20th Century Korean Art

In recent years the increase in interest in Asian art has led to a number of books being published about Japanese and Chinese artists. However, the exciting Korean scene is still largely undocumented. Now Kim YoungNa reveals Korean modern and contemporary artists to the West. Twentieth-Century Korean Art provides a comprehensive, engaging survey that places emphasis on art historical narratives. It draws on primary sources and historical artefacts as well as on new interpretations of issues such as the identity of Korean art and the cultural ramifications of Japanese colonialism. Covering over one hundred year from the late 19th century through to the 1990s, the essays in this book examine how both external influences and wills-to-change within Korean society itself generated an artistic vitality against a shifting political, social, and cultural backdrop and how this necessarily involved East Asia at large and the West.

Walk the galleries of any major contemporary art museum and you are sure to see a work by a Korean artist. Interest in modern and contemporary art from South—as well as North—Korea has grown in recent decades, and museums and individual collectors have been eager to tap into this rising market. But few books have helped us understand Korean art and its significance in the art world, and even fewer have told the story of the formation of Korea’s contemporary cultural scene and the role artists have played in it. This richly illustrated history tackles these issues, exploring Korean art from the late-nineteenth century to the present day—a period that has seen enormous political, social, and economic change. Charlotte Horlyck covers the critical and revolutionary period that stretches from Korean artists’ first encounters with oil paintings in the late nineteenth century to the varied and vibrant creative outputs of the twenty-first. She explores artists’ interpretations of new and traditional art forms ranging from oil and ink paintings to video art, multi-media installations, ready-mades, and performance art, showing how artists at every turn have questioned the role of art and artists within society. Opening up this fascinating world to general audiences, this book will appeal to anyone wanting to explore this rich and fascinating era in Korea’s cultural history.

A crucial artistic movement of twentieth-century Korea, Tansaekhwa (monochromatic painting) also became one of its most famous and successful. In this full-color, richly illustrated account--the first of its kind in English--Joan Kee provides a fresh interpretation of the movement's emergence and meaning that sheds new light on the history of abstraction, twentieth-century Asian art, and contemporary art in general.

The first comprehensive survey to explore the rich and complex history of contemporary Korean art - an incredibly timely topic Starting with the armistice that divided the Korean Peninsula in 1953, this one-of-a-kind book spotlights the artistic movements and collectives that have flourished and evolved throughout Korean culture over the past seven decades - from the 1950s avant-garde through to the feminist scene in the 1970s, the birth of the Gwangju Biennale in the 1990s, the lesser known North Korean art scene, and all the artists who have emerged to secure a place in the international art world.

Featuring over 130 artworks--some previously unpublished--this richly illustrated volume is essential for understanding modern art in Korea and how it evolved to meet the contemporary global context In The Space Between, a generative period in Korean art between the traditional and the contemporary is illuminated comprehensively for the first time. After the centuries-long Joseon dynasty came 35 uninterrupted years of the Japanese colonial period (1910-45) followed by the Korean War (1950-53). During this tumultuous time, Korean artists grappled with issues such as identity and nationalism and experimented with a broad range of media. The book is organized into five categories: "The Modern Encounter"-- foreign influences enter the country in a significant way in the late 19th and early 20th centuries; "The Modern Response"--how foreign methods are accepted or rejected; "The Pageantry of the New Woman (Sinyeoseong) Movement"--modern women's attitudes; "The Modern Momentum"--advances in using foreign styles; and "Evolving into the Contemporary"--a glimpse into the contemporary. Most notable during this period are the introductions of photography, sculpture and oils, which arrived via Japan and came to define modern art in Korea. At the same time, traditional ink painting reinvented itself: works grew larger in scale while keeping traditional landscape motifs with alterations in the use of color and composition. Artists of modern ink believed that theirs was the true future of modern art, unsullied by elements found in the West. By the end of the Korean War, the magnified status of the US made way for access to American abstract art and, indirectly, European informel. For nearly a decade, abstract expressionist and informel styles dominated Korean art. The volume concludes in the 1960s, setting the stage for contemporary art in Korea.

This book examines the development of national emblems, photographic portraiture, oil painting, world expositions, modern spaces for art exhibitions, university programs of visual arts, and other agencies of modern art in Korea. With few books on modern art in Korea available in English, this book is an authoritative volume on the topic and provides a comparative perspective on Asian modernism including Japan, China, and India. In turn, these essays also shed a light on Asian reception of and response to the Orientalism and exoticism popular in Europe and North America in the early twentieth century. The book will be of interest to scholars working in art history, the history of Asia, Asian studies, colonialism, nationalism, and cultural identity.

Unlike Western paintings, which mostly depict natural surroundings as they are, oriental paintings depict not only the landscape but also thoughts or perspectives of painters upon the landscape. Korean Landscape Painting discusses the art form beginning at its earliest roots two millennia ago, in the Three Kingdoms period, right up until the 20th century. Accompanied by many maps and pictures, as well as a glossary of names and terms, this book provides a complete overview of Korean landscape painting and offers a perfect introduction.

"Art of the Korean Empire: the Emergence of Modern Art reexamines the legacy of King Gojong, the last king of the Joseon Dynasty, who founded the Korean empire in 1897. Despite its relatively brief duration, the Korean EMpire was a formative time when the foundations for twentieth-century Korean art were laid. Deviating from the prevalent trend of the day, which was to reject foreign influences and preserve the national heritage, the field of Korean art actively cultivated change by selectively embracing new cultural stimuli and using them to revise traditional practices for the modern era. Today, this compelling struggle for adaptation is embodied by a wide range of artworks from this dynamic period... this exhibition comprehensively deals with the imperial court art of the Korean Empire, including painting, photography, and crafts"--page 6-7.