This article will highlight Korean art through a small, yet diverse group of artists that I have encountered over the years. Art is a medium that can change the way you look at something, analyze a situation or simply think, and that perspective and how you use of your senses is fundamental. It is interesting to see different techniques used for many years in eastern culture that have yet to gain much notoriety in the western world. Often, it is the process of making the art and not just the end product that are important for the artist and viewer. Perhaps this will be your amuse bouche to want more.
I recently attended the opening reception of “One Breath – Infinite Vision” at the Gallery Korea (460 Park Ave., 6th Floor, NY, NY, Korean Cultural Center of NY). The special exhibition runs unto August 16th. https://www.koreanculture.org/gallery-korea/2019/7/10/one-breath-infinite-vision-an-exhibition-of-korean-ink-art. It showcased Korean contemporary ink art and a few other media (clay, iron dust, electronic) including many female artists. I spent most of the two hours looking at the works of art multiple times by myself for and got some insight from the guest curator Kim Yu Yeon (김유연), as well as an introduction to Choi Ildan (최일단). The works were mesmerizing and like nothing I had seen before.
Ink art is referred to as ink brush or ink wash painting and is a technique that dates back to possibly the Tang dynasty in China during the 7th century CE (Common Era) and Joseon dynasty in Korea (14th century CE). Korean ink art is said to be noted for a poignancy of expression that derives as much from its portrayal of the physical world as it does from an inner space – a quality that is both temporal, abstract and spiritual. I stood talking with another woman in front of Park Yooah's (박유아) sculpture of incompletely combusted clay titled “King’s Road” on what we saw in each of the numerous small squares which looked like a woman in different positions.
Next I was fixated on Kim Jongku's (김종구) piece made with iron dust, PV glue and canvas. The subtlety to the strokes, layers and textures was extraordinary. I especially enjoyed both of Choi Ildan’s works titled “Nine Dragon Falls on Diamond Mountain” and “Whirlwind” which was created by drawing with a rooster's feather. Unlike a traditional ink brush, a feather does not have a point but rather creates multiple incidental lines regardless of the artist's intention . "Whirlwind" is expressive of the artist's past life, her present one and the uncertainty of the future. The drawing suggest figures and landscapes – a macrocosm containing trees, rocks, animals and birds a cycle of life which encompasses both the experience of joy and loss, of birth and death.
Jang Hyun Joo’s piece “Tree Shade” tangled me in a web because she used charcoal sticks and ink, and then ground oyster shells into a paste to create a washing technique by repetitive and meditative movements. Her piece expresses the relationship between nature and human where the landscapes are about transformative principles where mountains become trees whose roots become roads.
Next is a story of a famous traditional folk artist that was a friend of my in-laws for many years in Seoul, and like they, fled Pyongyang at the onset of the Korean War. His name was Kim Haksu (김학수). He painted 10 hours a day until he was 90 when he passed. His father operated a brush shop and made brushes, but even so it was not easy to pay for all the paper used by the young Kim, because he drew so much every day. During the Korean War, Kim sent his wife and children to stay with his wife’s parents, where it was safer. Then when the United Nations troops retreated, he fled to the South by himself. For the rest of his life, he lived by himself in Seoul, missing his family in the North. However, his daughter allegedly emigrated to South Korea much later in life.
I remember spending an hour with him in 2004 at his apartment. The black and white photo of his wife and children from North Korea mounted on the wall was the first thing I saw after entering his home and something I will never forget. It is moments like this that have taught me about empathy. He showed me his studio and unrolled a 400 meter long scroll of life along the Han River in the early 1900s. It was amazing to see the detail he remembered, drew and then painted to depict that time period. He apparently did something similar for folklife along the Daedong River in Pyongyang. Mr. Kim was a kind soul and took care of war orphans while he, too, was a war refugee in Busan. While there, he helped establish Zion Church and set up a tent church in Choryang-dong. During the time he was enduring severe poverty as a refugee, he worked at Daehan Pottery Company in Yeongdo. He painted on plates, and with the money he earned, he fed, bought clothes, and prepared a place to sleep for the war orphans. Dozens of pastors and theology professors grew up with the help of Kim, who was like a father for them. When asked about the Three Joys art work and specifically what were his three joys, he told others “That I can paint, that I always have good people around me, and that through my Christian faith I live in God’s grace and love”.
Mr. Kim gave my wife and her three siblings a painting as a wedding gift with many symbols for good health and longevity. We brought this back many years ago to our home in New York and it is a nice reminder of this gentle soul and art documentarian.
Lastly is a brief interview with a modern Korean artist, Kim Hee Sook (김희숙). https://www.heesookkim.com/#1 She is Professor and Chair of Fine Arts at Haverford College, where she has taught since 2002. I first saw her collection of colorful and abstract paintings (mainly acrylic and oil on mulberry paper) at a gallery in Brooklyn back in 2007.
Ever since then I have followed her work and reached out to her for a brief interview which was conducted by email.
1. You left Korea about the same time as my wife. From what I gather, even in the late 1980s and early 1990s, many women were expected to get married young and start a family. My wife left Seoul to get her doctorate in environmental engineering for various reasons; wanting the education was the primary reason. She was the only female in her class while studying for her Master’s degree. Was it similar for you even in arts? Was there a reason or reasons that made you want to leave Korea?
A. When I got my MFA at Seoul National University in 1983, there were not many women as well. Becoming a professor in a college as a woman was almost impossible, especially in my Alma Mater.
2. I have stayed at Buddhist temples where certain motions or gestures are for focusing your mind, reflecting or simply meditating such as sweeping sand or stones, but not a deliberate action to clean the ground. Do you apply such techniques in your paintings or prints or is every brush stroke final and with intent?
A. I start a new painting with a sketch, but once I start making marks and brushstrokes, I go by flow. During that time, spirituality takes over.
3. How many hours a day and days per week do you make art on average? Are you regimented at x hours per day, or more whimsical?
A. I do not have set hours every day for my work. I simply come to my studio every day possible like a ritual.
4. Do you have a preference where or when you make art? Any specifics would be interesting to know.
A. I like to work in my studio. But sometimes I go to walk outside or travel to get inspiration.
5. Did you have one mentor or teacher that really helped or guided you? If yes, who was this?
A. My mentor is one of the famous Korean artists, Oh Sufan. 오수환.
6. Where do you get your spirituality from?
A. My spiritual melody comes from nature, philosophy, and thoughts from different religions.
7. Do you often paint with acrylic and oil at the same time? Is that typical? What goes on canvas first or does it not matter?
A. I use acrylics most of the time because of the water-based quality and natural flow like Korean traditional painting. When I print patterns on top, I use oil based inks. Usually you want to use acrylics before oils because of drying time differences.
8. Is there any special quality that you like or dislike about the inner bark of mulberry wood/paper Hanji (한지)?
A. I love to use Korean Mulberry paper Hanji due to the durability and surfaces that make clean marks rather than spread.
9. What is your favorite Korean food and why? Mine is a close tie Pyongyang neng myun and yoo hwang ori (평양 냉면 & 유황오리).
A. My favorite Korean foods are Bibimbap and Bibim guksoo (mixed noodle). I make art by mixing a lot of materials and contents.
Her artist statement: Paradise Between, 2016 notes the following:
In my most recent work, I've taken the subject, both in form and imagery, of Korean historical landscape painting, (specifically so-called Longevity Paintings or Sipjangsaeng-do in Korean), which were typically made only by men for the Korean upper class known as Yang Ban. Printing patterns (using Western oil colors) on top of the landscape traditionally used in Asian paintings (using water-based colors) transforms the masculine initial layer, now seen through a feminine veil. The painting's surface, covered with glass bead work using shimmering rhinestones, speaks against the power of men in Korean cultural history and still prevalent in contemporary Korean society. The work is a construct/destruct/re-construct.
In all my work, I use my personal experiences as a woman who immigrated to the United States twenty-seven years ago, after living in Korea until I was twenty-eight years old. This almost equal length of experiences in two completely different countries makes possible a hybridity that presents both cultures through the eyes of my own particular feminist perspective: raised in fear as a woman, now living in complete confidence as a woman.
When I started my career as an artist, I used the dream of a butterfly found in the writings of Chuang Tzu, the Taoist Philosopher, as a symbol of female identity, of being a woman in the world. Later this also became a minority issue, not just about being a woman, but also being an Asian immigrant in the United States. I escaped from male dominated Korean society only to find that my new home has its own complicated versions of racism, sexism and classism. My longevity paintings, as with most of my recent work ,represent both places with its many different problems and my own place between. So where then is the Paradise?
Sipjangsaeng-do contains ten elements of long life--sun, mountains, water, clouds, rocks/stone, pine trees, mushrooms of immortality (Bull cho), turtles, white cranes, deer along with bamboo and the peaches of immortality (replacing either mountains or rocks)--which represent a place of immortality, Paradise: a place of peace, spirituality, happiness and (especially) healing. In my longevity paintings, peace, spirituality and happiness are found between myself and the places created in my work. A healing process, one that can be re-created by each viewer, a "Paradise Between."
I hope this article gave you some perspective on Korean art and yourself.
Note that all artist’s names listed are last name followed by first name.
Vincent L. Apa III
July 29, 2019