About the Works

1. Hubert Vos, <Landscape of Seoul>, 1899, Oil on canvas

  Born in the Netherlands, Hubert Vos (1855-1935) was active as a painter in Paris and Brussels. He was a member of the Royal Society of Portrait Painters in Great Britain. Thanks to his wife, who was the last princess of the Kingdom of Hawaii, Vos was able to travel around the world and paint many portraits of people of various ethnicities. Among his travels, he came to Korea in 1898, and stayed here for about two years.
  His Landscape of Seoul, painted in 1899, depicts the city as seen from what was then the U.S. Legation (presently the U.S. ambassador's residence) in Jeong-dong, facing Gyeongbokgung Palace. The panorama of visible landmarks in the painting includes Gwanghwamun Gate, Gyeonghoeru Pavillion, and Mt. Bukhan.
  In the foreground, there is a tile-roofed house with some nearby peach blossoms in full bloom. In 1911, Vos wrote to a friend that "Korea is one of the most interesting countries in the world. There are amazingly beautiful flowers growing everywhere—on hillsides, in a quiet river valley, and around a lovely lake. The people there belong to one of the oldest races in the world. They always wear white clothes like apparitions, and they walk quietly, so it's as if you're seeing them in a dream."

2. Lee, Sang-beom, <Early Winter>, 1926, India ink and light color on Korean paper

  Born in Gongju, Chungcheongnam-do Province, Lee Sang-beom (1897-1972) lost his father at an early age, which left his family impoverished. Thus, he chose to enroll at the Gyeongseong Academy of Fine Arts, Korea's first art school of the modern era, since he did not have to pay tuition. The school was operated by two masters of Korean painting, An Jung-sik and Jo Seok-jin. In 1923, Lee organized some of his fellow students into a student art association called Dongyeonsa, and the group began to pursue innovative new painting styles that were quite different from those of their teachers.
  Lee submitted Early Winter to the Joseon Art Exhibition, and it received a special prize. The painting is executed on two sheets of Korean traditional paper that have been attached to each other. Each sheet is similar in size to a panel of a folding screen, so that two joined pieces formed the wide quadrilateral shape which was the general format of works submitted to the exhibition. Instead of painting an "ideal" or "conceptual" landscape, which was the long held practice of traditional Korean landscape painting, Lee painted a very ordinary, even banal landscape, which seemed to originate from an actual view of the countryside. The somewhat desolate field and mountain, captured in early winter, do not look like anything special; perhaps that's why this painting looks all the more familiar.

3. Kim, Chong-tai, <Yellow Top>, 1929, Oil on canvas

  Kim Chong-tai (1906-1935) was born in Gimpo, Gyeonggi-do Province, and he studied art independently. Beginning in 1926, he had a total of 22 works selected for the Joseon Art Exhibition, making him one of the true "star artists" of that event. He attended Gyeongseong School of Education, and worked as an art teacher at Jugyo Elementary School in Seoul. He quit teaching in 1930, and went to Japan to study oil paintings under Ishii Hakutei (石井柏亭, 1882-1958). While in Japan, he was accepted for the Nika Exhibition (二科展). Upon returning to Korea, he became the first-ever artist named as the Recommended Artist for the Western Painting section of the Joseon Art Exhibition in 1934. However, the following year, he died suddenly of typhoid, tragically interrupting his short life of 29 years.
  According to documentation, he seems to have been quite prolific, but very few of his paintings have survived. His signature ("一九二九年 金鍾泰") on the upper left hand corner of Yellow Top tells us that he made the painting in 1929 when he was 23. Notably, the placement and the style of the signature—in the upper left hand corner, written vertically in Chinese characters—matches signatures from traditional Oriental landscape paintings, as if Kim is trying to signal his conscious decision to maintain his Oriental and Korean artistic roots, even though he made oil paintings. Backgrounded by an easel, the seated girl is wearing a Korean traditional costume as she modestly poses for him, with her blushed cheeks conveying her girlish shyness. Even though Kim worked with oil paints, he still made swift, daring brushstrokes that aimed to capture the subject in a single breath, as if he were making traditional ink paintings. This work greatly exemplifies one of the representative styles and techniques of Kim Chong-tai.

4. Oh, Ji-ho, <House with a Southern Exposure>, 1939, Oil on canvas

  Oh Ji-ho (1905-1982) was born in Hwasun, Jeollanam-do Province. He graduated from Whimoon High School and Tokyo School of Fine Arts. After graduation, he returned to Korea in the 1930s, where he joined his friend Kim Ju-kyung's newly founded group "Nokhyanghoe" , an art collective promoting oil paintings. In 1938, the pair published The Collected Paintings of Oh Ji-ho and Kim Ju-gyeong in full color, which was rare at the time, and thus brought them considerable attention. Oh started teaching at Songdo High School in Gaeseong in 1935. After Korea gained its independence, he became a professor at Chosun University in Gwangju, where he lived for most of the rest of his life.
  House with a Southern Exposure depicts the house where he lived while he was teaching at Songdo High School. In Korea, houses facing south provide the most sunlight, and are thus most desirable. The house in the painting is saturated with bright midday sunshine, causing stark shadows to be cast on the wall. The girl who timidly peers out from the doorway is the artist's daughter, who is joined by a white dog that contently dozes in the warmth of the afternoon sun. The scene is so vivid that we can virtually feel the crisp, clear air and the deep blue sky. Every visual experience results from the effects of light, and Oh Ji-ho recognized that there is light even in shadow and darkness. Therefore, he used blue and purple paints to depict the shadow of the tree. House with a Southern Exposure is considered a landmark work that embodies the essence of Korean Impressionism.

5. Ku, Pon-ung, <Portrait of a Friend>, 1935, Oil on canvas

  Ku Pon-ung (1906-1953) enrolled at Goryeo Art Institute in 1925, where he studied sculpture under Kim, Bok-chin. He later went to Japan to continue his studies at Pacific Art School (太平洋美術学校). In Japan, as he had in Korea, Ku actively served and supported groups that were outside of the establishment, which set him apart from the conventions of academic art in Japan. Upon returning to Korea, he continued to develop his unique expressionist style.
  Lee Sang (1910-1937), the renowned poet, was Ku's closest friend, and the subject of Portrait of a Friend. The portrait exudes a certain ambience, hinting at the special bond that joined the exceptional lives of these two artists. Against a dark background, a man tugs down on his hat, with a pipe clamped in his mouth; his expressionless face is pale, but tinted with green paint. Lee Sang's wife, Byeon Dong-rim, who was also Ku's half-sister, once said, "It was absolutely impossible that anyone could be happy during our time, under the fatal condition of Japanese colonialism." This painting poignantly reflects the anguish of artists who were forced to endure the painful restraints of that era.

6. Ryu, Kyung-chai, <Neighborhood of a Bare Mountain>, 1949, Oil on canvas

  Ryu Kyung-chai (1920-1995) was born in Haeju, Hwanghae-do Province. He made his debut when he was accepted for the Joseon Art Exhibition in 1940, and then he went to Japan to study in the 1940s. In 1949, following the establishment of the Government of the Republic of Korea, the first National Art Exhibition was held. At the time, Ryu was teaching at Seoul College of Education, and he submitted Neighborhood of a Bare Mountain to the exhibition. He was awarded the inaugural "President Prize," the Grand Prix, which thrust him suddenly into the spotlight. He was a leading figure in the post-independence Korean art scene, continuing to teach as a university professor and serving on the jury of the Grand Art Exhibition of Korea.
  Although the scene of Neighborhood of a Bare Mountain is known to be a physical location—the desolate landscape of Wangsimni in Seoul—the painting looks almost abstract. Despite having achieved independence from Japan, Korea was in ruins, and the social atmosphere could only be described as chaos. This painting aptly embodies those conditions. Nonetheless, amidst the surrounding devastation and confusion, nature retains a tenacious hold on life, instilling the painting with a melancholy vigor. This work heralded a new style of Korean painting by prominently featuring new aesthetic elements, such as a variety of colors, atypical forms, and an emphasis on matière (materials).

7. Park, Soo-keun, <Grandfather and Grandson>, 1960, Oil on canvas

  Park Soo-keun (1914-1965) was born in Yanggu, Gangwon-do Province, and he is primarily a self-taught artist. His artistic career began in 1932, when he was accepted for the Joseon Art Exhibition, but he did not attain his representative style until the 1950s. In particular, his most famous works are the result of an arduous process, in which he repeatedly adds brushstrokes, over and over, to emulate rough textures and colors that are reminiscent of granite, the most common type of rock in Korea. His works of perseverance are greatly appreciated as exuding Korean aesthetics and sensibility, such that they have attracted foreign collectors.
  Grandfather and Grandson is characteristic of Park's works, which capture very ordinary and everyday moments of people's lives. He once wrote, "I believe that moments in the lives of regular people who live simply, ingenuously, and diligently, are the greatest artworks of all! I hold the very common view that art must depict the essential goodness and sincerity of human nature. Therefore, the people who become the subjects of my paintings are quite simple, not complex. I most enjoy painting images of ordinary grandfathers, grandmothers, and young children in someone's family."

8. Kim, Whan-ki, <Mountain and the Moon>, 1960, Oil on canvas

  Kim Whan-ki (1913-1974) was born on a small island called Gajwado Island, Sinan, Jeollanam-do Province. His parents were opposed to him becoming a painter, so he left home in 1931 and went to Japan to study at Kinjo (錦城) Middle School and the College of Art at Nihon University. In 1935, he was selected for the Nika Exhibition (二科展). Through independent group exhibitions in Japan, Kim became familiar with all of the most recent trends in Western art, such as Cubism and Constructivism. Nonetheless, he consistently preferred subjects that were simple, austere, and candid, and more reminiscent of his Korean homeland.
  After staying in Paris from 1956 to 1959, Kim returned home, and he painted Mountain and the Moon shortly thereafter. Hence, although the subject is depicted in a highly simplified, even abstract, manner, it still strongly conveys a Korean sentiment. The most distinctive element of the painting is the bluish hue that Kim preferred, but there is also a peaceful harmony evinced by the mountain, moon, people, and the ground. This work, with its limited colors, communicates the ordinary and yet transcendent coexistence between humanity and nature. Kim Whan-ki's works always bring out such unique poetic emotion and sensibility.