Know important facts about Korean painting history

Posted by John on September 17th, 2017

Korean painting includes paintings made in Korea or by overseas Koreans on all surfaces. It includes art as old as the petroglyphs through post-modern conceptual art using transient forms of light. Calligraphy rarely occurs in oil paintings and is dealt with in the brushwork entry, Korean calligraphy. Like arts of East Asia, the beauty of space is important for Korean painting.

Generally, the history of Korean art is dated to approximately 108 AD, when it first appears as an independent form. Between that time and the paintings and frescoes that appear on the Goguryeo tombs, there has been little research. Until the Joseon dynasty, the primary influence was 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.

Throughout the history of Korean painting, there has been a constant separation of monochromatic works of black brushwork on very often mulberry paper or silk; and the colorful folk art or min-Hwa, ritual arts, tomb paintings, and festival arts which had extensive use of color.

This distinction was often class-based: scholars, particularly in Confucian art felt that one could see color in monochromatic paintings within the gradations and felt that the actual use of color coarsened the paintings, and restricted the imagination. Korean folk painting 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 halo and primary colors inspired by Indian art.

Korean painting in the post-1945 period has 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.
Colour theory has been used over formal perspective, and there has yet to be an overlap between painterly art and pop-graphics since the primary influence on painters is ceramics art.

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.

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