As described by Chung (2005), the minutely-detailed coloured Bunche painting technique was passed down to the last court painters, Seok-jin Jo (fig. 36) and Jung-sik An (fig. 37), from Seong-eop Jang (fig. 38), who was one of the most celebrated professional artists at the end of Joseon dynasty (1392 – 1897). The court painters dealt with a variety of subject matters and styles, ranging from literati painting styles, to Chinese manuals, to landscapes, to detailed heavily-coloured paintings, to themes used in Minwha. The court painter Jung-sik An used a colouring technique of piling up layers of colours after each preceding layer dried, which I also used for my Bunche painting practice. This Bunche technique was practiced in the early Joseon dynasty, but became most popular in Japan, and is called Nihonga (Chung, 2006, p. 35).
After the Japan and Korean Annexation of 1910, the Fine Arts School of Calligraphy and Painting was established in 1911, and the former court painters Seok-jin Jo and Jung-sik An taught at the school, and played a crucial role in transmitting Korean traditional painting styles to students due to the versatile teachers. The graduates were ready to find new artistic inspiration from Japan and the West (Chung, 2005, p. 40). According to Chung (2005), Han-bok Yi was a graduate of the Fine Arts School of Calligraphy and Painting, and studied Nihonga (fig. 39 & 40) at the Tokyo School of Fine Arts in Japan. After he returned to Korea, he exhibited at the Joseon Fine Art Exhibitions, and was awarded several prizes. Yi’s paintings of Long Summer Day (1922) and An Artichoke (1924) reflected Japanese ‘Taisho minute realism’, and a Western style of composition, which is different from the traditional Korean painting style of flower-and-bird (Chung, 2006, p. 82). Also, Un-ho Kim (fig. 41) mastered Nihonga
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under the leading Nihonga painter Yuki Somei (1875 – 1957), as well as traditional Northern School painting coloured painting techniques. Kim’s realistic coloured painting style relied on photography for its realism (fig. 42). As described by Chung (2005, p. 86), Yi and Kim’s style of painting represented that the traditional concept of realism expressed as transmission of inner spirit is replaced by ‘a new kind of realism that focuses on outward appearance’. Chung’s comments shed light on the difference between traditional True-view realism and Western realism in art. Korean True-view realism focuses on the formal shape, yet it can be modified as analogical representation to express inner thoughts and feeling through life-forms from Li-Ki monism. However, Western or photographic realism focuses on accurate visual representation of scenes and objects, departing from idealism in art in terms of dualistic forms of figurative and abstract paintings.
Ki-chang Kim (1913 – 2001) and Wu-sock Choe (1899 – 1964) were influenced by Im- ho Kim’s Nihonga style, since they were Kim’s pupils. Ki-chang Kim’s painting Returning From Lunch Delivery (1943) depicted Korean local scenery with decorative, bright, opaque coloured painting techniques. Kim and Choe also painted new modern urban life with modern women, which was a poplar theme in modern Nihonga. Women in modern life were depicted with opaque white faces and hazy background which is a typical Nihonga style (fig. 40). During the Japanese rule in Korea, Bunche painting was combined with Nihonga styles, as well as Western painting styles, and continued to be practiced by post-colonial artists such as Gyeongja Cheon (1924 -2015) (fig. 43) and Sukja Lee (1942 –), who developed their own Bunche painting styles. After liberation, Nihonga style paintings were regarded as a painful memory of the colonial period, so many artists including Woo-song Chung consciously changed their Nihonga style to
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Joseon dynasty Bunche colouring style. However, the colouring technique of Bunche, which fills up layers of colours on paper, became a fundamental painting technique in modern and contemporary Bunche painting practice.
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Figure 36: Seok-jin Jo (1910, Korea), Old Wise Gooses, 125.0 x 62.5 cm, National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art. Korea (Used with permission of KOGL)
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Figure 37: Jung-sik An (1913, Korea), Small Boat by Blossoming Peach Forest, Bunche Colours on Silk, 160.4 x 70.4 cm, Leeum Museum, Korea (Used with permission of KOGL)
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Figure 38: Seung-eop Jang, (Late 19 C, Korea) Sage Having a Paulownia Tree Washed, Ink and light color on silk, 151.2 x 31.0 cm, Leeum Museum, Korea (Used with permission of KOGL)
81 F ig ure 39 : Ka wa i Gy ok ud o, P arti ng S pri ng ( L eft pa ne l, A P air of Six -fo ld S cre en s. (1 91 6, Ja pa n), Na ti on al M use um o f M od ern Art, T ok yo , P ub li c do m ain , (W ik ime dia, 20 16 )
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Figure 40: Shoen Uemura, Preparing to dance (1914, Japan),Ink and Colour on Paper, 170x202, National Museum of Modern Art, Kyoto, Public domain image (Source: Wikimedia, 2013)
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Figure 41: Un-ho Kim (1935, Korea), The Beaty, Bunche Colours and Ink on Silk, 143.0 x 57.5 cm, National Museum of Modern and Cotemporary Art, Korea (Used with permission of KOGL)
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Figure 42: Un-ho Kim (1915, Korea), The Figure, Bunche Colours and Ink on Korean Paper, 62 x 45 cm, National Museum of Modern and Cotemporary Art, Korea (Used with permission of KOGL)
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Figure 43: Gyeongja Cheon(1977, Korea), Bunche on Korean Paper, 43.5 x 36cm, Seoul Museum of Art (Used with permission of Seoul Metropolitan Government)
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1.3.2 Influence of Western Modern Art
This chapter is an important starting point to explore the capacity of Deleuze’s aesthetics to compel us to convert any preconceived, immobile ideas into completely new and vibrant ones. I will demonstrate what Deleuze’s theory of art can do in Korean painting practices based on my critical understanding of Korean Minimalism, Dansaek-hwa, in relation to Literati painting tradition. I will gradually present a description of the way in which Deleuze’s aesthetics is integrated with Korean True-view Realism as well as the aesthetics of Tao in relation to Li-Ki Monism.
After the Japanese rule ended in 1945, the minutely-detailed Bunche painting styles were disparaged, as it was considered to reveal Japanese colour in Korean painting. This negative association with Nihonga still remains strongly in contemporary Korean art. The popularity of Western abstract painting also overshadowed the realistic Bunche painting styles, as abstract art was adapted under the integration of literati painting aesthetics. Western modern art was introduced to Korean art practice as a result of direct contact with European and American modernism, without the intermediate role of Japanese art institutions (Chung, 2006, p.138). According to Youngna Kim (2005), many progressive art groups were organized around 1957, and the most experimental group was the Contemporary Artist Association which became the starting point for Korean modern art. Some artists experimented with America’s Abstract Expressionism, such as Ungno Lee’s work Eruption (1950s) which showed the obvious influence of Jackson Pollock’s painting, and others adapted styles from Europe’s Art Informel, which began to appear in 1958.