Korean Landscape Painting

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.

Korean painters participated in two major cultural trends of the late Choson period in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries: inquiry into things Korean and investigation of things Western. Departing from Chinese sources long considered authoritative, they developed the distinctly Korean mode known as "true-view" landscape painting for depicting the scenery of their own country. Rooted in the documentary painting of the early Choson period and displaying special techniques developed to describe distinctive features of Korea's topography, true-view paintings portray the most exemplary and ideal landscapes of Korea, such as those of Mount Kumgang (Diamond Mountain). The same painters also drew on Western painting methods, which they learned from descriptions of Western paintings seen and recorded by Korean emissaries to Beijing as well as from actual paintings brought back. This knowledge inspired them to produce not only landscapes but also portraits, images of animals and other paintings based on firsthand observation of nature. Both trends, looking inward to Korea and outward to the West, represented Korean aspiration for something new -- for "modernity." Deftly weaving these two strands together as the unifying theme of Searching for Modernity, Yi Song-mi expands on her pioneering work on true-view landscape painting to reveal even more of the depth and complexity of this mature and fully Korean form of artistic expression.

Essay from the year 2004 in the subject Art - Painting, grade: A, School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London (Department of Art and Archeology), course: History of Korean Art, 5 entries in the bibliography, language: English, abstract: In the Chosŏn period (1392-1910), Korean landscape painting flourished. Traditionally strongly bound to a Chinese paradigm, the Korean masters of painting sought to give their works distinctive peculiarities. Especially from the middle of Chosŏn period on, strong tendencies towards "Koreanization" emerged comprising not only arts but all sectors of life. Initially, painting developed slightly different characteristics still within the scope of the paramount Chinese arts such as bolder outlines and coarser brushwork (Pratt, 1995: 43). The painter Chŏng Sŏn (1676-1759) eventually heralded the turn to a typical Korean style of landscape painting, the so-called "chin'gyŏng (sansu)," true-view landscape painting. Reaching its peak in the following eighteenth century, this genre depicts the beauty of real Korean countryside using a certain technique which bears distinct features, even though still being geared to Chinese example.

Chong Son's albums of landscape paintings celebrate the scenic beauty of Korean rivers and mountains, focusing on the capital Hanyang, now Seoul, the Han River, the East Sea and the world-famous Diamond Mountain. This title offers an insight into the distinctive art and literati culture of Korea in the early eighteenth century.

Korean painting reveals a connectivity with nature that parallels the Korean traditional world view. Living in a dramatic landscape of rugged peaks, deep valleys and broad rivers, Koreans have long held nature in deep reverence. This respect, this yearning for nature is immediately apparent in Korean paintings, whose aesthetic is likened to an "artless art" of gently lines, generous shapes and naturalistic colors. Beauty is found in the big picture rather than the details; paintings exhibit a naturalness that moves the viewer with its humility. Many Korean paintings were painted not by artists, but by ordinary nobles and even commoners. For the people of old Korea, painting was often a part of life, a way to express their inner spirit. Perhaps it is this that makes Korean painting so approachable, so human.

The first such survey in English, Korean Painting ranges from fourth-century tomb paintings to the experimental "series" works of the 20th century. The author adopts a thematic approach, tracing the development of each of the most commonly depicted categories, including human and religious subjects, landscapes, scenes from nature and, in the 20th century, abstract art. Like other titles in the popular Images of Asia series, this book is both profusely illustrated and accessibly written for a wide audience.

"Burglind Jungmann describes the eighteenth-century Korean-Japanese diplomatic exchange and the circumstances under which Korean and Japanese painters met. Further, the paintings done by Korean painters during their sojourns in Japan attest to the transmission of a distinctly Korean literati style, called Namjonghwa. By comparing Korean, Japanese, and Chinese paintings, the author shows how the Korean interpretation of Chinese styles influenced Japanese literati painters and helped inspire the creation of their new style."--BOOK JACKET.