Art Informel in Korea
Informel is an art movement characterized by non-geometrical abstraction and expressive gestures. Emerging in the mid-1950s, Informel is generally considered the first radical artistic experiment…
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Academic Realism, Korean
Academic Realism refers to the mainstream style of Western painting from the Japanese colonial era (1910–45), as exemplified by works shown at the Joseon Art…
Japanese-Korean Artistic Exchange (20th Century)
Japan was the most active among the East Asian countries in embracing Western civilization during the late 19th century. At the same time, the 500-year-old…
Modernism in East Asia
The term ‘modernism’ is commonly used to describe some of the literary and cultural production of the early twentieth century in China, Japan, and Korea,…
Film Subject Overview
The Film Section includes entries on a variety of modernist genres, periods, movements, directors, films, and critical modes aligned with modernist aims and intellectual attitudes.…
Dance
Historically, modern dance scholarship has followed the contours of the field as defined by John Martin, the revered dance critic for The New York Times,…
Photography
Social Realism
Kim, Whanki [김환기] (1913–1974)
A leading figure of the first generation of Korean abstract artists, from the mid-1930s Kim Whanki shaped a distinctive style by grafting Korean lyricism into…
Im, Kwon-taek (1936--)
Im Kwon-taek, one of the most prominent South Korean filmmakers, helped to pave the way for the international success of the New Korean Cinema of…
Monochrome Movement [Tansaekhwa]
Monochrome painting, otherwise known in Korea as Tansaekwa, was an art movement that emerged after the Korean War, lasting from the late 1960s through to…
Shinmuyong (ca. 1926)
Shinmuyong means literally “New Dance” in Korean, but today it is categorized as creative Korean dance. In the early 20th century, Ausdruckstanz (Expressionist Dance) from…
Kim, Soo-yong (September 23, 1929--)
Trained as a filmmaker during the Korean War, Kim Soo-yong debuted in 1958 amid the South Korean film industry’s postwar recovery and became one of…
Yoo, Young Kuk (1916–2002)
As one of the pioneers in Korean abstract art, Yoo Young Kuk constructed a unique modernist aesthetic using simplified motifs drawn from Korean nature and…
Ko Hŭi-dong (고희동, 高羲東) (1886–1965)
Ko Hŭi-dong is regarded as Korea’s first Western-style painter. Born into a progressive diplomatic family, Ko studied at a French language school in Seoul where…
Paik, Nam June (1932–2006)
Nam June Paik was a Korean-born American artist who achieved international notoriety for his destructive, neo-dada activities and visionary, esthetic experiments with electronic media. Born…
Yi Chung-sŏp (1916–1956)
Yi Chung-sŏp was a modern Korean painter known for his expressionist style. Yi’s painting was strongly influenced by the brushwork of Korean painting and calligraphy…
Ku Ponung (구본웅, 具本雄) (1906–1953)
Ku Ponung was a modern artist and critic active during the Japanese colonial period and the Korean War. Due to his spine curvature and eccentric…
Yi In-sŏng (1953–)
Yi In-sŏng was a Western-style modernist painter born in Taegu in southern Korea. It was there that he learned the basic techniques of Western-style painting…
Yu, Hyun-mok (1925–2009)
Yu Hyun-mok belonged to the first generation of postliberation filmmakers in South Korea, and is known for films inspired by Italian neorealism that unsparingly depicted…
Communism, Socialism, Marxism, Bolshevism
Communism is first and foremost the reality of long-dismantled or nearly defunct regimes in China, the (former) Soviet Union, Eastern Europe, Cuba and North Korea:…
Kim Ki-chang (1914 –2001)
Kim Ki-chang (1914–2001), also known as Unbo, was a modern ink painter who was born in Seoul, Korea. Having lost his hearing from typhoid fever,…
Soo-Keun, Park [박수근] (1914–1965)
Park Soo-Keun is one of the most popular Korean painters of modern times. A self-taught artist, he graduated with only an elementary school education and…
Kim, Tschang-yeul (1929--)
Kim Tschang-yeul was born in Korea during the Japanese colonial era. After studying painting at the College of Fine Arts at Seoul National University (1948–1950),…
Kim, Pok-chin [김복진, 金復鎭] (1901–1940)
Kim Pok-chin was a pioneering modern sculptor, art critic, and socialist agitator who led a progressive literary movement in colonial Korea. Studies of Kim and…