into his work. The portrayal of a girl with her upper torso naked and the flat treatment of form are reminiscent of the Tahitian women of Paul Gauguin (1848-1903). Sim­ ilar to this is In the Mountains ofKyongju (Plate 52), in which he painted two male figures against the background of Kyöngju, the capital of the ancient Sfila King­ dom (57 B.C.E.-668 c.E.) and of unified Silla (668-936). Yi’s attempt to deal with folk people in sentimental landscape settings has led scholars to form two differ­ ent interpretations. In the 1970s, critics like Kim Yun-su criticized Yi, a child of the city, for trying to pander to the taste of a Japanese judge who found Yi’s painting of the cotmtryside to be highly exotic.“o Another critic, Yi Kyöng-söng, on the other hand, praised Yi for incorporating a theme that was typically Korean into his orig­ inal conception.“*! Although it is difficult to tell, it seems true that Yi tried to show Korean color by using a reddish hue for earth. At that time, the Japanese called the Korean land akatsuchi (reddish earth), and Yi In-sÖng himself said that he liked the

fragrance of reddish earth. Yi In-söng was not the only artist who tried to imbue painting with folk

flavor. In the early 1930s, an increasing number of paintings at the Chosön mijön depicted scenes of folk life, such as Korean farms with cows and thatched houses, or other sentimental scenes like sunset landscapes and deserted back alleys. A Vil­ lage Scene (Plate 53), by Kim Chung-hyön (1901-1953), a self-taught artist who par­ ticipated in Chosön mijön from 1925 to 1943, is an example of this. Another change was the use of dominant colors like ochre and earth brown, and this trend con-

TOUNGNA KIM

trasted sharply with the decorative palette ofjapanese painting. Art critic Yi Kyong- song has argued that such works should be viewed as an expression of naïveté on the part of these early artists who tried to bring back the identity of a lost nation.

132 It is, however, hard to tell whether these works should really be interpreted as an attempt to express nationalistic sentiments. It is true that around 1930, art critics and artists such as Kim Yong-jun (1904-1967) and Sim Yöng-söp actively debated issues regarding the reconstruction of Korean national identity or the creation of a new artistic trend called “local color.” They warned against undue Japanese influence and urged painters to reflect the reality of Korea or to express Korean aesthetics in their works.“^ The art critics at this initial stage were mostly literary critics or artists themselves, like Sim, who were either strongly nationalistic or influenced by the ideology of proletarian art, which had begun to spread among literary circles around 1925.

It may be logical to argue that if such subject matter were really meant to be an expression of nationalism, it could not have survived strict Japanese censor­ ship. This would be the cause for the almost complete lack of representation of any resistance or challenge to colonialism in the paintings of this time. One must bear in mind that sentimentalism and scenes of folk life appealed to the tastes of Japanese judges at Choson mijön. In fact, Japanese painters who visited Korea were attracted by such subjects, as exemplifledby the paintings of Fujishima Takeji. He visited Korea in 1913, an experience that ultimately led to a turning point in his art and a search for Asian subjects—and to his return in 1924.'“' Art critic O Kwang- su has insisted that this genre of "local color” should be viewed as a deliberate effort on the part of the Japanese colonial government to encourage localism or exoticism and a clinging to the past in Korean art as a means of diverting artistic interest away from contemporary Korean reality.'*^

Avant-Garde Paintings In the 1930S, when most progressive painters followed in the footsteps of Realism, Impressionism, or Fauvism, there was nonetheless an experimental art that could be regarded as avant-garde. The term avant-garde originated from modernism in the West, and in the early phase of modernism in Japan it was used to designate the artists who denounced the established position and sought new forms of art. In Korea, avant-garde artists during the 1930s could be divided into two groups: those who were politically affiliated with an avant-garde ideology and those who practiced avant-garde pictorial forms. The politically avant-garde group was the KAPF (in Esperanto, Korea Artista Proletaria Federation), which was formed in 1925. The writers and artists who were members of KAPF worked with cartoons, printmaking, and stage productions. They organized an exhibition at Suwön in 1930, but the Japanese police confiscated 70 works out of the 130 on exhibit and closed the exhibition after three days. Yet their influence on Korean art was lim­ ited, and paintings that actually embody this ideology are scarce.'*^

Those who were avant-garde and were aligned to new developments in Euro-

Artistic Trends in Korean Painting

pean modernism were primarily artists who had been to Tokyo. While most Korean artists thought that being accepted at the public Salon was an honor, they preferred small group exhibitions or one-man shows. Ku Pon-ung (1906-1953) was such an artist, and he had a one-man exhibition in 1931 at the Dong-A libo Build­ ing. He was a hunchback, owing to a childhood accident, and therefore was often compared to Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec (1864-1901). Encouraged to become a painter by his family and by a teacher in high school, he first learned painting from Yi Chong-u (1899-1981), an artist who had studied at the Tokyo School of Fine Arts and in France, and exhibited at the Salon d Automne in the late i920S.''^ Ku was in Tokyo from 1928 to 1932, where he studied art at the Kawabata Gagakko (Kawabata Painting School) and aesthetics at Nihon University before entering the Pacific School of Fine Arts. In Japan he was able to show his works at exhibi­ tions of the Nikakai (Second Division Society) and 1930 Nen Kyokaiten (Year of 1930 Association), as well as those of the Dokuritsu Bijutsu Kyokai (Independent Art Association), which was a hotbed of Fauvism and École de Paris-style and quite influential to those like Ku who looked for free expression.“® Nude and Stìll Life, painted in 1937, shows that he knew the works of Saeki Yüzö (1898-1928) and Satomi Katsuzo (1895-1981), both of whom were key members of the 1930 Nen Kyokaiten and produced canvases of great spontaneity, lively surface texmre, and bold color. There were similarities between Ku’s work and those of the two Japa­ nese in the employment of downward perspective and the use of letters on the book cover. The subject matter of a nude and still life may have come from Henri

Matisse (1869-1954)- In Woman (Plate 54), 1935, Ku violently distorts form and, by using daubs of

primary colors, successfully conveys a sense of wild, primitive passion. The inten­ sity and the dramatic emotion exhibited in his painting made him probably the sole Korean exponent of Expressionism. The fece of the nude, which takes up most of the painting, invites the viewer closer to the picmre plane, allowing the viewer to relate intimately to the figure as the artist would have done. The rejection of the previous distance that lay between the pictorial surface representation and the viewer was often apparent among Fauvist and German Expressionist paintings. But it is more likely that the direct source would have come from Satomi, who had exhibited Expressionist paintings of nudes at the Nikaten and the 1930 Nen Kyokaiten. Another work. Portrait of a Friend (Plate 55), painted in 1935, portrays the poet Yi Sang (1910-1938), a close friend of Ku and twenty-six years old at the time. Yi was the most famous symbol of decadence in literary circles of the period. Being decadent was perhaps Yi’s own way of displaying disgust toward the dark­ ness of the period. Sporting a proletarian hat and pipe, the image of Yi is reminis­ cent of the painting of Le Pére Bouju by Maurice de Vlaminck (1876-1958) created in 1900-1901. Yi’s sneering smile expresses the despair of the intellectuals of this

time.“^ In the 1930S, Japan’s art world was entering into the so-called Yasui Sótarò

(1888-1955) / Umehara Ryüsaburö (1888-1986) period, reflecting an eclectic trend

YOUNGNA KIM

of Impressionism, Postimpressionism, and Fauvism, which was characterized by a use of decorative and sensuous color and simplified form.^o Japanese artists now tried to turn away firom imitating Western style and to establish Japanized West-

134 em-style painting. With almost eighty years of history, one may say that Japanese Western-style painting had reached maturity, and yet it should also be noted that it revealed rising nationalism within Japanese society. It might have been that the decorative and sensuous appeal of Impressionism or Fauvism was compatible with the tradition of Japanese art, whereas the cool intellectual and rational approach of geometric abstraction was not. Thus Cubism, which was first introduced in Japan as early as the 1910s, did not exert much influence. And even though geometric abstraction in the form of Constructivism was one of two mainstreams of Euro­ pean painting in the 1930s (the other was Surrealism), it was not experimented with widely until the mid-i930S, when artists like Hasegawa Saburo (1906-1957) and Murai Masanari (1905-) came back from Europe and organized (in 1937) the first exhibition of the Jiyü Bijutsuka Kyökai (Association of Free Artists). Among the participants in this show were several young Korean painters who would exhibit works until 1943.^*

In the 1930S, Korean artists knew about the Yasui-Umehara style but did not seem to be too much affected by it. Korean progressive artists were rather inter­ ested in abstract art, and around the mid-i93os, for the first time, a group of Korean artists emerged who pioneered in abstract painting. For Korean artists in Tokyo, it was difficult to make a name for themselves through such large-scale major art exhibitions as the Nikaten or Dokuritsu Bijutsu Kyokaiten or 1930 Nen Kyökaiten. Smaller-scale progressive artists’ organizations, such as the Jiyü Bijutsuka Kyökai and the Bijutsu Bunka Kyökai (Art and Culture Association, founded in 1939), were much more accessible to them. This was especially true of Korean students at the Bunka Gakuin (Culture Academy) in Tokyo, where their close relationship with teachers like Murai Masanari and Tsuda Seishû brought them into the artists’ circles.

Unfortunately, almost all of the works submitted by Korean artists to exhibi­ tions of the Jiyü Bijutsuka Kyökai are lost, and one can only guess about their styles ft-om a few photographs that were printed in art magazines of the period. Kim Hwan-gi (Kim Whanki, 1913-1974), who came to Tokyo in 1931 and first studied at a middle school before entering the Fine Arts Department of Nihon University, where he graduated in 1936, participated in the first exhibition. He was already experimenting with nonrepresentational painting as early as 1937 in a work enti- ded Aerial Beacon, and he later became one "of postcolonial Korea’s foremost abstract painters. In this painting, the rejection of traditional perspective and the search for dynamic relationships between geometric forms on a flat surface reminds us of works by Kasimir Malevich (1878-1935) or other Russian avant- garde painters. Even though Kim was working with abstract elements of form and line, his characteristic lyricism surfaces in such works as the White Swan of 1938 or the Window (Plate 56) of 1940, where he fills his canvases with forms suggestive

Artistic Trends in Korean Painting

of those in nature. He had also attended, together with art students Kil Chin-sop (1907-) and Kim Byong-gi (1916-), the Avant-Garde Yöga Kenkyösho (Avant- Garde Studio for Western-Style Painting), which was briefly run by Fujita Tsuguji (1886-1968) and Tögö Seiji (1897-1978) in 1933 and where they could hear bits and pieces about the art scene in Paris.^^ Another pioneering abstract painter was Yu Yong-Kuk (1916-), who studied at the Culture Academy from 1935 to 1938. Com­ pared to Kim Hwan-gi, Yu was more adventurous in his use of materials and exper­ imented with collage, wood relief, and photographic works (Plate 57). It is clear that he was working in the realm of Mondrian’s Neo-Plasticism or Constructiv­ ism. Yu participated in avant-garde group exhibitions until 1942 and left for Korea in 1943-

When the Jiyü Bijutsuka Kyökai held an exhibition in Seoul in 1940, the reac­ tion of the public to abstract painting was a mixed one. On the one hand, articles appeared in newspapers explaining what abstract art was. On the other hand, landscape artists like O Chi-ho denounced abstract art as nothing but an excessive formalism that ignored the reality of the Korean people.Since no visible changes occurred in art circles following the exhibition, one can surmise that Korean artists were not ready to accept this new trend.

Among the Korean artists accepted for exhibitions of the Jiyü Bijutsuka Kyö­ kai were several who did not follow modernism but tried to exploit uniquely Korean themes and styles. Mun Hak-su (1916-1988), also from the Culture Acad­ emy, was such an artist, and his works were much praised by Japanese critics.^“’ He even became a member of Jiyü Bijutsuka Kyökai, which was an exceptional honor for a Korean artist. Unfortunately, no painting by him is preserved in South Korea, since he lived in Pyongyang and remained there after the Korean War. Kim Byong- gi, a close friend of Mun, testified that Mun admired Eugène Delacroix (1798-1863), and like Delacroix he often took Uterary themes as subject matter for his paint­ ings.” A good example of this is the Conviction of Chun-hyang (Plate 58), 1940» which one can see only from a photograph and is based on a famous Korean love story. Judging from photographs and the testimony of Kim Byong-gi, he con­ sciously used such motifs as a horse or cow, a little boy or girl in Korean dress, or a Korean farmhouse to evoke a sense of the Korean landscape. Korean artists con­ tinued to show their works at the Jiyü Bijutsuka Kyökai and its wartime successor organization until 1943, when they seem to have been forced to return to Korea.

Eastern-Style Painting Traditional Korean ink painting also underwent transformation during the 1920s and 1930S as a result of indirect contact with modem Western art. Perhaps the most symbolic change was that painting with calligraphy, or söhwa (the traditional term) was now officially designated as tongyang-hwa (töyöga in Japanese), or Eastern-style painting, at the Choson mijon. It has already been pointed out that the Choson mijon was meant to be the counterpart of the Teiten of Japan, which in 1922 was

YOUNGNA KIM

divided into three sections: Westem-styie painting, Japanese-style painting or nihonga, and sculpture. The Choson mijon system followed the Teiten closely.^^ However, instead of using the term ''nihonga," the Japanese authorities in Korea

136 established a section called tongyang-hwa. The name has survived until today in spite of arguments that it is a remnant of Japanese colonial rule and should be changed to han’guk-hwa, or Korean-style painting.^^

Perhaps the most popular subject matter of Eastern-style ink painting was landscapes. Landscape painting in traditional ink had a long tradition from the Choson dynasty. But even before the 1930s, the young generation, headed by Yi Sang-bom (1897-1972), No Su-hyon (1899-1978), Yi Yong-u (1902-1953), and Pyon Kwan-sik (1899-1976), felt the need to adopt a new spirit and turned away from the practice of endlessly imitating the old masters. In 1923, they organized a group called Dong Yon Sa (Society for Studying Together) and began to produce ink paintings that reflected the realism evident in Western art, often taking as subject matter scenes from daily life. The interest in realism must have come from the practice of Western-style painters and the writers of the time who were influ­ enced by realism. Instead of employing the traditional practice of muitiperspec- tives in one picture plane, they used one-point perspective or atmospheric per­ spective, thus creating a sense of open space as if viewed through a window. Also, they created light and dark contrasts and three-dimensional volumes with these techniques.

Yi Sang-bom is perhaps the most representative artist of this group.^® Edu­ cated at the Sohwa Misulwon in the 1910s, he adhered to traditional brush tech­ niques but sought a more individualistic path. He painted with short texture strokes to express desolate fields or rolling hills and mountains with isolated farm­ ers at work, all based on direct observation. His paintings are successful repre­ sentations of the calm and poetic atmosphere of the unspoiled country, as in Early Winter of 1925 (Plate 59).

Whereas Yi Sang-bom and his group preferred landscapes in traditional ink brush, reminiscent of the Choson dynasty, the most important genre was figure painting in color, and here a definite influence from nihonga is perceived. The most influential painter of figures was Kim Ün-ho (1892-1979).^^ His talent in this area was already noted as early as his twenty-third year in 1915, when he was asked to paint a royal portrait of Sunjong, the last Korean king. He was especially skilled in using detailed and minute strokes and delicate colors. He later went to Tokyo in 1925 and studied privately with Yûki Somei (1875-1957) at his studio for three years, thereby thorou^y learning the techniques of nihonga. Although there was a long tradition of figure painting in Korea, Kim’s concept of figurai depiction was closer to nihonga in terms of color, composition, and detailing. This is espe­ cially evident in the painting of A Solitary Player, 1927 (Plate 60). He trained many students who carried on his style and formed a mainstream tradition of figure paintings at the Choson mijon in the 1930s. Ko Hui-dong, previously mentioned as Korea’s first Western-style painter but now having changed his medium to tra-

Artistic Trends in Korean Painting

ditional ink painting, was critical of this Japanized taste. In 1930 he said: “Our East Asian painting is in serious condition. Before even growing out of the Tang Dynasty [618-906 c.e.] style, many paintings have become imitations of nihonga. I am not saying that learning nihonga is bad, but one must create one’s own style after digesting nihonga."

Yi Sang-bom, Kim Ün-ho, and a third ink artist, Ho Paek-ryon (1891-1979), were three leading figures of the 1930s art community of Eastern-style painting. All three of them operated private art studios and trained a younger generation of future ink artists. However, Ho, the most conservative of the three, stayed mostly in Cholla Province, and his influence was thus limited. It is really Yi Sang-bom and Kim Ün-ho who formed the two mainstream traditions of figure painting and landscape painting in traditional ink in the 1930s.

Japanese Militarism and Its Effect on the Korean Art World

The emergence ofjapanese militarism in the late 1930s accelerated forced assimila­ tion and brou^t about significant restraints on cultural activities within Korea. In 1938, Japanese became the national language, and in December 1939, all Koreans were ordered to select and register Japanese names. In 1940, Korean newspapers such as Dong-a libo and Choson Ubo were closed. In 1943, the draft system was estab­ lished for Korea, and students were forced to take military drill. This also applied to Korean students abroad in Japan. Kim Hüng-su recalls that as a student at the Tokyo School of Fine Arts in 1940 he was forced to attend military drills and was pressured to enlist in the volvmteer student army.*'

The Japanese government recruited the better-known artists in Japan to paint the “holy war,” and there was also pressure upon artists in Korea—especially those who had become famous through the Choson mijon—to produce paintings glori­ fying the empire’s war effort. Tankwang Hoe (Red Sunlight Association) was an organization that was founded for such purposes.^^ ¡jg nineteen members, includ­ ing Korean painters Kim In-sung, Sim Hyong-ku (1908-1962), Park Yong-son (1910-1994), Son Üng-sóng (1916-1979), and resident Japanese painters Yamada Shin’ichi, Sakurada Shoichi, and Takahashi Takeshi, coproduced in 1943 the docu­ mentary oil painting entitled Memorial Painting of the Draft System in Korea. There were such military art exhibitions as the Songjon Misuljon (Exhibition of the Holy War) in 1940; the Pando Chonghu Misuljon (Exhibition of the Peninsular Rear Area), which was sponsored by the Department of Information of the Colonial Government and held three times (1943-1945); and the Kwaejon Misuljon (Exhi­ bition of the Glorious War) in 1944.

Although war paintings produced by Japanese painters were never shown in Korea, there was a plan for such an exhibition as revealed by former resident Jap­ anese painter Yamada Shin’ichi. On August 8,1998, the Mainigli shimbun reported that Yamada’s disclosure was made public several years before his death. He tes­ tified that in August 1945, while serving as a squad leader for war art at the army’s

YOUNGNA KIM

public affairs bureau, he received crates containing sixty-four works of war paint- ings by Japanese artists at the Kyongsong train station. However, with Japan’s sur­ render to the United States on August 15, Yamada was repatriated to Japan, leav-

138 ing the war paintings in the hands of Korean friends. In June of 1946, with the permission of General Douglas MacArthur, he returned to Korea accompanied by an American officer to reclaim them and send them back to Japan.

There were two different objectives to the exhibitions. One was to propel peo­ ple on the home front to engage in efforts toward victory, and another was to raise funds through sales of the paintings to support the military. Surviving photo­ graphic reproductions of such works include Kim Ün-ho’s 1937 ink painting. Dona­ tion of Gold Jewelry, and Sim Hyong-ku’s oil painting, We Guard Asia (Plate 61). Sim also published an article in the October 1941 issue of Shin Sidae (New Period) enti­ tled “The State of Things and Art,” in which he wrote that artists should not adhere to the dogma of art for art’s sake but rather respond to the nation in need and produce art that serves the nation.

Such pro-Japanese art production began to be reviewed critically, especially since the publication of the 1983 spring issue of Kegan Misul (Quarterly Art, which has subsequently converted to Wòlgan Misul or Monthly Art). In this issue, about forty artists, including practically every artist who was more or less successful dur­ ing the colonial period, were criticized by name as having been pro-Japanese, and this caused a furor within the art world. In the 1990s more articles appeared on pro-Japanese artists, once again stirring up controversy.*^^ It is still not quite clear who had or had not been actively involved and whether or not collaboration would have been something that was unavoidable under the circumstances at the time. The issue of pro-Japanese activities in the Korean art world is still an unre­ solved problem.

Conclusion

The decade of the 1930s was in a sense a short heyday for modem Korean art, despite the lack of public understanding and the hardships of the colonial period. During this time, artists continued what the previous generation had achieved and tried to go beyond it. Althougji there were no formal art education institutions at home, artists returned to Korea after studying in Japan to teach student artists, and gradually art education in Korea achieved a firm grounding. Also, whereas it was formerly the custom for art lovers to see priyately only a few paintings at a collector’s home or artist’s studio, the new institution of public art exhibition assembled a large number of artworks at one site. This provided the public with a modem form of experiencing art. By the 1930s, most of die modem art of the West had been introduced to Korea, and the population of the art community had also increased substantially. The art produced in Korea went beyond simple technical mimicry and acquired diverse expressive styles and understanding of many aes­ thetic concepts.

Artistic Trends in Korean Painting

It is undeniable that Japanese influence is deeply rooted in the background of modem painting in Korea. Within the process of modernization, the assimilation of new, modem culture did not come directly from the West but was filtered through Japan. Particularly in regard to the new genre of Western-style painting, there was no opportunity to experience Western works firsthand, and there was little information available about the ideas behind that art. Under such circum­ stances it would have been difficult for artists to distinguish modem Japanese art from modem European art. Unlike Japan, Korea in the 1930s did not have the infra- stmcture of art historians and aestheticians to lay down the theoretical ground­ work,^'* and not a single book on Western art was written in Korean or translated into the language, so that Korean artists were obliged to read books and catalogues from Japan. These are some of the causes of the superficial nature of Korean art at the time.

Korean artists, however, were not overwhelmed by Japanese contemporary activities. It is tme that they considered Japan as a channel for learning modem culture; yet there were efforts within the Korean art world to work toward acquir­ ing a national identity in Korean art in the 1930s. This is evident in the group affil­ iated with Yi Sang-bom, who continued his stubborn pursuit of monochrome ink painting, or in the search for Korean color and sentiment by oil painters affiliated with the Group for a Green Country (Nok Hyang Hoe), or in the Korean themes produced by Mun Hak-su, all of which were part of the nationalist effort. Never­ theless, there were no paintings that represented the anguish of the nation and its people under colonialism. Though it is generally acknowledged that there were fewer artists than literary figures at this time and that art typically develops more slowly than literature, the Korean art world did not produce any painters compa­ rable to such dissident literary figures as Yi Yuk-sa (1904-1944) or Yun Tong-ju (1917-1945), whose symbolic poems for the independence of Korea brought their deaths in prison. This would have been due in part to Japanese surveillance, but another reason was that the major artists of the 1930s, intent on taking up West­ ern modernism, were more caught up with this new art form and its formal styl­ istic aspects than in social or political issues. After Korean’s independence in 1945, there was a movement in Korean circles to purge traces ofjapanese influence, and this was especially strong among Korean ink painters. Thus Kim Ün-ho’s style was criticized, and his followers were unable to exhibit in the new official National Art Exhibition in Seoul, called Kukjon, which began to replace the Choson mijon from 1949 on.**^

The liberation of Korea from Japanese mie in August 1945 brought rejoicing and hope to Koreans. But this joy was short-lived as the nation faced serious polit­ ical and social confusion. Postcolonial Korea was divided into North and South under the competing occupation forces of the United States and the Soviet Union. The Korean War broke out in June 1950 when the North suddenly attacked the South, and the ensuing battles almost destroyed the whole country. When the armistice was finally signed in 1953, the country was permanently divided along a

139

TOUNGNA KIM

140

newly set demilitarized zone. It was not until the late 1950s that South Korea was able to resume normal cultural activities.^^

During the war, artists who had lived in the North came down South in droves to find freedom, while about forty to fifty artists went to the North voluntarily or in some cases forcibly. The circumstances are varied or uncertain for each person To name a few well-known artists who went to the North, in traditional ink paint­ ing they include Yi Sok-ho (1904-1971) and Chong Chong-yo (1914-1984); in West­ ern-style painting, Pae Un-song (1900-1978), Kim Chu-gyong, Kil Chin-sop, Kim Man-hyong (1916-?), Yi Kwae-dae, Im Kun-hong, Kim Yong-jun, and female artist Chong On-nyo (1920-). Among the sculptors were Cho Kyu-bong (1916-?), Kim Chong-su (ca. 1920-?), and Yi Kuk-jon (1914-?)- In the cases of Kim Chu-gyong, Cho Kyu-bong, and Kim Chong-su, they went North in 1945 before the outbreak of the Korean War and helped to establish the Pyongyang Art College, with Kim Chu-gyong being appointed as director.^^ while little information is available about their further activities after the 1960s, Chong On-nyo apparently continued to be active and honored as was Mun Hak-su, who had lived in the North before the Korean War and died there in 1988.

Those who were active during the 1930s continued their work after the Korean War and became the leading force in the development of a distinctive modem Korean art. Especially after 1946, the ones who were capable of teaching at art col­ leges were those who had studied in Japan, and the majority of the artists trained in Japan were employed as art professors. They taught students according to the art education that they themselves had received and, therefore, despite the anti- Japanese sentiments of the postwar years, Japanese influences still prevailed in the 1950s and 1960s and Korean artists continued to exhibit in Tokyo.

The next generation of avant-garde painters in South Korea emerged in the years around 1957. They demanded reform of the Kukjön, which they considered to be a hotbed of Academicism and too authoritative. This second generation of avant-garde artists was different from the previous one in several respects. They were bom during the 1930s, wimessed Korean independence in their teens, and experienced the cataclysm of the Korean War or fought actively on the war front. Most of them were graduates of art colleges that were founded after 1946, and their cultural models were no longer Japan but Europe and America. They denounced Academic realism as being insufficient for the expression of their despair and the spirit of revolt. L’Informel, or Abstract Expressionism, became the newest artistic movement for them. The influence of this postcglonial generation was far-reach­ ing, and the number of modem artists increased at an astounding rate. Contem­ porary Korean art today is still undergoing transformation. On the one hand, there is an ongoing tendency to preserve Korean culture and the spirimal heritage, while on the other hand, there are attempts to get closer to the spirit of free experimen­ tation and to keep abreast of international art developments.

Artistic Trends in Korean Painting

Notes 1. For changes in the Korean economy, culture, and education under Japanese colonial

rule, see Andrew C. Nahm, Korea: Tradition and Transformation, 2nd ed. (Seoul; HoUym, 1996) , 223-260; Peter Duus assesses Japan’s initial motivation and goals in The Abacus and the Sword: The Japanese Penetration of Korea, 1894-1910 (Berkeley: University of California

Press, 1995)- 2. No Tae-don, No Myong-ho, Han Yong-u, Kwon Tae-ök, and So Chimg-sok, Simi-

nul wihan han’guk yöksa (A Korean History for Citizens), (Seoul: Changjakkwa Pipyong, 1997) , 359-360. The Japanese colonial government, which first began ruling Korea under a harsh gendarmerie police system, shifted toward a more enlightened administration after the March First Movement in 1919 and proclaimed less severe regulations on educa­ tion and the press. But the misnamed "cultural policy” of the 1920s remained superficial. In policy changes after the Manchurian Incident in 1931. a Rural Revival Movement was initiated with the aim of maximizing productivity in Korea to fight economic depression and support military aims. Investment was concentrated on developing such heavy indus­ tries as the Choson Hydroelectric Power Company and the Choson Nitrogenous Fertil­ izer Company and encouraging the mining of minerals. See Yi Ki-baek (Ki-baik Lee), Han'guksa sinron (A New History of Korea) (Seoul: Ilchokak, 1990), 440; in English trans­ lation, 1976 revised text, A New History of Korea (Harvard University Press, 1984). 350-358; also Michael Robinson, chaplcrs 16-17 in Carter J. Eckert et al. (eds.), Korea, Old and New, A History (Seoul; Ilchokak, 1990), 276-326.

3. Han Yong-u, Tashi channun uri yöksa (A New Searching for Our History) (Seoul: Kyongse-won, 1997). 503-

4. Yi Ki-baek, A New History of Korea, 368. 5. Yi Ku-yöl, Kúndae han’guk misulsa yon’gu (A Study of the Modem History of Art in

Korea) (Seoul: Mijin-sa, 1992), 422-423. For Saito’s reforms, see Michael E. Robinson, Cul­ tural Nationalism in Colonial Korea, 1920-25 (Seattle: University of Washington Press, 1988)

44-46. 6. The first Korean artist to attempt oil painting was Ko Hùi-dong (1889-1965). While

working as a clerk in the Korean royal court (1904-1905), Ko had a chance to observe sketches of Rémion (first name is not known), a French ceramic artist who had been invited to the court. Impressed by the new methods of representation. Ko decided to go to Tokyo to study oil painting and was admitted to the Tokyo School of Fine Arts in 1909. Ko, however, did not decide to go to Tokyo out of a sheer desire to become an oil painter. He was fhistrated by Korea’s political situation and the direction in which the country was heading and decided to indulge in the freer world of painting and a freer artistic life . Ko Hùi-dong, “Nawa Sohwa Hyophoe sidae (Me and the Period of Sohwa Hyophoe), Shinchonji (The New World) (February 1954). 181. Also see Youngna Kim (Kim Yong-na), "Modem Korean Painting and Sculpture,” in John Clark (ed.). Modernity in Asian Art (Syd­ ney; Wild Peony, 1993). I55-

7. For collaboration of artists, see Yi Tae-ho, "1940 nyöndae choban chin il misul ûi kun’guk chu'uijok kyönghyangsöng” (The Militaristic Tendency of Pro-Japanese Art in the Early 1940s), in Kundae han’guk misul nonchong (Papers in Modem Korean Art), 320—360. An eminent scholar of the Korean Constitution, Yu Chin-o became president of Korea University in 1952 and was elected as a congressman and leader of the Sin Ming Dang (New Democratic Party) in 1967. For Yi Kwang-su’s role as a collaborator, see

141

TOUNGNA KIM

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Grant S. Lee, "A Philosophical Appraisal of Yi Kwang-su: Man and Writer,” Korea Journal 17:1 (January 1977), 48-52.

8. Most of the surveys of Korean early modem art were written in the 1970s and 1980s by such art critics as Yi Kyong-song, now in his eighties, and Yi Ku-yol and O Kwang-su, now in their sixties. Since the last decade, a younger generation presently in their early fifties, such as critic Yun Pom-mo, art historians Hong Son-pyo and Kim Yong-na, and even some fi:om the newer generation, has published a number of related papers. They have together uncovered various records of artworks in private collections and articles in newspapers and publications. The most pressing problems in reconstructing early mod­ em Korean art are locating and authenticating works of art and verifying details of artists' lives.

9. Especially important was the 1991 exhibition of Yi Kwae-dae (1913-?), a graduate of Teikoku Bijutsu Gakko (Imperial School of Fine Arts), Tokyo, and an artist of leftist ide­ ology who was in a prisoner of war camp at Kojedo during the Korean War and again chose the North during an exchange of prisoners in 1953. He is believed to have been active in North Korea until the late 1950s. This first showing of several of his multifigured compositions left a deep impression on viewers and critics. See Wölhuk chakka Yi Kwae-dae chon (The Exhibition of Yi Kwae-dae, An Artist Who Went to the North), Exhibition Cat­ alogue, Shinsege Misulkwan (Museum of Shinsege), 1991.10.8-10.27.

10. For a survey of Korean art education during the colonial period, see Kim Chong, "Han’guk misul kyo'yuk-ui kinúng chönsu-mit kyosöp pyönchön-sa” (A Study of the Transmission of the Fimction and History of Teaching Methods of Korean Art Education), in Kûndae han’guk misul nonchong (Papers on Modem Korean Art) (Seoul: Hakkoje, 1992), 127-155, a collection of essays celebrating the sixtieth birthday of Yi Ku-yol.

11. Yi Ku-yöl in addition mentions nihonga artists Sakuma Tetsu’en, Kubota Ten’nan, Fukui Komi, and Fujino Seiki, all of whom either visited or stayed in Seoul before 1910 (dates of these artists are unknown); see Kûndae han’guk misulsa ui yöksa, 169-183; also Choi YÖI, Han’guk kûndae misul ûi yöksa (History of Korean Modem Art) (Seoul: Yolhwa- dang, 1998), 114-115.

12. Yi Kyong-song, Sok kûndae han’guk misulga nongo (A Sequel to Essays on Modem Korean Artists) (Seoul: Ilchi-sa, 1989). 33-

13. Yi Chung-hi, “Choson misul chollamhoe changsol-e daehayo” (About the Estab­ lishment of the Choson Art Exhibition), in Han’guk kûndae misulsahak (History of Korean Modem Art) 3 (1996), 104-120.

14. Hiyoshi Mamona, "Chosen bijutsukai no kaiko” (Recollections of the Art World in Korea), in Wada Yayoe and Fujihara Kizû (eds.), Chosen no Kaiko (Recollections of Korea) (Seoul: Konozawa Shoten, i945).

15. This information came ft'om an interview with painter Yi Dae-wön, August 4, 1998. See also biographical details for twenty painters in one of the rare sources on mod­ em Korean art to appear in English, Modem Korean Painting (Seoul: Korean National Com­ mission for UNESCO, 1971), especially the section on Yu Yong-guk (Yu Yong-kuk), 76-77- Dates for many of the resident Japanese art teachers are as yet unknown.

16. Yi Dae-won, who is now president of Korea's National Academy of Arts, recalls that Sato talked about Picasso and Matisse during classes and that it was Sato’s influence that made him decide to become an artist. Sato, a graduate of the Tokyo School of Fine Arts, was a friend of well-known painter Saeki Yùzó (1898-1929) and participated in the Dokuritsu Bijutsu Kyokai (Independent Art Association) exhibitions in Tol^o in the 1930s.

Artistk Trends in Korean Painting

17. For modem Korean sculpture, see Kim Youngna, “Modem, after 1910” in the sec­ tion “Korea III: Sculpture,” in The Dictionary of Art (New York: Grove, 1996), voi. 18, 300-302. Several brief memoirs by these students tell in general what kind of education they received or provide information about fellow Korean students, but they say little about how they felt toward Japanese professors. See Kim Hung-su (Kim Soo), “Chönsiha- ui yuhak saenghwal; ku ümjiwa yangji” (Student Life under War: Its Shadowy and Sunny Part), and Kim Kyong-sung, "Kundae chogak-ùi cheil sedae yöttön tongmundül” (Alumni of the First Generation of Modem Korean Sculptors), Wölgan Misul (September 1989). 60-63; also Kim Pok-jin, “Chogak saenghwal 20 nyon’gi” (Twenty Years of Life as a Sculp­ tor), Chokwang (Morning Light), (June 1940), 3-io-

18. Hwangsöng-Shinmum (Hwangsong Newspaper), July 22,1910, noted that Ko Hui- dong was sent to Japan by the Japanese vice-minister of the Department of the Royal Household, who had been impressed by the outstanding draftsmanship of the young artist. It should be noted that after the establishment of the Protectorate in 1905, all of the posi­ tions of vice-minister in the Choson dynasty cabinet were filled by Japanese. Also, the sec­ ond known Western-style painter to go to Japan, Kim Kwan-ho (1840-1959), received a scholarship from the newly established Korean government-general (Sotokufu). See Yi Ku-yöl, “Yanghwa chöngchak-ui paekyóng kwa kü kaechökjadül” (The Background of Western-Style Painting and Its Pioneers), in Han’guk kûndae hoehwa sonjip (Selection of Modem Korean Paintings), voi. i (Seoul: Kumsöng Chulpan-sa, 1990), 97.

19. Tokyo Bijutsu Gakko Ichiran, Taùho ij-16 (Bulletin of the Tokyo School of Fine Arts, Taishö 15-16), 68-69.

20. Yamanashi Emiko, "Kuroda Seiki to Tokyo Bijutsu Gakko no yoga kyoiku” (Kuroda Seiki and Education in Western-Style Painting at the Tokyo School of Fine Arts), Misubahak (Art History) 9 (i995). 101-121.

21. For the activities of Korean art students in Tokyo during the 1930s, see Kim Yong- na, “1930 nyondae tongyÖng yuhaksaengdul: Chonwi kump-chon-ui hwaldong úl chung- shimuro” (Koreans Studying in Tokyo in the 1930s, Based on the Activities of Avant- Garde Group Exhibitions), in Kûndae han’guk misul nonchong (Papers in Modem Korean

Art), 273-319- 22. This March First Movement in 1919 was the first and most significant nationwide

independence movement against Japanese rule by Koreans. 23. For Chosön Art Exhibition, see Chöng Ho-Jin, "Chosön misul chollamhoe chedo-

e kwanhan yön’gu” (A Study of the Systems of the Choson Art Exhibition), Mbubahak Ydn’gu (Korean Journal of Art History) 205 (March 1995), 21-48.

24. The state art Salon of Japan started with the Bunten (Exhibition of the Ministry of Education) in 1907, renamed Teiten (Exhibition of the Imperial Art Academy) in 1917 when the sponsor was changed to the Imperial Art Academy. From 1935 to i943i ft was again renamed Shin Bunten (or New Bunten) and sponsored by the Ministry of Educa­ tion. See essays by Ellen P. Conant and J. Thomas Rimer on Bunten and Teiten in Conant (ed.), Niliongfl, Transcending the Past: Japanese-Style Painting, 1868-1968, (St. Louis: St. Louis Art Museum, 1995). 36-56.

25. Due to the increasing number of participating artists, the qualification was changed in 1935 to three years of residence in Korea. For mies of the Choson mijon, see Chong Ho-jin, "Chosön misul chöUamhoe," 21-48.

26. Dong-a Ubo (East Asia Daily Newspaper), April 5,1922. 27. Chöng Ho-jin, "Chosön misul chollamhoe chedo-e kwanhan yön’gu,” 34-35-

YOUNGNA KIM

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28. Yi chung-hi, “Choson mijon sollip chon’ya ui misulge tonghyang” (Trends on the Eve of the Establishment of the Choson Art Exhibition), Han'guk kündae misulsahak (His­ tory of Korean Modem Art) 3 (1996), 93-146.

29. For names of the judges from the fifth Choson mijon, see Choson misul chollamhoe torok (Catalogues of the Choson Art Exhibitions), 1-19, 1922-1940, (Seoul: Choson Sajin Tongshin-sa). Names of judges were also published in the newspapers. Initially there were several Korean judges for the calligraphy section, but only two Korean judges, Yi Do-yong (1884-1933) and So Bong-o (1862-1935), for Eastern-style painting from the first to sixth exhibitions. After 1927, all of the judges for Eastern- as well as Western-style painting were Japanese. See Chong Ho-jin, “Choson misul chollamhoe chedo-e kwanhan yon’gu,” 37.

30. The parent organization was the Sohwa Hyophoe (Society of Calligraphy and Painting), founded in 1918. See Youngna Kim, “Modem Korean Painting and Sculpture,” 157-

31. One of the reasons for this was that the Choson mijon adopted the prize system, whereas the Hyopjon was merely a group exhibition based on friendship. For the Hyop- jon, see O Kwang-su, Han'guk hyöndae misulsa (History of Korean Modem Art), revised edition (Seoul: Yolhwa-dang, 1995), 34-37.

32. Chosön misul chollanhoe torok (Exhibition Catalogues of the Choson Art Exhibition) (Seoul: Choson Sajin Tongshin-sa, 1922-1940), voi. ii (1932).

33. Black and white plates of aU of the selected works were printed in the exhibition catalogues, 1922-1940. However, catalogues were not published during the war years (1941-1944)-

34. Kim Mi-ra, 1920-30 nyöndae han'guk yanghwa tanche-uiyon'gu (A Study of the Group Activities of Korean Western-Style Painters in the 1920S-30S), M.A. thesis for Ehwa Wom­ ens’ University, 1996.

35. Even in the 1960s, the late president Park Chung Hee (1917-1979) chose a bull as the symbol of the Republican Party. As another sign of the appeal of this animal to the Korean people, Chöngju-yöng, president of the Hyundai business group, announced that he would send a thousand bulls and cows to North Korea in 1998.

36. Yamanashi Emiko, “Kuroda Seiki to Tokyo Bijutsu Gakkö,” 106. 37. Kim Yong-na (Kim Youngna), "Kankoku no kindai bijutsu ni okem ratai” (The

Nude in Modem Korean Painting), in Hito no katachi, hito no karada (Human Form, Human Body), Tokyo National Research Instimte of Cultural Properties, ed. (Tokyo; Hei- bonsha, 1994), 305-319. For a revised version by the author in Korean, see “Han’guk kun- dae ùi nudùhwa,” in Kim Yong-na, frsip segi Hi Han'guk misul (Art of Twentieth-Century Korea) (Seoul: Yekyong, 1998). 115-142.

38. For ordinary Korean women in the first half of the twentieth century, it was xmthinkable to pose nude in front of male artists. It was not until the 1950s that professional models became common in artists’ studios. See Yi ku-yol, “Han’guk-ui kündae misul 60 nyon” (Sixty Years of Modem Korean Art) (Seoul: Ül)m Munhwa-sa, 1972), 182-203.

39. Kim and other painters, such as Yi In-söng and Sim Hyong-gu, were stars of the Chosön mijön, winning special prizes several times and becoming “Select Artists.” From 1936, under the new system. Select Artists could assist the judges at the Chosön mijön, which meant they could influence the vote of visiting Japanese judges who knew little of

Korean art activities. 40. Kim Yun-su, Han'guk hyöndae hoehwasa (A History of Contemporary Korean Paint­

ing) (Seoul: Han’guk Ilbo-sa, 1975), 122-158.

Artistic Trends in Korean Painting

41. Yi Kyöng-söng, “Yi In-song ui saeng-e wa misul” (Yi In-söng’s Life and Art), in Yi In-song Chakpumjip (The Works ofYi In-song) (Seoul; Han’guk misulchulpan-sa, 1972), 81.

42. Yi Kyöng-söng, "Kündaejök kamgakju’ùi” (Aestheticism in the Modem Sense), in Han’guk hyöndae misul chonjip (Complete Works of Korean Modem Art), voi. 15 (Seoul;

Han’guk Übo-sa, 1978), 88. 43. Yu Hong-jun, “Han’guk kyöndae hoehwasa ùi chöntong kwa changjo” (Tradition

and Creation in Korean Contemporary Painting), Misubahak 5 (1991), 25-35. 44. Kagesato Tetsuro, “Töyöteki Tenkeibi no Sozö” (Imagining Typical Asiatic

Beauty), in Art Gallery Japan 20 seiki Nihon no Bijutsu 11: Kuroda Seiki, Fujishima Takeji (Art Gallery Japan Twentieth Century Japan’s Art ii), (Tokyo: Nihon Art Center), 1987, 83. Also Fujishima Takeji, Gäjutsu no esupuri (The Spirit of Art) (Tokyo: Chüö Koron Shuppan, 1982), 247-251. Here Fujishima wrote that Korea—a peninsula with a long history and dis­ tinguished tradition, clear weather, and interesting people’s costumes—reminded him of

Italy. 45. O Kwang-su, Han'guk hyöndae mbuba, 70-71- 46. Only a few photographs of prints and paintings expressing leftist ideals or depict­

ing the proletariat have survived. 47. For Yi Chong-u, see Yi II (Lee Yil), “The Influence of French Art on Korean Art—

What Is French and What Is Korean,” Korea Journal 24:6 (June 1987). 46-47- 48. Nikakai was formed in 1914 by artists who believed that the standards applied to

artworks at the official exhibitions were too rigid and lacked sufficient understanding of progressive art. They exhibited at Ueno in the fall to coincide with the official exhibition and became the center of alternative art practices against the establishment. During the 1930S, however, even Nikakai lost its vitality and was bypassed by many art groups that sprang up randomly. The 1930 Nen Kyokai was foimded in 1926; the Dokuritsu Bijutsu

Kyokai in 1930. 49. For a recent assessment of Yi Sang and his poems, which were published primar­

ily in Japanese, see M. J. Rhee, “Border Writing: Yi Sang and Colonial Korea,” in The Doomed Empire: Japan in Colonial Korea (Brookfield, VT: Ashcraft, 1997)-

50. See Michiaki Kawakita (Kawakita Michiaki), Modem Currents in Japanese Art, trans, by Charles S. Terry (New York: Weatherhill, 1974), 108-115-

51. The Jiyu Bijutsuka Kyökai was forced to change its name in 1941 to Bijutsu Sosa- kuka Kyokai (Creative Artists Association) but continued to hold exhibits imtil i944- See Kim Youngna, "1930 nyöndae tongkyöng yuhakseng dül: chönwi group chön ùl chung- simùro” (Korean Avant-Garde Artists in Tokyo in the 1930s), i73-3i9-

52. Kim Byông-gi, “1930 nyöndae tongkyöng yuhaksaeng kwa avant-garde” (Koreans Studying in Tokyo in the 1930s and Avant-Garde), Kana Art (publication of Kana Art Gallery, Seoul), 7:8 (1994), 170-177. See also Nagoya Municipal Museum, Nikon no Surre­ alism, I92J-1943 (Japan’s Surrealism, 1925-1945). Exhibition Catalogue (1990), 56.

53. O Chi-ho, Yiin Hwajip (Two-Man Painting Catalogue) (Kyöngsöng [Seoul]: Hang-

söng Dosö, 1938), IO. 54. Takiguchi Shüzö singled out “a landscape with a horse and human figure in our

Eastern kind of style___I hope he can continue to develop,” Atelier (July 1938). Hasegawa Saburö said, “The works by Mun-Hak-su are the best in this exhibition. The judges selected him unanimously as a member” (Bi no kuni [The County of Beauty] [July 1938],

24).

YOUNGNA KIM

146

55. Kim Byong-gi now resides in New York State. An interview with the author took place on March i, 1992.

56. The Choson mijon system changed over the years. When it started, there were three sections: Eastern-style painting, Western-style painting, and calligraphy. In 1925 sculpture was added to the Western painting section, and in 1932 calligraphy was replaced by crafts, to which sculpture was added in 1935.

5 7. For instance, writer Yi Kwang-su claimed very early that traditional Chosön paint­ ing lacked variety of subject matter and modem artists should depict scenes of contem­ porary life and culture (Mae-il Shinbo, October 31 and November 2,1916). O Kwang-su has recently addressed the problem of terminology and special characteristics in defining a Korean painting in “Trends in Korean Painting,” Koream 10:3 (Autumn 1996), 62-69.

58. For a recent monograph on Yi Sang-bom, see Yi Sang-hom, essays by Hong Son- Pyo, and Yi Sông-mi (Seoul; Samsimg Cultural Foundation, i997)- An older source in Eng­ lish is O Kwang-su, “Posthumous Exhibition of Yi Sang-bom’s Works,” Korea Journal 13:1 (January 1973), 50-54-

59. The latest source is I Tang Kim Ün-ho, Exhibition Catalogue (Seoul: Ho-am Art Galley, 1992).

60. Dong-A libo, October 9,1930. Pyön Kwan-sik, a student for five years at the private studio of Komuro Suiun, is another example of a landscape artist who learned nihonga styles from a master in Tokyo and who represents the Japanization of traditional Korean ink painting in the 1930s. See O Kwang-su, "The World of Pyon Kwan-sik,” Korea Journal 9:5 (May 1969), 27-28: also, UNESCO, Modem Korean Painting, 50-51-

61. “Chonsiha-ui yuhak saenghwal,” 62-63. 62. Choi YÔI, Han'guk kundai misul ui yoksa, 522. 63. See Yi Tae-ho, “1940 nyondae choban chin’il misul’ui kun’guk juui jok kyong-

hyang-söng,” 320-360. 64. Ko Yu-söp (1905-1944), who studied aesthetics and art history at Kyongsong Impe­

rial University, was the only Korean who attempted to write Korean art history. Yet Ko died at the age of thirty-nine, leaving many essays but only one book on Korean Celadon written in Japanese during his lifetime. His other writings were published posthumously in a book series.

65. Because of the Korean War, this national art exhibition was not held again xmtil 1953 and after; by the late 1950s, many modem painters were restless under its mies and aesthetics and began forming new associations. See Yu Chun-sang, “Forty Years of Fine Arts in Korea, 1945-1985,” Korea Journal 16:1 (January 1986), 4-11,37-

66. For postcolonial art, see O Kwang-su, Han'guk hyöndae mùulsa (History of Korean Modem Art), revised edition (Seoul; Yolhwa-dang, 1995); also Kim Yong-na, Issip segi ûi Han’guk misul.

67. For information about artists who went to North Korea, see Pugüro kan hwan- gadul (Painters Who Went to the North), ed. by Yi Ku-yol (Seoul: Kûmsung chulpan-sa, 1990).

68. Yi Ku-yol, “Fine Arts in North Korea: Changes and Characteristics,” Koreajoumal 34:4 (Winter 1991).

Plate 41. (Top leß) Yi Ma-dong, A Man, 1931- Oil on canvas. 115 cm x 817 cm. National Museum of Contem­ porary Art, Kwach’on.

Plate 42. (Top right) Kim In-sùng, A GiH Reading, 1937. Oil on canvas. 116.5 cm x 91 cm. Private collection.

Plate 43. (Lefi) Kim Kwan-ho, Sunset, 1916. Oil on canvas. 127.5 cm x 127.5 cm. Museum of the Tokyo University of Arts, Tokyo.

Plate 46. (Top) Im Kun-hong, Reclining Nude, 1936. Oil on canvas. 59 cm x 78 cm. Private collection.

Plate 47. (Le/tj So Chin-dal, Nude with Her Left Hand on the Lips, 1937. Oil on canvas. 71 cm x 51 cm. National Museum of Contemporary Art, Kwach’on.

Plate 54. (Top lefi) Ku Pon-ung, Woman, 1935- Oil on canvas. 50 cm x 38 cm. National Museum of Contemporary Art, Kwach’on.

Plate 55. (Top right) Ku Pon-ung, Portrait of a Friend, 1935. Oil on canvas. 65 cm X 53 cm. National Museum of Contemporary Art, Kwach’on.

Plate 56. (Left) Kim Hwan-gi, Window, 1940. Oil on canvas. 80.3 cm X 100.3 cm. Private collection.

(Opposite page)

Plate 52. (Top) Yi In-söng, In the Mountains ofKyongju, 1935. Oil on canvas. 136 cm x 195 cm. Private collection.

Plate 53. (Bottom) Kim Chung-hyon, A Village Scene, 1940- Oil on canvas. Dimensions not known. Private collection.

Plate 59. (Top) Yi Sang-bom, Early Winter, 1925. Ink and light color on paper. 153 cm x 185 cm. National Museum of Contemporary Art, Kwach’on.

Plate 60. (Rightj Kim Ún-ho, A Solitary Player, 1927. Color on silk. 138 cm x 85.5 cm. Ho-am Art Museum, Yong-in.

(Opposite page)

Plate 57. (Top) Yu Yong-Kuk, Work Rj, 1938. Wood relief. 65 cm x 90 cm. Destroyed.

Plate 58. (Bottom) Mun Hak-su, Conviction of Chun-hyang, 1940. Present whereabouts unknown.

Plate 6i. (Top) Sim Hyöng-ku, We Guard Asia, 1940. Location unknown.

Plate 62. (Bottom) Fujita Tsuguji, Nomon- han, Bank Scene at the Halha River, 1941- Oil on canvas. 140.0 cm x 448.0 cm. Photograph from the collections of the Tokyo National Museum of Modem Art

( Opposite page)

Plate 63. (Top) Fujita Tsuguji, Finöl Fighting at Attu, 1943. Oil on canvas. i93-5 cm x 259.5 cm. Photograph from the collections of the Tokyo National Museum of Modem Art.

Plate 64. (Bottom) Fujita Tsuguji, End of Ameri­ can Soldiers, Solomon Sea, 1944. Oil on canvas. 193.0 cm X 258.5 cm. Photograph from the collections of the Tokyo National Museum of Modem Art.

if# i'

iï-

te 65 (Top) Eugène Delacroix. Christ Asleep during the Tempest, ca. 1854. on canvas. 50.8 cm x 61 cm. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, O. Havemeyer Collection. Bequest of Mrs. H. O. Havermeyer. 1929.

tte 66. (Bottom) Fujita Tsuguji, Japanese Prefer Death by Suicide to^honor Saipan, 1945. Oil on canvas. 181.0 cm x 362.0 cm. Photograph from the [lections of the Tokyo National Museum of Modem Art.