Kansong museum to open fall exhibition

“Scenery on Dano Day” by Shin Yun-bok

By Chung Ah-young

In the tranquil neighborhood in Seongbuk-dong, Seoul, every spring and fall, numerous visitors will patiently line up to tour Kansong Art Museum.

The long hours of waiting won’t be minded because it’s the only time that the art museum holds rare antiques exhibitions.
Showcasing the progress of folk paintings, including portraits, during the Joseon Kingdom (1392-1910), this season’s exhibit will run from Oct. 16 to 30.

Some 100 paintings of 52 Joseon master painters such as Ahn Gyeon and Kim Eun-ho will be displayed.

The paintings of the early Joseon period were influenced by Chinese styles — largely that of Zhu Xi’s Neo-Confucianism style that originated from the Song Dynasty (960-1279) — to the extent of imitation.

As time passed, Joseon scholar Yi I (1536-1584) developed Zhu Xi’s Neo-Confucianism into Joseon’s ideology, Joseon’s own colors and flavor were created.

Since then, Jeong Seon (1676-1759) completed the heyday of the Joseon’s landscape paintings featuring its own geographical traits and society.

Using the pseudonym “Gyeomjae,” meaning humble study, Jeong was one of the most influential landscape painters in the 18th century Korea with his realistic style. He was influenced by Chinese paintings in his earlier life, but later developed his own approach. For example, a traditional Korean A-frame carrier, which was usually used for carrying firewood, was first depicted in his painting titled “Oechomundap (Fisherman and Woodcutter in Conversation).”

Cho Young-seok (1686-1761) realistically portrayed the ordinary lives of people such as a low-class woman working in her kitchen in a shanty thatched house in his painting “Travel to Rural House.”

The flourishing growth of the paintings peaked when Kim Hong-do (1745-1806), Kim Deuk-shin (1754-1822) and Shin Yun-bok (1758-) produced prolific folk works reflecting Joseon’s beauty and particular characteristics.

“Jamoyuka (Mother Feeding Her Baby)” drawn by Shin Han-pyeong, Yun-bok’s father, captures a mother feeding her daughter in her arms and a son and another daughter touching a pouch of his mother. The painting is known to be an ordinary scene that could be found at any household at that time. Some critics say the work depicts Shin’s family.

Kim Hong-do’s “Giubusin” portrays an innocent boy carrying firewood and riding on a cow in a rural place while “Masangcheongaeng (Listening to an Oriole from Atop a Horse)” captures a scholar who listens to a bird’s song on the back of a horse.

Shin Yun-bok often described the entertainment culture of young elites through “Portrait of a Beauty,” “Chunsaekmanwon,” “Sonyeonjeonhong” and “Yeonsodapcheong.”

Towards the late Joseon period, the Joseon’s painting styles began waning as the Qing’s portrait styles dominated.

The museum was the first modern private museum opened in Korea in 1938, in the middle of the colonial period. It was named after the penname of its founder Jeon Hyeong-pil, which means a “pine tree standing in the clean streams.”

Standing on a lot of some 13,223 square meters in northern Seoul, the museum and its surrounding area have an extremely quiet and peaceful quality. The main building, “Bohwagak,” is home to the cultural treasures that Jeon collected during his lifetime. The majority of the collection are as precious as national treasures.

It exhibits its collections for two weeks in both May and October and publishes a catalogue entitled Kansong Culture to coincide with the biannual exhibitions.

Admission is free. For more, call (02) 762-0442.