작업 소개

57STUDIO는 국립현대미술관의 열린강좌 프로그램 중 미술관 소장품 강좌 시리즈를 제작하였습니다. 윤범모 관장이 직접 작품을 설명하는 형식으로 구성하였으며, 실제 교육 현장에서 효과적인 학습 자료로 활용될 수 있도록 제작되었습니다. 또한, 어느 장면을 캡처하더라도 교육 자료로서의 기능이 충실히 전달될 수 있도록 화면을 구성하였습니다. 이 시리즈는 작가 12명의 작품을 조명하며, 매주 수요일 YouTube LIVE를 통해 공개되었습니다.

57STUDIO produced the Museum Collection Lecture Series as part of the National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art’s (MMCA) open lecture program. The series was structured in a format where Director Yoon Bum-mo personally explains each artwork, ensuring its effectiveness as a valuable educational resource for use in learning environments.

The videos were designed so that every frame could function as an informative material, regardless of where it was captured. This series highlights the works of 12 artists and was released weekly via YouTube LIVE every Wednesday.

Oh Yoon, No Sowing in the spring, No Harvest in the fall, 1985

Today, we’ll be taking a closer look at this linocut print by Oh Yoon, entitled No Sowing in the Spring, No Harvest in the Fall Oh Yoon is a great artist who has gone down in history as one of the leaders of Korean art in the 1980s. In Korea, the 1980s was a time of major transition, from the era of the military regime to the democratization movement. As a painter, Oh Yoon tried to “restore art’s function as language.” In doing so, he dealt with various themes related to Korean tradition, identity, and society, as well as unification. Sadly, because his life was cut short when he died at the young age of forty, he was not able to fully realize his vision. But even his attempts made him a giant in the art world of the 1980s.

Although he originally studied sculpture, Oh later created woodblock prints on various themes and motifs, such that he became something like the “godfather” of Korean woodcut prints. His woodcut prints were characterized by the beauty of their simple compositions in black and white, conveying the so-called “flavor of the knife,” a unique feature of woodblocks. Oh’s works are based on themes like tradition, or larger themes like “Koreanness” and the spirit of the era. Oh Yoon’s father was a famous novelist, Oh Yeong-su. In fact, Oh Yoon once lent me his father’s copy of The Rebellion of Im Kkeokjeong. I later discussed the novel with Oh Yoon, which helped me understand that his works were based on the same sense of tradition as the novel. In other words, his art is instilled with the spirit of “emulating the old to create the new.” Realizing this, I began to see Oh Yoon’s art in a new light.

Oh Yoon also produced sculptures, as well as many paintings. In particular, his Marketing series introduced a new style, satirizing capitalism amidst the industrialization of the 1980s. One of the works from the series, entitled Marketing-Scenes of Hell, shows a collection of commercial billboards filing the landscape of hell, expanding the realm of capitalist satire. One of Oh’s relatives was a “transmitter” of the “Dongnae Crane Dance,” Korea’s intangible cultural heritage, and Oh also had a deep understanding of dance. In fact, the dance movements in Oh Yoon’s works are so accurate and realistic that scholars of traditional dance can tell which part of the dance is being performed just by looking at them. In taking dance as a motif, Oh did not merely borrow the external appearance of a dance. On the contrary, his art is deeply imbued with the spirit of traditional performance and the consciousness of community that is inherent in Korean dance. That’s why the art of Oh Yoon is so dynamic, genuine, and realistic.

This is the type of realism that was emphasized in the art movement of the 1980s. It was sublimated into Oh’s distinctive style of painting, wherein reality, the spirit of the times, and Korean identity were harmonized with dance. Dance is the representative type of performing art and folk entertainment that exemplifies the spirit of community engendered by the people of Korea. Unlike in the West, where dance is an artistic activity in which the stage and the audience are sharply divided, our traditional performance realizes the “world of sinmyeong” (i.e. joy, elation), in which the performers and audience join together on the same stage. This spirit was called “madang nori,” which means something like “playing in the yard.” The concept of sinmyeong is very important in the world of Oh Yoon’s art. By invoking sinmyeong during the dark era of the 1980s, his works had a special resonance that never failed to reach and touch people of the time.

Oh Yoon is also known for his Father series , in which a father embraces his son. And also his Maternal Love series, in which a mother holds a child, seeking to retain her independent way of thought in the face of foreign powers. A publishing company once asked Oh to create a poster to commemorate its series of world literature. The result was Dad, which became one of his most famous works. The father, with an expression that shows he’s been beaten down by life, clasps a young boy, his son, and stares off into the distance. The story told by this work shows art’s inherent function as language, which explains why it has become an iconic work representing the consciousness of a community. The story that the artist wished to tell is made especially clear through the form of a black-and-white woodcut print. Furthermore, the simple composition allowed Oh to easily express his creative intentions.

As a giant of 1980s art and a pioneer of woodcut prints, Oh Yoon inspired the younger generation of artists who succeeded him, and who persistently led the printmaking movement. Actually, the art print market is almost nonexistent in Korea, and prints still don’t receive much attention. But to this day, Oh Yoon’s works continue to gain attention and popularity in the art market. Having an S-shaped composition, this workis a simple portrayal of the joy and excitement of “madang nori.” The title has a symbolic meaning: “no benevolence in the spring, no righteousness in the fall.” It can be translated like the current title,“If you don’t sow seeds in the spring, you’ll have nothing to harvest in the fall.” This work depicts members of a farming community playing together back to back in an S-curve, engaging in traditional performances such as “samul nori” (traditional percussion music with four instruments) and “nongak nori” (farmers playing music and dancing). It’s a representative image of “sinmyeong,” made by painting onto a woodcut print. As a scholar of the “Dongnae Crane Dance,” Oh produced this print that harmoniously combines the spirit of community with the “flavor of the knife.” Showing all of the unique characteristics of Oh’s art, this is also one of the last works he produced just before his death in 1985. MMCA recently added this important work by Oh Yoon to its collection. This is No Sowing in the Spring, No Harvest in the Fall by Oh Yoon.