• MISULJARYO - National Museum of Korea Art Journal
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• v.97
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• pp.87-104
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• 2020

Myogilsang on Diamond Mountain, signed and dated (2000) by Seon-u Yeong (1946-2009), is the first work by a North Korean artist to enter the collection of the National Museum of Korea (fig. 1a). The donor acquired the painting directly from the artist in Pyeongyang in 2006. In consequence, there are no issues with the painting's authenticity.This painting is the largest among all existing Korean paintings, whether contemporary or from the Joseon Dynasty, to depict this iconography (see chart 1. A Chronological List of Korean Myogilsang Paintings.) It is ink and color on paper, measures 130.2 × 56.2 centimeters, and is in a hanging scroll format. Since this essay is intended as a brief introduction of the painting and not in-depth research into it, I will simply examine the following four areas: 1. Seon-u Yeong's background; 2. The location and the traditional appellation of the rock-cut image known as Myogilsang; 3. The iconography of the image; and 4) A comparative analysis of Seon-u Yeong's painting in light of other paintings on the same theme. Finally, I will present two more of his works to broaden the understanding of Seon-u Yeong as a painter. 1. Seon-u Yeong: According to the donor, who met Seon-u at his workshop in the Cheollima Jejakso (Flying Horse Workshop) three years before the artist's death, he was an individual of few words but displayed a firm commitment to art. His preference for subjects such as Korean landscapes rather than motifs of socialist realism such as revolutionary leaders is demonstrated by the fact that, relative to his North Korean contemporaries, he seems to have produced more paintings of the former. In recent years, Seon-u Yeong has been well publicized in Korea through three special exhibitions (2012 through 2019). He graduated from Pyeongyang College of Fine Arts in 1969 and joined the Central Fine Arts Production Workshop focusing on oil painting. In 1973 he entered the Joseon Painting Production Workshop and began creating traditional Korean paintings in ink and color. His paintings are characterized by intense colors and fine details. The fact that his mother was an accomplished embroidery specialist may have influenced on Seon-u's choice to use intense colors in his paintings. By 1992, he had become a painter representing the Democratic People's Republic of Korea with several titles such as Artist of Merit, People's Artist, and more. About 60 of his paintings have been designated as National Treasures of the DPRK. 2. The Myogilsang rock-cut image is located in the Manpok-dong Valley in the inner Geumgangsan Mountain area. It is a high-relief image about 15 meters tall cut into a niche under 40 meters of a rock cliff. It is the largest of all the rock-cut images of the Goryeo period. This image is often known as "Mahayeon Myogilsang," Mahayeon (Mahayana) being the name of a small temple deep in the Manpokdong Valley (See fig. 3a & 3b). On the right side of the image, there is an intaglio inscription of three Chinese characters by the famous scholar-official and calligrapher Yun Sa-guk (1728-1709) reading "妙吉祥"myogilsang (fig. 4a, 4b). 3. The iconography: "Myogilsang" is another name for the Bhodhisattva Mañjuśrī. The Chinese pronunciation of Myogilsang is "miaojixiang," which is similar in pronunciation to Mañjuśrī. Therefore, we can suggest a 妙吉祥 ↔ Mañjuśrī formula for the translation and transliteration of the term. Even though the image was given a traditional name, the mudra presented by the two hands in the image calls for a closer examination. They show the making of a circle by joining the thumb with the ring finger (fig. 6). If the left land pointed downward, this mudra would conventionally be considered "lower class: lower life," one of the nine mudras of the Amitabha. However, in this image the left hand is placed across its abdomen at an almost 90-degree angle to the right hand (fig. 6). This can be interpreted as a combination of the "fear not" and the "preaching" mudras (see note 10, D. Saunders). I was also advised by the noted Buddhist art specialist Professor Kim Jeong-heui (of Won'gwang University) to presume that this is the "preaching" mudra. Therefore, I have tentatively concluded that this Myogilsang is an image of the Shakyamuni offering the preaching mudra. There is no such combination of hand gestures in any other Goryeo-period images. The closest I could identify is the Beopjusa Rock-cut Buddha (fig. 7) from around the same time. 4. Comparative analysis: As seen in , except for the two contemporary paintings, all others on this chart are in ink or ink and light color. Also, none of them included the fact that the image is under a 40-meter cliff. In addition, the Joseon-period paintings all depicted the rock-cut image as if it were a human figure, using soft brushstrokes and rounded forms. None of these paintings accurately rendered the mudra from the image as did Seon-u. Only his painting depicts the natural setting of the image under the cliff along with a realistic rendering of the image. However, by painting the tall cliff in dark green and by eliminating elements on either side of the rock-cut image, the artist was able to create an almost surreal atmosphere surrounding the image. Herein lies the uniqueness of Seon-u Yeong's version. The left side of Seon-u's 2007 work Mount Geumgang (fig. 8) lives up to his reputation as a painter who depicts forms (rocks in this case) in minute detail, but in the right half of the composition it also shows his skill at presenting a sense of space. In contrast, Wave (fig. 9), a work completed one year before his death, displays his faithfulness to the traditions of ink painting. Even based on only three paintings by Seon-u Yeong, it seems possible to assess his versatility in both traditional ink and color mediums.

• The Journal of the Korea Contents Association
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• v.12 no.8
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• pp.178-186
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• 2012

This study examined the concept-forming process of Design-Art and based on it, drew the significance of Design-Art. Design-Art is generated by the policy cultivating star artists and star designers so as to pioneer new art-market in 1990s in the foundation of anti-area formed by Postmodernism in 1960s. It started to be vitalized while designers were born as author. At the same time, because of the information's popularity by internet's propagation, users started to manufacture and propagate contents volunteerly. Meanwhile, designers accepted artistic value so as to guarantee independent position, so the area of Design-Art became more strengthened. Therefore, Design-Art means 'design as an art' and Design-Artist obtained general meaning, 'designer as an author'. In 2000s, it secured variety because of the acceptance of existing art galleries' Design-Art works and forming of new Design-Art market such as Design-Art fair, and vitalization of the market played its own roles with the movement to create new-concept of design in design ecology. Based on the contents, this paper analyzed Design-Art works by Design-Artists working actively in actual field and examined the possibility of future development of Design-Art.

• The Research Journal of the Costume Culture
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• v.19 no.6
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• pp.1372-1384
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• 2011

The purpose of this study was to identify egonomy tendency on their self-makeup and appearance management behavior of university women in Jeonbuk province. A self-administered questionnaire was used for data collection. Frequency analyses, reliability analyses, cross-tabulations and multiple regression analyses were used. Factors of university women's egonomy tendency were individuality, value, luxury good, style, design, appearance, and economic feasibility. University women were classified into the egonomy retarde group(G1), the value pursuing group(G2), the economic feasibility pursuing group(G3), and the highly egonomy pursuing group(G4). G1 were indifferent to their makeup methods and appearance management, had the least experience in buying recommended cosmetics or idea cosmetics. G2 invested time and efforts in makeup and managed their appearance with cosmetics or folk remedies, had less experience in buying artist brand cosmetics. G3 performed makeup frequently, were not much interested in appearances while showing the most frequent appearance management behaviors using cosmetics of folk remedies, and spent small amount of money to buy cosmetics. G4 showed high frequencies of all factors of self-makeup and appearance management behaviors, had the most experience in buying artist brand cosmetics and spent much amounts of money to buy cosmetics. Self-makeup behavior was affected by their tendencies to pursue individuality, values, appearance and appearance management behavior was affected by their tendencies to pursue luxury goods, appearance, and economic feasibility.

• The Journal of Art Theory & Practice
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• no.15
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• pp.31-49
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• 2013

This paper delves into the recent 'paintings' of African-American artist David Hammons, which combine rubbish-like plastic wraps with the abstract-expressionist style paintings. In straddling between rubbish and art object, his works tend to blur the boundary drawn between two opposite categories in value, art and garbage, provoking the sophisticated taste of Upper-East-side white community in Manhattan, New York. Choosing the venue of his exhibition at a commercial gallery, Hammons's creative efforts is also a critique of what can be seen as the dominance of abstract expressionism and white elitism in American art history. The artist is known for his use of unconventional materials in art making such as black hair, barbecue bones, and elephant droppings, ones that are often associated with African-American experiences in all different levels. Since his debut in the art scene in the 1970s, Hammons has pursued the view of art-making as a medium for provoking contentious issues of racial relations in the States. On the other hand, the reception of Hammons's work as African-American art can be potentially quite limiting, overlooking as it does multi-faceted meanings of his art practice. His unconventional approach to art often took him outside art galleries and museums, where he was seen using a variety of common materials for site-specific installations and performances. Staged in different parts of Manhattan, these acts of art making traverse seemingly opposite communities and cultures, often blurring their boundaries. Hammons's artistic practice can label him what Abdul Jan Mohamed calls "specular border intellectual", revealing as it does the symbiosis of binary oppositions that is basic to the experience of communnal living.

• Journal of Digital Convergence
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• v.10 no.10
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• pp.431-437
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• 2012

In today's modern society, since the Industrial Revolution took place, still lots of goods have been produced in quantity. However, human's instinct has been growing bigger and bigger that he or she wants to possess the works or products of scarcity and aesthetic value of a sculpture handmade by craftsmen, not mass-produced with the same design patterns. Accordingly, it is required that an artist be concerned about the value of figuring out and pursuing an individual's lifestyle, his/her needs and inherent desires. Moreover, by means of visualization technique, an artist should provide the public with several scenarios about the future, letting them choose the one they want democratically. Therefore, with the help of Mokumegane technique, one of the traditional metal crafts techniques, which shows certain organic patterns joining different metals, this research aims for the inheritance of traditional techniques and the objective preparation for high-quality crafts market, studying the patterns expressed on the surface of metals, which are hard to find through machines.

• The Journal of Art Theory & Practice
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• no.16
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• pp.7-40
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• 2013

Historian Eric J. Hobsbawm once said "the task that historians have is to analyze the meanings of the past within the context of society and to track the changes and implementation." It would not be too far of a stretch to apply Hobsbawm's quote to art historian since art history, although quite specific, is still history. In addition, Hobsbaum also asserted that, "a mold called the past continuously forms the present or at least thought to be." It is my recognition that the major westernization of the last century took place under the Japanese colonization which served as the channel to usher in western art; however, the current 20thcentury Korean art history fails to recognize that the mold of the past, namely western art in this case, has formed the modern art of the present. Based on this recognition, attention was given to what lacked in the analysis of the current 20th-century Korean art history in terms of "Informel" which was identified as the turning point towards "modern art" in the Korean art history as well as the following "experimental art." My belief is that the art history of Korea has to be reassessed from, a socio-cultural perspective as well as adopting multi-level and diachronic understanding. However, the existing Korean art, especially the one between the end of 1950s to the 1970s was based on the perspective of "severance"; thus, raising the needs for the starting point of a new perspective. It is my conviction that meta perspective on writing is most essential in order to lay a solid basis for the Korean art scene to have a productive discussion. I feel the utmost necessity to reinterpret the typified history analysis and criticism which stemmed from the trauma under the Japanese colonization. The most urgent task is to avoid academic closeness and to share the research. Painting is an individual expression of the artist, but the act of expression is not free from the cultural and societal influence to which the artist belongs.

• Journal of Korean Library and Information Science Society
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• v.50 no.4
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• pp.611-633
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• 2019

The purpose of this study is to look into the meaning of Hong Seongchan who has become the first generation picture book writers in the history of Korean picture books by considering the works of the picture book author 'Hong Seongchan', the characteristics of pictures and the artist's spirit. The career that he took up from 1955 as an illustrator to 2012 when the final picture book was published is in line with the developmental process of Korean picture books. He consistently devoted himself to publishing illustrations from the days when his job as an illustrator was not noticed to the days when he finished his life as a picture book writer through his full-length period. As a result, he built a unique world of works, such as the reproduction of Korean images and emotions through complete historical research. His strong illustration spirit and craftsmanship during his lifetime became the basis of the birth of a professional group called a full-time picture book writer, and Hong Seongchan became the first generation picture book writers in the history of Korean picture books.

• Journal of Science of Art and Design
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• v.6
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• pp.5-32
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• 2004

Kim Hwan-ki's New York Period works consistently present, as the central signifier, a curvilinear paradigm which has been derived from his creative consciousness. The purpose of this study is to bring to light what exists behind curvilinear paradigms; a fusion of history and society with the artist's individual consciousness as a fused aspect of history and society. To make this aspect suitably understood, this study focuses on curvilinear signifier which are analyzed and considered objectively. The results of which are as follows: It is a representative example of transforming a curved line which is the modern quotation of traditional Korean art, most directly works done in porcelain. He takes the aesthetic consciousness of Korean art as the power of his works and takes aim at the collective consciousness of all races. Looking through the background of his times, his artistic subject was to find the ethic characteristics of our excellent tradition and highlight them in his art. To him, art is not about making the most of a skill but instead about allowing one's inner spirit sing it's own song. This thought is conveyed in curvilinear signifier of his works. Therefore this study has asserted that Kim Hwan-ki's curvilinear signifier in his New York Period works has strong ties to the cultural vein of Korean history and society at it's base as well as simply in his individual level. This assertion is not to set form in a superior position as a Formalist but to show form as having the will to deal with the significance of an artist's mode by interpreting the experience of the interpreter.

• Journal of the Korea Fashion and Costume Design Association
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• v.19 no.2
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• pp.79-90
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• 2017

The main purpose of the study was to explore effects of selection criteria of collaborating fashion companies on the partnership growth of collaborating artists with those companies. Secondly was to find differences in the selection criteria of collaborating fashion companies and the partnership growth of collaborating artists according to the characteristics of artists including gender, age, frequency and time period of collaboration. The questionnaire was developed by the researchers and was collected from 50 artists with experience in collaboration with fashion companies. The questionnaire was composed of three parts including the selection criteria of fashion companies, partnership growth measured by a Likert-type scale, and characteristics of artists measured by a nominal scale. Data were analyzed by a frequency test, factor analysis, reliability test, regression analysis, and independent sample t-test using SPSS Win 18.0. The results of the study showed that significant effects of the selection criteria of collaborating fashion companies on the partnership growth of collaborating artists with the companies. Also, there were differences in the selection criteria of collaborating fashion companies and the partnership growth of collaborating artists between artist groups according to the characteristics of the artists including gender, age, frequency and time period of collaboration.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Costume
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• v.66 no.3
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• pp.51-74
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• 2016

The purpose of this research is to analyze the relationship between the inspirations and designs of Dries Van Noten's Men's collections from 1992 S/S to 2014 F/W. The specific questions of this research are as follows: what are the important design features of the Dries Van Noten's Mixed collections from 1985 S/S to 1991 F/W? What are 'the roots of inspiration' of Dries Van Noten's Men's collections from 1992 S/S to 2014 F/W, and what are the aesthetic criterions of Noten's works? How can the roots of inspiration be categorized and what are its features? How did these roots of inspiration influence the Noten's designs? The paper is a reference of how ideas turn to practical works, and what the relationship between inspiration and design. Researchers utilized a qualitative research method providing a systematic review of the previous studies by analyzing the content. To conclude, roots of inspiration of Dries Van Noten's Men's collections can be classified into nine categories: 'Interpretation', 'Ethnic', 'Multiple Contents', 'Subculture', 'Region', 'Artist', 'Fashion Item', 'Sports', and 'New Trend'. Through the roots of inspiration, sensibility of Belgium, England, Italy, French chic, inquiry of ethnic, artist, sports, the neuter gender image, 1950's, 1960's & 1970's trend & style of street fashion, elegance for men, romanticism, zoot, rock 'n' roll, teddy boy, mods, punk, new romantic and 19th century's Anglo-Saxon style are extracted and applied to the designs through cross impact. The identity of Dries Van Noten's Men's collections are cross culture contents and harmony of the old generation and new generation.