• Cartoon and Animation Studies
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• s.40
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• pp.497-519
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• 2015

Kwon Kisoo is one of the most promising artist in Korea. His paintings portray a lot of metaphors and philosophies in oriental art. As an artist, he adapts both oriental and contemporary ideas to make his paintings. His main motifs are Plum blossoms, Chrysanthemum, Orchid and Bamboos. These plants are known as 'Sa-gonja' in Korean but translated as the 'Four Gracious plants' or the 'Four Gentle Plants in english'. These noble plants represent the four seasons. They grow in different weather conditions. In oriental art, these plants are considered very important for their qualities. These qualities are important attributes for gentlemen in literati painting. The drawing of the 'Four Gracious Plants' in Kwon Kisoo's paintings is simplified. He uses lines, shapes and colour to create contours of the motifs. In his paintings, there is another icon he calls 'Dongguri'. Dongguri is the main character in Kwon Kisoo's paintings. It was developed in 2002 by fast brush strokes. Dongguri is an admired character because it looks like very cute in Kwon Kisoo's paintings. Dongguri is always seen living in the midst of the 'Four Gracious Plants'. The 'Four Gracious Plants' with other landscape features like rocks and mountains are places 'Dongguri' lives. Dongguri is also often found performing a lot of actions like climbing, running, sitting etc. All these actions depict metaphors which have been unraveled in this study.