작업 소개

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

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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

Kim Whanki, Rondo, 1938

Today, we’ll look at the work entitled Rondo painted by Kim Whanki. In the 1930s, abstract art came to the fore in the Korean art scene. Before that, ‘Academism,’ a style that focuses on the literal representation of objects, had been the mainstream. ‘Abstract painting,’ one that pursues the essence of an object emerged as the new wave. The pioneers of abstract painting in the 1930s are a group of artists including Kim Whanki (1913-1974) and Yoo Youngguk (1916-2002). They developed this new style of painting in Tokyo. In particular, international students acquired a new style of art at an art school named the Culture Academy and the Avant-Garde Western Painting Research Institute.

While studying in Tokyo, Kim Whanki learned the foundation of art at the Avant-Garde Western Painting Research Institute. At the institute, there were also painters like Fujida Tsuguji (藤田嗣治, 1886-1968) who had returned from France. In a biography of painter Kim Byungki entitled Painting for a Hundred Years, I introduced a photograph of the times. It shows Kim Whanki and Kim Byungki (son of painter Kim Chan-yeong, 1916~). Most international students attended the Tokyo School of Fine Arts. Being a government school, the school followed the highly conservative painting style known as ‘Academism.’ Artists like Yoo Youngguk, Kim Whanki, and Kim Byungki were able to pursue a new style because they didn’t attend the Tokyo School of Fine Arts. It seems that Kim’s work Rondo was a product of such an environment.

As the title Rondo suggests, it is a work based on musicality. We can see a shape implying a grand piano and figures are expressed who seem to be appreciating music. Since the work did not describe objects realistically, viewers can interpret the work in their own way. Also, the painting emphasized curves considerably. While it shows an artistic arrangement of curves and straight lines, it captures the characteristics of the curves in the painting. At the same time, Kim arranged primary colors like yellow and blue softly and skillfully on the canvas, resulting in an excellent composition. It is very suggestive that Kim left a work like Rondo at the beginning of his career as an artist in the 1930s. It is a pity that there currently exists very few works of this period. But documents say that many artists presented works with the theme of music at that time.

Being a great writer, Kim pursued art that resonated with literature.Rondo is a work of his youth that focused on music in such a literary background. Kim experimented and pursued various painting styles and philosophies of art. We can see it in an illustration of Kim’s work entitled Sailing through the Channel that was submitted to the exhibition of an artist group named Baekmanhoe. It is found alongside the illustration of Rondo. The work depicts a ship at anchor in the harbor, drawn in a slender brush. It looks so exceptional that it is difficult to believe that the same artist painted the work.

While pursuing abstract painting from the mid to late 1930s, Kim engaged with a realistic style at the same time. In the 1940s, the 1950s, and the 1960s, he presented a new art that was based on the literati spirit. He was remarked to be ‘a literati artist with an oil painting brush.’ Settling in New York in the mid-1960s, he consistently worked on the ‘dot series.’

Kim is from an island called Gijwado (currently Anjwado, Shinan, Jeollanam-do). The painting style of his later period opened with the dot series. At that time, he produced a series showing blue colors. He marked hundreds of thousands of dots, mainly in different tones of blue, as if he had moved the stars in the night sky to the canvas. Focusing on the dot series, he continued to work in the art scene of New York. As an aside, in the Korean art market, Kim’s dot series holds the record of the highest-priced artwork at an auction. It means that he is the artist whose works are sold at the highest price. Of course, he is recognized in the international art market as well.

As an intellectual during the Japanese occupation period, he tried to discover new art.
Living a nomadic life, moving from Shinan, Jeollanam-do to Seoul, from Seoul to Paris, and from Paris to New York, he continuously realized a new painting style. He reveals his unique life as a painter, moving from realistic depictions to so-called semi-abstract works in the form of figurative painting that is reminiscent of literati painting, and eventually to pure abstraction. Rondo, painted by Kim Whanki, a pioneer artist of Korean abstract painting in the 1930s,
is a much-loved artwork in the MMCA collection.

Lee Ungno, Crowd, 1986

This is a work from the series entitled Crowd, painted in Lee Ungno’s late period. Lee Ungno (artist name: Goam) is one of the great artists who realized unique artworks in Korean art history of the 20th Century. This painting depicts countless people, painted in repetition. A square is filled with people. Seeing Gwangju Democratic Uprising in 1980 in Paris, Lee began to produce this Crowd series in earnest.

If we carefully look at the painting, we can see innumerable people dancing dynamically in a square. There are countless people repeatedly painted, however, rather than being confined in a fixed frame, The depicted figures look free. Lee expressed similar-sized people in ink with striking brush strokes on paper. If we look closely at the people, it is difficult to distinguish age or gender. We cannot identify who they are, they are just people, In this large piece from the Crowd series, there is a signature at the bottom right. It reads “1986 Ung-No Lee.” Lee began his artistic career with traditional art.

Lee Ungno learned painting under Kim Kyujin. Initially, he produced literati painting, and later, landscape painting. By the end of the late 1950s, by way of Germany, he settled in Paris. After that, he continued to work using various media. As for the genre, he basically worked in ink and brush, but he also produced various three-dimensional works, collages, abstractions, and figurative works consistently. Modernizing the characteristics of ink, brush, and paper, his work develops into an abstraction of letters. Around the period of his abstract painting of letters, contemporary. Then he finally finds his own original aesthetics. However, he is unique in that he expanded the Korean art tradition creatively.

In other words, he integrated the East Asian cultural practices involving paper, brush, and ink into a greater whole and internationalized it widely. Although Lee worked in Paris in his late period, he did not abandon his Asian culture. He continued to highlight the qualities of ink and brush his entire life. His ink painting is remarkable, demonstrating the idea that calligraphy and painting are one thing. A striking feature of ink brush strokes and lines in calligraphyis the vividness and energy concentrated in the painting. Whether the work’s theme is letters, abstraction, figuration, or crowds like this, the energy of ink painting fully fills the space.

In addition to artistic activities, we should also discuss his work as an educator. He taught in the Academy of Oriental Painting that began as the annexation of Musée Cernuschi Museum of Asian Art of the City of Paris, France, where he was dedicated to teaching students in earnest.Recognizably, even in the European context, Lee pursued the culture of ink painting, and expanded it by teaching students as well. Lee underwent a severe ordeal, twice in his life, because of political situations.Accused of the East Berlin Affair, he was imprisoned. Lee left behind many works, even from when in prison. The hardship of imprisonment widened and deepened his art. Lee was an artist who participated in the period of Korean democratization while living abroad.

Goam Lee Ungno is a unique artist who embodied the belief that ‘a painter’s weapon is painting.’ Crowd series of Lee’s late period. Today, together we appreciated Crowd, Lee Ungno’s significant piece that contributed to complete his vision in the art world.

Gu Bonung, Portrait of a Friend, 1935

Today, we’ll see a unique painting. It is Portrait of a Friend by Gu Bonung. The painting style is very unusual. A close look at this oil painting reveals a remarkably free use of brush strokes. In the mid-1930s, there were a lot of painting styles trying new artistic approaches. In the 1910s, pioneers of oil painting such as Ko Huidong appeared. As small groups increasingly emerged in the 1920s, a kind of art scene formed, and new painting styles developed. In the 1930s, this creative tendency was in full bloom showing variety in the art scene. This was the situation before the Sino-Japanese War broke out in 1937. The period from the start of the war to the end of Japanese occupation in 1945 could be called a dark age, but before that, the art scene in Korea seemed to blossom.

Gu Bonung painted this piece. Because of a nanny’s mistake in his childhood, Gu got handicapped. At that time, he was known by the derogatory moniker “hunchback” and became a very peculiar painter, engaging his entire life in painting with a crippled body. In reference to Henri Toulouse-Lautrec (1864-1901) in Paris, Gu was known as the “Toulouse-Lautrec of Seoul.’ Gu was active in many fields beyond painting, including writing. His friends included many painters of various styles as well as members of the literary scene of the time.

In the 1930s, there emerged a new painting style different from ‘academism’ a conservative painting style led by the Tokyo School of Fine Arts and by government schools. Gu’s work is an example of this new wave. At that time, his work was commented to be reminiscent of Fauvism and Expressionism. However, it is more appropriate to say that Gu opened up a new direction in art, different from conservative styles, rather than fitting him into existing classifications.

Let’s look at his work, Portrait of a Friend, known to be painted around 1935. As the title says, the subject filling the canvas is the artist’s friend. Free and bold brushstrokes reveal the personality of the sitter. We can see that the artist tried to express the character intensely. First of all, the friend is wearing a hat called ‘beret’ crookedly. Also, we can see a pipe in his mouth. The smoke and the red color at the end of the pipe indicates that he is currently smoking. A close look at the mouth shows a red treatment of the lips, and the nose is highlighted with a lighter color. On the other hand, the part around the lips is painted in black, creating a dynamic of the scene and the contrast of light and dark. The overall contour of the character is not painted clearly but expressed without a distinct boundary from the background. We can see how much the artist endeavored to express the personality of the subject in the painting. Basically, the brush strokes are quite free and bold. Therefore they are reminiscent of Fauvism as well as Cubism in a sense. The practice lets us know that the artist attempted to interpret the figure of the friend in such a style.

The man in the painting is known to be poet Lee Sang (Kim Hae-kyeong, 1910-1937). Lee is an outstanding writer in the history of Korean literature. He is one of the great artists at the top of the literary scene known for excellent work such as Crow’s Eye View Poem and a short story entitled Wings. When Lee went to Tokyo at around the age of twenty-seven, he was confined as a rebellious Korean who didn’t obey Japanese rule. He also suffered from tuberculosis. In the end, he passed away at an early age. Lee said, “The one with no secrets is poor.” In fact, we can see that there is a secret in this painting as well. We do not precisely know what motivated the artist to create this work or how the work passed down to this day.

We only know that this work was found in the family’s house and began to be known in the art scene from the 1970s. The public became aware of the painting when the piece was introduced as the cover image for a monthly magazine entitled Literature and Thought. The work reveals a painter and a writer. Gu expressed the features of the inner world of poet Lee Sang in his painting. Gu left various works, including an oil painting Woman with a more vibrant style as well as paintings with Buddhist and folk motifs. However, he couldn’t fully pursue his painting ambition since he died at an early age of 47. Together, we appreciated Portrait of a Friend by Gu Bonung, who is one of the representative Korean painters of the 1930s.