Корейская живопись: история и традиции

none

Korean painting (hangul=한국화) includes paintings made in Korea or by overseas Koreans on all surfaces. The earliest surviving Korean paintings are murals in the Goguryeo tombs, of which considerable numbers survive, the oldest from some 2,000 years ago (mostly now in North Korea), with varied scenes including dancers, hunting and spirits. It has been hypothesized the Takamatsuzuka Tomb in Japan, from the 7th century end of the Goguryeo period, has paintings with Goguryeo influence, either done by Goguryeo artists, or Japanese one trained by Goguryeo people. Since a lot of influences came into the Korean peninsula from China during the Three Kingdoms period. Until the Joseon dynasty the primary influences came from Chinese painting though done with Korean landscapes, facial features, Buddhist topics, and an emphasis on celestial observation in keeping with the rapid development of Korean astronomy. Painting in the Goryeo period (918–1392) was dominated by Buddhist scroll paintings, adapting Chinese styles; about 160 survive from the period. In this period the royal artist's school or academy, the Dohwaseo was established, with examinations for artists and run by bureaucrats of the court. Around the start of the Joseon period (1392–1897), the largely monochrome ink wash painting tradition already long established in China was introduced, and has remained an important strand in Korean and Japanese painting, with the local version of the shan shui style of mountain landscape painting as important as in China. Thereafter Korean painting including different traditions, of monochromatic works of black brushwork, sometimes by amateurs, professional works with colour, including many genre scenes, and animal and bird and flower painting, and colourful folk art called minhwa, as well as a continuing tradition of Buddhist devotional scrolls called taenghwa, ritual arts, tomb paintings, and festival arts which had extensive use of colour. This distinction was often class based: scholars, particularly in Confucian art felt that one could see colour in monochromatic paintings within the gradations and felt that the actual use of colour coarsened the paintings, and restricted the imagination. Korean folk art, and painting of architectural frames was seen as brightening certain outside wood frames, and again within the tradition of Chinese architecture, and the early Buddhist influences of profuse rich halos and primary colours inspired by Indian art. Korean painters in the post 1945 period have assimilated some of the approaches of the west. Certain European artists with thick impasto technique and foregrounded brushstrokes captured the Korean interest first. Such artists as Gauguin, Monticelli, Van Gogh, Cézanne, Pissarro, and Braque have been highly influential as they have been the most taught in art schools, with books both readily available and translated into Korean early. And from these have been drawn the tonal palettes of modern Korean artists: yellow ochre, cadmium yellow, Naples yellow, red earth, and sienna. All thickly painted, roughly stroked, and often showing heavily textured canvases or thick pebbled handmade papers.

The expected genres of Buddhist art showing the Buddha, or Buddhist monks, and Confucian art of scholars in repose, or studying in quiet often mountainous surroundings follows general East Asian art trends. Nimbus colours are not necessarily gold, and may be suggested by lighter colours. Faces tend to realism and show humanity and age. Drapery is done with some to great care. The face is generally two dimensional, the drapery three dimensional. As in medieval and renaissance western art, drapery and faces are done often by two or three artists who specialize in one particular painterly skill. Iconography follows Buddhist iconography. Scholars tend to have the traditional stove pipe hats, or other rank hats, and scholar's monochromatic robes. Typically they are at rest in teahouses near mountains or at mountain lodges, or will be pictured with their teachers or mentors. Hunting scenes, familiar throughout the entire world, are often seen in Korean courtly art, and are reminiscent of Mongolian and Persian hunting scenes. Wild boar, deer, and stags, and Siberian tigers as well were hunted. Particularly lethal spears and spear handled maces were used by horsemen within hunting grounds after archers on the ground led the initial provocation of the animals as beaters. Buddhas tend to have Korean facial features, and are in easy resting positions.

Longevity symbols: Pictures of the ten longevity symbol figure most prominently among folk paintings of this category.

Folk paintings in this category included character designs of the popular themes of loyalty and filial piety, pictures depicting the life stories of renowned scholars and depictions of a carp jumping up from the river to transform into a dragon symbolizing the aspiration for distinguished academic achievement and a successful career in officialdom. The patronage of the Goryeo's leading families resulted in the production of the high quality Buddhist paintings like refined and detailed paintings of Buddhist saints or monks. King Gongmin of Goryeo (1330–1374) was a significant painter of the period. Yi Nyeong, a court painter, and Yi Che hyŏn, a scholar painter, are considered significant Goryeo artists outside of the Buddhist tradition.

Korean artists from the middle 1880s until 1945 had a very difficult time before Korea was freed by the allies after the unconditional surrender of Japan. From the 1880s onward, the emerging popularity of western art in Japan lead to a low opinion of traditional Korean art. Nevertheless, the formation of the Korean crafts museum in 1924 by Japanese philosopher Yanagi Sōetsu is a strong example of Japanese aesthetes who still appreciated Korean art. Japan also held an exhibition of Korean art that produced many young Korean artists such as Park Su geun. To this date there has not been a retrospective show of the hidden art under Japanese occupation, or a discussion of the conflicts between those who were forced into compromise under Japanese artistic demands. It is a sensitive issue, with artists who studied and worked in Japan and painted in the Japanese style forced into self defense and justification of compromise without other alternatives. Bridging the late Joseon dynasty and the Japanese occupation period were noteworthy artists such as Chi Un Yeong (1853–1936).