Viewing the Front Page Artwork of the Newsletter (2) “Looking at Buyongjeong from Kyujanggak,” by artist Kyungmin NAM
2016-02-22 l Hit 1237
Viewing the Front Page Artwork of the Newsletter
(2) “Looking at Buyongjeong from Kyujanggak,” by artist Kyungmin NAM
 “Looking at Buyongjeong from kyujanggak,” 2014, Oil on linen, 200 x 450 cm.
[Image provided by the artist] |
Artist Kyungmin NAM, who is well known for her series of work about the workshops of the old masters from Western art history, recently turned her mind to the personal library of the old Korean masters. Starting with Joseon Dynasty painters, such as Gyeomjae Seon Jeong, Danwon Hongdo Kim, and Hyewon Yunbok Shin to King Jeongjo, who established Joseon’s renaissance, the artist introduces their stories from the past.
The artist majored in Western painting. While studying Western art history, she felt closer to Western painters than Korean traditional painters. “I started doubting myself, because I don’t really know Korean traditional artists well, though I am Korean. In the meantime, I was making work that expresses Western art history in the form of a personal library, and happened to see Gyeomjae Seon Jeong’s self-portrait from his art book. It was an image of him looking at peony flowers while sitting on a wooden porch running along the outside of a room. After seeing the work, I created the piece 'Looking at Fine Trees from Gyeomjae Seon Jeong’s Study' as an homage to him,” she commented. Starting with this work, she painted our ancestors’ ateliers, including Hongdo Kim’s and Yunbok Shin’s, and ended up thinking about the personal library of King Jeongjo, who established Joseon’s renaissance.
 An image from artist Kyungmin NAM’s artist talk at her private exhibition at the Savina Museum in November, 2014. Next to her, art critic Juhun Lee, in charge of explaining the artist’s work.
[Image provided by Savina Museum] |
In this newsletter, 'Looking at Buyongjeong from Kyujanggak' is introduced, which is a large painting that depicts Buyongjeong through a window of Kyujanggak, a scholarly and political research institution built with Jeongjo’s dream of reformative politics in Changdeokgung Palace’s backyard. Buyongjeong is a royal palace where the royal family’s descendants studied and was especially cherished by Jeongjo.
Artist Kyungmin NAM explored Changdeokgung Palace in person and studied old research materials to increase the accuracy of the work. At the same time, she added a feeling of imaginary space by erasing the shadows from objects, and used primary colors for a surreal atmosphere, in order to prevent the work from being seen as solely a historical painting.
The work begins with drawing a purple curtain back, just like raising a curtain on a play. Behind the curtain, objects with various meanings are arrayed and add vividness.
For example, a peony blossom in the middle of the central table signifies the wealth and honor of the royal family, and the pink plum flowers in a vase to the left symbolize the integrity of scholars. Peacock feathers and a pipe reveal the phases of the era, in which Western civilization was introduced, and a book on one of the tables depicts “The Royal Protocols of the Joseon Dynasty,” showing the state funeral of Queen Jangnyeol, who was the second wife of King Injo. The artist studies the circumstances of the time period and introduces Kyujanggak from the era through meaningful objects. She includes a skull and an hourglass, which are objects she often uses to symbolize the finiteness of life and to emphasize time in the painting.
2016. 2. 26 ⓒKorean Artist Project
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