• Korean Association of Arts Management
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• no.50
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• pp.177-212
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• 2019

In an effort to understand the global standing of artists from Japan, China, and Korea, this article presents an analytic study of data from auctions, notable international contemporary art galleries, notable international art museums, contemporary art biennials, and the Venice Biennales' award. We also look at select art exhibitions as they have been covered by international art magazines to analyze the geography of international contemporary art. Our analysis of international art magazines shows that the global position of the three Asian countries we consider is low in comparison with select Western countries. Auction data, on the other hand, reveals that Chinese and Japanese artists are highly regarded in economic terms, while the visibility of Japanese artists is emphasized in the data we consider from art biennials. In the permanent exhibitions and contemporary art biennales we look at, we note that the visibility of Chinese artists is much higher than that of Japanese and Korean artists, who also demonstrate remarkable visibility. We find that Korean artists represent an important presence in our analysis of the Venice Biennale awards, with Japanese and Chinese artists holding noteworthy positions. Through these myriad criteria, we develop a clear idea of the nature of the global position of artists from Japan, China, and Korea. The Asian art world can profit from these findings by considering them when developing strategies for managing the growth of its artists on the international contemporary art scene.

• The Journal of Art Theory & Practice
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• no.2
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• pp.27-48
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• 2004

Robert Rauschenberg's artistic career has often been regarded as having reached its culmination when the artist won the first prize at the 1964 Venice Biennale. With this victory, Rauschenberg triumphantly entered the pantheon of all-American artists and firmly secured his position in the history of American art. On the other hand, despite the artist's ongoing new experiments in his art, the seemingly precocious ripeness in his career has led the critical discourses on Rauschenberg's art to the artist's early works, most of which were done in the mid-1950s and the 1960s. The crux of Rauschenberg criticism lies not only in focusing on the artist's 50's and 60's works, but also in its large dismissal of the significance of the imagery that the artist employed in his works. As art historians Roger Cranshaw and Adrian Lewis point out, the critical discourse of Rauschenberg either focuses on the formalist concerns on the picture plane, or relies on the "culturalist" interpretation of Rauschenberg's imagery which emphasizes the artist's "Americanness." Recently, a group of art historians centered around October has applied Charles Sanders Peirce's semiotics as art historical methodology and illuminated the indexical aspects of Rauschenberg's work. The semantic inquiry into Rauschenberg's imagery has also been launched by some art historians who seek the clues in the artist's personal context. The first half of this essay will examine the previous criticism on Rauschenberg's art and the other half will discuss the artist's 1955 work Rebus, which I think intersects various critical concerns of Rauschenberg's work, and yet defies the closure of discourses in one direction. The categories of signs in the semiotics of Charles Sanders Peirce and the discourse of Jean-Francois Lyotard will be used in discussing the meanings of Rebus, not to search for the semantic readings of the work, hut to make an analogy in terms of the paradoxical structures of both the work and the theory. The definitions of rebus is as follows: Rebus 1. a representation or words or syllables by pictures of object or by symbols whose names resemble the intended words or syllables in sound; also: a riddle made up wholly or in part of such pictures or symbols. 2. a badge that suggests the name of the person to whom it belongs. Webster's Third New International Dictionary of the English Language Unabridged. Since its creation in 1955, Robert Rauschenberg's Rebus has been one of the most intriguing works in the artist's oeuvre. This monumental 'combine' painting($6feet{\times}10feet$ 10.5 inches) consists of three panels covered with fabric, paper, newspaper, and printed reproductions. On top of these, oil paints, pencil and crayon drawings connect each section into a whole. The layout of the images is overall horizontal. Starting from a torn election poster, which is partially read as "THAT REPRE," on the far left side of the painting. Rebus leads us to proceed from the left to the right, the typical direction of reading in a Western context. Along with its seemingly proper title. Rebus, the painting has triggered many art historians to seek some semantic readings of it. These art historians painstakingly reconstruct the iconography based on the artist's interviews, (auto)biography, and artistic context of his works. The interpretation of Rebus varies from a 'image-by-image' collation with a word to a more general commentary on Rauschenberg's work overall, such as a work that "bridges between art and life." Despite the title's allusion to the legitimate purpose of the painting as a decoding of the imagery into sound, Rebus, I argue, actually hinders a reading of it. By reading through Peirce to Rauschenberg, I will delve into the subtle anxiety between words and images in their works. And on this basis, I suggest Rauschenberg's strategy in playing Rebus is to hide the meaning of the imagery rather than to disclose it.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Landscape Architecture
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• v.43 no.6
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• pp.41-51
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• 2015

The purpose of the Follies that were constructed for the Gwangju-Biennale were for urban regeneration, to activate the empty old-town areas, and to strengthen the tradition and sense of place of the city. However, the ten Follies constructed around the wall of the old castle reveal many problems including that of leaving Follies alone instead of actively using them, damage to shop-keepers nearby, and pedestrian inconvenience, which is different from the original purposes. This study is meant to help understand the source of the negative phenomena, and to offer plans that will be conductive to the role of urban regeneration through activating the Follies and the spaces around them. As results of the investigation, there was no context giving uniformity among the various Follies. Also, the study showed that the insufficience of designers' understanding of the circumference near the Follies and lack of a consensus between the citizens and designers in the process of making the Follies. The crucial solution for solving these problems, and bringing to life the original purpose of creating the Follies was derived as applying "human activity" to the Follies. This study suggested 'street performance' as an effective device for application to human activity. While a Folly has no fixed function, the development of space program categories based on the applied characteristics of each Folly, and the simulation thereof showed effective potential for attracting people and activating those stagnated spaces. Recently, Gwangju city depicted the second Follies in applications such as reading roon, toilet, and movable food cart, which have clear purpose and different characteristics from the first ones. However, the first Follies will not be moved or demolished. As they are located around the National Asia Culture Center, some of them are supposed to be used to view the center. Consequently, a counterplan for the continuous and efficient use of those Follies is needed. Gwangju has a plan for the installation of 100 Follies throughout the city and it is expected that this study will be a meaningful guide line for improved Follies in the future.