October 18, 1997 - January 18, 1998 The first presentation in the United States of traditional scholar paintings from Korea's last dynasty are loaned by Korea University Museum, one of the most important collections in Korea. Delicate ink paintings on hanging screens, scrolls, and album leaves from the sixteenth to twentieth century depict landscapes, single figures and groups, and all manner of animal and plant life, and flowers. A collection of fans will be displayed concurrently at the University Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology. The exhibition is organized by Korea University Museum and The Korea Studies Institute, Korea University, and circulated by the David and Alfred Smart Museum, University of Chicago. The exhibition was made possible at Penn by the Women's Development Institute International.

Kim Hong-do (1745-ca.1806) Pugil-yong Military Base

Scholar Painting in Choson Dynasty

Literati painting developed in China during the Northern Sung period (960-1127). An educated elite, distinct from professional artists, painted for purposes of self-cultivation and relaxation outside the rigors of Confucian study and government service. Equally imbued with the "fragrance of writing" and the "spirit of books," Korean scholar-painters found a spiritual and intellectual affinity with the ideals and styles of traditional literati painting. The Ming painter and critic Tung Ch'i-ch'ang divided the history of painting in China into two distinct genealogies: the Northern school, viewed as conservative or even reactionary, encompassed professional artisans and practitioners of realistic or decorative styles. The Southern school, or literati tradition, favored idealized landscapes rendered in a subjective and expressive manner and was considered elevated and progressive.

Sim Sa-jong (1707-1769) Plants and Insects

The scholar-painter used the materials of the calligrapher: brush and ink, paper and silk. To these he might add pale colored washes and occasionally rich, opaque colors. A poem or descriptive text served to enhance the literatus ideal of the "Three Perfections"-calligraphy, poetry, and painting. The subjects of literati painting included idealized landscapes, images of bamboo and orchids, and scenes of scholarly seclusion.

detail Yu Tok-chang (1694-1774) Bamboo

Initially defined and practiced by a limited circle of Confucian scholars, this refined brush-and-ink painting tradition flourished. By the 18th century, it expanded to include court and professional painters, many of lower social status. By the end of the dynasty, literati painting in Korea encompassed wider aesthetic options, including the uniquely Korean traditions of "true view" landscape and genre painting. The original ideals of scholar painting were thus displaced by a reverence for its formal values and subjects, far removed from its ideological roots.

"True View" Landscape Painting

Ch'oe Puk (1712-ca.1786) Landscape

The emergence in late 17th-century Korea of schools of Confucian thought, accompanied by a new national self-consciousness, led to changes in the world of art. Painters who had previously depicted idealized landscapes that closely followed Chinese prototypes were encouraged to paint scenes from Korean life and "true-view" landscapes of actual rivers and mountains of the Korean peninsula. The founder of the Choson true-view landscape painting school was the scholar-artist Chong Son (1676-1759), represented in the exhibition by three true-view landscapes, cat. nos. 1-3. By the mid 18th century, professional artists were making important contributions to the genre of true view landscape painting. The elegant and detailed true-view style of court painter Kim Hong-do (1745 - ca. 1806) is represented here in two album leaves, "Pugil-yong Military Base" and "Namsu-yong Military Base," cat. nos. 27-28.

Korean Che School Painting

Prior to the rise of Southern school literati-style painting in early 18th-century Korea, scholar-painters embraced the academic styles of the Che school that had developed in the Chekiang region of China. Literati painters of the earlier Choson period found strong emotional affinity with the rustic sentiments characteristic of this style: broad "axe-cut" texture strokes, vigorous, wet ink strokes, and dramatic contrasts between black and white. Chinese scholar-painters considered the showy brushwork and ink method too assertive and unconventional and tended to keep their distance from the Che school. Choson literati who traveled as envoys to Ming China played a pivotal role in establishing the Che school style of painting in Korea. The school came to dominate Korean landscape painting from the late 16th through the 17th century.

Kim Sik (1579-1662) and his grandfather Kim Che both painted in a Koreanized Che school manner. They were known for their landscapes and produced works in the ox-painting tradition, a genre established in both China and Korea and represented here by Kim Sik's "Water Buffalo," cat. no. 32. Yi Kyong-yun (1545-1611) treats the theme of the scholar's retired life in his "Album of Figures in Landscapes," cat. nos. 20 b-j. In these album leaves, there is strong contrast between the dark axe-cut texture strokes and the evocative blank pictorial space. "Sage Releasing a Crane" cat. no. 21, an album leaf by Yi Ching (1581-ca. 1645), also displays the calligraphic ink-play achieved by the refined brush of the Choson scholar-painter.

Humor in Korean Painting

The 18th century saw the development of genre painting and minhwa or folk painting, which reflected the life of the common people in Korea. Humor, a vital feature of such painting, is found in the albums by the professional painters Kim Hong-do (1745-ca. 1806), included in this exhibition, and Sin Yun-bok and Kim Tuk-sin, as well as in certain established themes involving animals.

Playful irreverence characterizes the album leaf "Sage Washing his Feet," cat. no. 20 j, by Choson scholar-painter Yi Kyong-yun (1545-1611) as well as "Water Buffalo," cat. no. 32, by Kim Sik (1579-1662), in which the oxen appear to be wearing spectacles. In one of the album leaves from "Plants and Insects" cat. no. 35, by Sim Sa-jong (1707-1769), a rat is seen nibbling at a carrot. While the theme may be trivial, the painstaking execution of these works reveals the underlying seriousness of the scholar-painter's endeavor. The mundane subject matter, coupled with the intellectual status of the literati painter, gives rise to a higher sense of irony.