작업 소개

국립현대미술관 윤범모 관장이 들려주는 소장품 10분 강좌로, 작가 12명의 작품을 매주 수요일 Youtube LIVE 를 통해 공개하였다.

프로젝트 내용

10분 영상으로 만나는 소장품, 열린강좌 – 미술관소장품강좌
국립현대미술관 윤범모 관장이 들려주는 소장품 이야기

1. 박생광 Park Saengkwang, 전봉준 Jeon Bing-jun, 1985
2. 고희동 Ko Huidong, 자화상 Self-portrait, 1915
3. 채용신 Chad Yongshin, 고종황제어진 Portrait of Emperor Gojong, 1920
4. 김환기 Kim Whanki, 론도 Rondo, 1938
5. 이응노 Lee Ungno, 군상 Crowd, 1986
6. 구본웅 Gu Bonung, 친구의 초상 Portrait of a Friend, 1935
7. 권진규 Kwon Jinkyu, 지원의 얼굴 Jiwon’s Face, 1967
8. 신학철 Shin HakChul, 누가 하늘을 보았다 하는가 Who Said They Saw the Sky?, 1989
9. 이쾌대 Lee Qoede, 여인 초상 Portrait of a Women, 1940s
10. 박래현 Park Rehyun, 노점 Open Stalls, 1956
11. 오윤 Oh Yoon, 춘무인추무의 No Sowing in the spring, No Harvest in the fall, 1985
12. 이승택 Lee SeungTaek, 무제 Untitled, 1980

Kwon Jinkyu, Jiwon’s Face, 1967

Today, we will examine a work by Kwon Jinkyu. What you are looking at here is Jiwon’s Face, produced in 1967, in the later part of his career. It is made from a unique material: terracotta. In other words, clay is shaped for firing. Notice how the exposed surface emphasizes the distinctive quality of the clay, as compared to other three-dimensional works It depicts the upper half of a body.

Looking closely, we can see that it is a frontal image of a young woman. She seems to be staring straight ahead off into the distance, with an erect neck. You can see that she’s wearing a scarf, and her facial features are well defined. Unlike similar sculptures, however, the shoulders are extremely simplified, rendered as steep lines. Overall, the figure conveys a religious impression, like some type of an ascetic. Kwon Jinkyu produced many busts like this one. Some of them were sculptures of his own head, or the heads of Buddhist nuns In fact, he produced many busts of Buddhist nuns and other young women. I remember the pamphlet from one of his solo exhibitions, , I think it was in the 1970s. The cover of the pamphlet showed a photo juxtaposing several of Kwon’s head sculptures with an image of his own face in the center. I guess it was meant to equate his face with the women’s faces, or the faces of Buddhist nuns. So we can guess that his intention with these busts was to capture the resonance of his most sincere inner mind.

Significantly, Kwon Jinkyu went to study in Japan in the late 1940s after Korean independence in 1945. While many Korean artists had studied in Japan during the Japanese colonial period, Kwon went there after independence, and was active in Japan in the 1950s. To briefly examine his career before going to Japan, we should start with Kim Bokjin’s Maitreya sculpture, a masterpiece of the late colonial period, located in Beopjusa Temple on Mt. Songni This unique Buddhist sculpture was made from cement, but it remained unfinished, because Kim Bokjin died when he was just 39 years old. So his student Yun Hyojoong decided to finish the work, and the young Kwon Jinkyu was part of the project, so he gained experience in producing Buddhist sculpture. We should also mention Lee Quede, one of the most important Korean painters of the 1940s, who was imprisoned by the US Army in the Geoje POW Camp during the Korean War, and later chose to go to Pyongyang, North Korea.Kwon Jinkyu studied art under Lee Qoede. So Kwon studied under two of the greatest artists of the time, Kim Bokjin and Lee Quede.

Then in Japan, he attended Musashino Art University. He had a very wide artistic range, from representational statues of people or animals to somewhat abstract sculptures. Although Kwon made some bronze sculptures, he primarily produced terracotta works, like this one. That seems to imply that he wanted to emphasize the materiality of clay itself. Notably, he also utilized the traditional technique of dry lacquer. Many of the surviving Buddhist sculptures from the Joseon dynasty were produced with this dry lacquer technique. Several layers of hemp or paper are coated with lacquer and attached to a wood surface, to enhance the three-dimensional quality. Again, Kwon Jinkyu was unique in using this traditional method in his modern sculptures.

Maybe he was ahead of his time, or just unfortunate, because he didn’t receive much attention from the public during his lifetime. This was a factor in his premature death, as he committed suicide in his studio in Donam-dong, Seoul. His last words were, “Life is emptiness and destruction.” Although his last words were about the transience of life, what he manifested in his art was not so much transience as the image of eternal salvation, or the woman as the image of salvation. In the history of Korean sculpture, particularly by the late twentieth century, Kwon Jinkyu occupies a singular domain.

Today, he is considered to be one of the best sculptors in Korean art history. At least we can say that the negligence of the public during his lifetime has been reversed. We usually divide three-dimensional artworks into two categories: carving a form from a larger mass (like with wood or marble), or molding a form, as with clay.In this field of three-dimensional art, Kwon Jinkyu set himself apart with his unique and independent style.So he is highly acclaimed both in art history and among the general public. But the art that he left behind for us caused such great reverberations that they are still resonating with people to this day.

Jiwon’s Face is considered to be one of Kwon Jinkyu’s representative works. The depth, the resonance, and the unity delivered from every detail of the expression on this young woman’s face, looking straight ahead, continue to emanate I think that’s why Kwon Jinkyu is so highly regarded in art history.I hope that Jiwon’s Face (1967) by Kwon Jinkyu from the collection of the National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, this magnificent terracotta bust that is Kwon’s representative work, will give you a new appreciation for the true beauty and essence of three-dimensional art.

Shin HakChul, Who Said They Saw the Sky?, 1989

Who Said They Saw the Sky? This is a painting that asks many questions. The artist is Shin Hak-chul, and it is from his series entitled Korean Modern History. The first thing to notice is the unusual composition. Overall, it has a vertical structure that rises toward the sky. At the bottom, there are various people representing the modern history of Korea. Of course, many of the people at the bottom of the painting are anonymous. Moving upwards, the people become more prominent, yet still anonymous depicting those who could play a leading role in history. Those in the upper part represent the contemporary era.

Who Said They Saw the Sky? I think this title has such a deep resonance. By the 1980s, the field of Korean art had undergone major changes, dividing into two main camps:institutional art vs. Minjung art. Before that, the Korean art world was dominated by a strong focus on modernist art. However, groups of young artists began to raise their voices to resist the dominance of modernist art. With an elevated social consciousness, fueled by the conditions and spirit of the times, they started pursuing grand discourses, including what a nation or what a society should be. This led to a new painting style that came through like a fresh breeze, dividing the existing art field in two. This is how the movement later called “Minjung art” was formed.

Shin Hak-chul, who made this painting, emerged in the 1980s as an artist with a very original style. After entering the art field as a modernist and building his artistic foundation, Shin Hak-chul opened his eyes to social realities and started demonstrating his true capacity. He began to produce his Korean Modern History series, which explored the theme of modern history on a grand scale. The series can be viewed as a restaging of scenes from history according to the artist’s own interpretation of reality. Many of these works combine methods of collage with oil painting for a highly unique style and composition. That is, the format of the series is an attempt to express the artist’s interpretation of history through the language of formal aesthetics. In Korea, the 1980s were still the period of the military regime, but also the fierce struggles of the democratization movement against the military regime. In this painting, as in the entire series, the artist evenly blended those intense conflicts with a deep awareness of history and a spirit of the times.

It also contains his thoughts reminding us of that history and reality. The production of such works of “committed art” was totally unique to Korea in the 1980s, and this art movement has now become the subject of wide research, leading to the various exhibitions and publications. Perhaps this means that the movement’s uniqueness has been recognized and confirmed. Now, let’s look more closely at this painting I think it represents an anonymous person, who is still a protagonist of history. Despite being anonymous, this person still embraces history at the very site where history is taking place. It is through people like this that our modern and contemporary history changed and developed. This image contains the artist’s full interpretation of Korea’s modern and contemporary history, from the Donghak Peasant Revolution of the late 19th century to the democratization movement of the 1980s. Since the 1980s, Shin Hak-chul has been renowned for his innovative style and independent interpretation of history and reality. Who Said They Saw the Sky? I’m curious to know how you would answer that question.

Lee Qoede, Portrait of a Women, 1940s

Today, we are going to take a look at Portrait of a Woman by Lee Qoede. Every time I say his name -Lee Qoede- I feel a subtle reverberation in my heart. That’s because his life was very turbulent, even though he was one of Korea’s greatest painters of the 20th century. He studied in Japan during the colonial period, and then after independence, he defected to North Korea where he was active for a while before he died. Lee Qoede’s art resonates in many different ways. With his talent for depicting the human body, he advanced the style of realism, but his art also reflects the social conditions of his era. He can be considered a master painter who aimed to enact a new world of art.

Born in Chilgok, North Gyeongsang Province, Lee Qoede spent his childhood in Daegu. Lee Qoede was from a large landlord’s family, and could thus afford to study in Japan at the Imperial Art Institute, which is now Musashino Art University. After graduation, Lee established Sinmisulga hyeopoe (Association of New Korean Artists), an art group for Koreans in the 1940s.The Association of New Korean Artists was composed of artists from private schools, rather than government schools(- such as the Tokyo Fine Arts School). So these artists had more diverse, liberal, and progressive styles.Lee Qoede was a type of chairman or moderator for, provided excellent leadership and social concern hat was reflected in the group’s works and activities.

But Lee’s life took a dramatic turn during the Korean War, when he was taken as a “North Korean” prisoner and sent to the POW camp in Geoje. Upon his release, he chose to go to Pyongyang, North Korea, despite the fact that his family was in Seoul. At first, he was active in the art field of Pyongyang, before disappearing from the forefront. Since Lee had defected to North Korea, South Koreans were not allowed to discuss him or his career in the second half of 20th century, due to the strong feelings of anti-communism. After the ban was finally lifted in 1988, Lee Qoede’s works,which were still in the possession of his family, were unveiled for the first time in the early 1990s. It was a huge event in the Korean art field at the time. Many people in the art world who had never seen Lee Qoede’s major works in person were amazed that he had produced these large oil masterpieces under the harsh conditions of Japanese colonial rule. They were equally impressed by his skills for portraying the human body and his spirit of realism. As such, Lee Qoede was recognized as one of the great Korean artists of the 20th century.

Today, we have about 60 extant oil paintings and 300 drawings by Lee Qoede. From these works alone, we can see that he is a giant of 20th-century art. Initially after he defected, Lee was active in North Korea, but he was soon blacklisted, so that the later part of his life was very difficult. In Pyongyang, a biographical dictionary entitled Korean Artists Handbook was published in the late 1990s. While Lee Qoede was omitted from the first edition, he was reinstated for the second edition. Since his life closely mirrored the division of North and South Korea, Lee can be seen as a symbol for our national tragedy.

This painting contains all the characteristics of Lee Qoede’s style. It exemplifies the main features of his style of depicting the human body with great precision and confidence. This portrait of a woman shows her upper body wearing a fine red traditional top called a “jeogori.” Although it is relatively small compared to some of Lee Qoede’s other paintings, it has an excellent structure and unique composition. The background was rendered in black, thus emphasizing the woman’s facial expression. Because he drew so accurately, Lee Qoede was able to emphasize his brushstrokes in parts of the outlines, and to show off his boldness and confidence in shading. His skills for realistic depiction are what enabled him to do this.

In the 1930s, Lee Qoede produced narrative-based works and then after independence, he painted the masterpieces of his Group Portrait series. Such works resonate with the sheer size and dynamism of the figures on the pictorial plane. While these figure paintings carry the general aura of Western classicism, all of the people are Koreans, and the backgrounds reflect the Korean society of the time. As the creator of the Group Portrait series, Lee was one of the greatest portraitists of the 20th century. In some ways, he was a bit of a romantic in his approach to revolutionary realism, but at the same time, he always strived to forge his own style. After all, Lee Qoede is a painter born in the era of division. Although not generally considered to be one of Lee Qoede’s major works, this painting still carries a deep resonance. That’s why Portrait of a Woman is a work by Lee Qoede that I can proudly recommend s one of the highlights of our museum’s collection.