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Abstract
Lee Jung-Seob (1916–1956) cultivated his artistic talent in the dynamic and progressive environment of Pyongyang and Tokyo during the Japanese colonial period (1910–45), presenting expressionistic paintings of bulls, experimental tinfoil drawings, and playful illustrations, filled with animistic symbolism and Surrealist local style. He always yearned to paint a large-scale masterpiece like a mural but could not achieve this goal in the turmoil of the Korean War (1950–53) and its aftermath. This paper explores the seeds and traces of Lee’s unfulfilled desire to create a monumental mural painting in the context of global art in modern Korea.
Notes
1 Hŏ Nayŏng, “Meta-criticism of Lee Jung-sŏb’s myth—on the basis of mythologies by Roland Barthes,” The Journal of the Aesthetics and Science of Art, 36 (2012): 103–42.
2 Yu Chunsang, “Yi Namdŏk yŏsa int’ŏbyu” (Interview with Mrs. Yi Namdŏk), Kyegan misul (Art quarterly) 38 (Summer 1986): 51.
3 Ibid., 47.
4 Yi Chungsŏp and Pak Chaesam, Yi Chungsŏp sŏhanjip (Collection of letters by Lee Jung-Seob) (Seoul: Han’guk munhaksa, 1980), 60. The letter quoted here was written by Lee in early July, 1953.
5 Ibid., 76. The letter quoted here was written by Lee on January 7, 1954.
6 Hyung Il Pai, Heritage Management in Korea and Japan: The Politics of Antiquity and Identity (Seattle: The University of Washington Press, 2013), 135–7; Pak Arim, “Study of the replica paintings of Koguryŏ tomb murals,” The Journal of Koguryŏ Parhae Studies 62 (November 2018): 169–202.
7 Kim Yongch’ŏl, “Scholarly research, copying, and application of Koguryŏ tomb murals in modern Japan,” Korean Journal of Art History 254 (June 2007): 105–33.
8 Ch’oe Yŏl, Yi Chungsŏp pyŏngjŏn (Critical biography of Lee Jung-Seob) (P’aju: Tolbegae, 2014), 37–38.
9 Ibid., 38.
10 Kim Hyŏnsuk, “Study of Lee Jung-Seob’s art style—centering on the influence of Koguryŏ tomb murals,” Journal of Korean Modern Art History 5 (1997): 36–75.
11 Ch’oe Yŏl, Yi Chungsŏp pyŏngjŏn, 35.
12 Kim Pyŏnggi, “Naega anŭn Yi Chungsŏp 1” (The Lee Jung-Seob that I know), JoongAng ilbo, June 23, 1986.
13 Ch’oe Yŏl, Yi Chungsŏp pyŏngjŏn, 40–2.
14 Ibid., 42–3.
15 The sketches, prints, and photographs in the collection and exhibition catalogues of the Art Institute of Chicago published in the 1920s attest to the school’s interests in, and the popularity of, European and American mural paintings.
16 Howard Singerman, Art Subjects: Making Artists in the American University (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1999), 37.
17 Anna Indych-López, “Mural Gambits: Mexican Muralism in the United States and the ‘Portable’ Fresco,” The Art Bulletin 89, no. 2 (June 2007): 287–92.
18 Bert Winther-Tamaki, “Six Episodes of Convergence Between Indian, Japanese, and Mexican Art from the Nineteenth Century to the Present,” Review of Japanese Culture and Society 26 (December 2014): 23.
19 Ch’oe Yŏl, Yi Chungsŏp pyŏngjŏn, 48–9.
20 Ibid., 91–2, 97.
21 Ibid., 108.
22 Ibid., 104–6.
23 Yi Kuyŏl, “Musashino’s July,” Wŏlgan misul (Monthly Art) (July 2000): 60–81. The Japanese government pressed the group to change its name from the White Bull Society (白牛會) to the White Friend Society (白友會) and then to In Tokyo Art Association (Chaedongyŏng Misulhyŏphoe) in 1937.
24 Mark Dean Johnson and Dakin Hart, eds., The Saburo Hasegawa Reader (Oakland: University of California Press, 2019), xxvi.
25 Ch’oe Yŏl, Yi Chungsŏp pyŏngjŏn, 98–9.
26 Kang Wŏnhŭi, Lee Jung-Seob (Seoul: Dong-A ilbosa, 1992), 22.
27 Ch’oe Yŏl, Yi Chungsŏp pyŏngjŏn, 175–8.
28 Kim Chŏngsŏn, “Study of the Mural Painting of the Japanese Government-General of Chosŏn,” Art History Forum 26 (January–February 2008): 150–61.
29 Kim Chŏngsŏn, “Wall Paintings in the Chosŏn Hotel and the Public Function of Modern Colonial Murals,” Korean Journal of Art History 290–1 (September 2016): 125–49.
30 See Kungnip chungang pangmulgwan sojang ilche kangjŏmgi konggong kŏnmul pyŏkhwa (Mural Paintings on Public Buildings from the Japanese Colonial Period in the National Museum of Korea) (Seoul: National Museum of Korea, 2018).
31 Kim Chŏngsŏn, “Study of the Mural Painting,” 141–50.
32 Yu Chunsang, “Yi Namdŏk yŏsa int’ŏbyu,” 51.
33 Ko Ŭn, Yi Chungsŏp ŭi saengae wa yesul (Lee Jung-Seob’s Life and art) (Seoul: Minŭmsa, 1973), 85.
34 Ibid., 85.
35 Kim Mijŏng, “About Originality of Materials and Techniques in Lee Jung-Seob’s Painting,” Journal of Korean Modern and Contemporary Art History 32 (2016): 97–101.
36 Ku Sang, “Ch’ŏnjin nanmanhan Yi Chungsŏp” (Naïve Lee Jung-Seob), Dong-A ilbo (October 6, 1976): 5.
37 Ch’oe Yŏl, Yi Chungsŏp pyŏngjŏn, 206–7.
38 O Kwangsu, Yi Chungsŏp (Seoul: Sigongsa, 2000), 118, 227–9; Son Yŏngok, “A Study of the List of Ceramics Collections of the Yi Royal Family Museum,” Journal of Korean Modern and Contemporary Art History 35 (2018): 263–90.
39 Ch’oe Yŏl, Yi Chungsŏp pyŏngjŏn, 213–5.
40 Chŏn Ŭnja, “Yi Chungsŏp ŭi Sŏgwip’o sidae yŏn’gu” (Study of Lee Jung-Seob’s Sŏgwip’o period), T’amlamunhwa (Cheju culture) 39 (2011): 295–339.
41 O Kwangsu, Yi Chungsŏp, 100–4.
42 Ch’oe Yŏl, Yi Chungsŏp pyŏngjŏn, 288–9, 357–63.
43 Kim Sunch’ŏl, T’ongyŏng kwa Yi Chungsŏp (T’onyŏng and Lee Jung-Seob) (Ch’angwŏn: Kyŏngnam, 2018). This regional study suggests a longer period for Lee’s stay at T’ongyŏng.
44 Kim Mijŏng, “About Originality of Materials and Techniques in Lee Jung-Seob’s Painting,” 94–7.
45 O Kwangsu, Yi Chungsŏp, 194.
46 Kim Mijŏng, “About Originality of Materials and Techniques in Lee Jung-Seob’s Painting,” 104–5.
47 Ibid., 195–6; Yi Chun, Yi Chungsŏp tŭroing (Lee Jung-Seob Drawings) (Seoul: Leeum, 2005).
48 Yi Kyŏngsŏng, “Chahak ŭi yesul—Yi Chungsŏp chakp’umjŏn ŭl pogo” (Art of Self-Torture—After Viewing Lee Jung-Seob’s Exhibition), Kyunghyang shinmun (January 30, 1955).
49 See Pak Sohyŏn, “On the Mythmakers of Lee Jung-Seob in the 1970s,” Journal of Korean Modern and Contemporary Art History 32 (2016): 121–56.
50 See the exhibition catalogue, Yi Chungsŏp, paengnyŏn ŭi sinhwa (Lee Jung-Seob, the Hundred Years’ Myth) (Seoul: National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art and Chosun ilbo, 2016); and the special issue of the symposium proceedings in Journal of Korean Modern and Contemporary Art History 32 (2016): 7–201.
51 Mok Soohyun, “A Research Report on the Catalogue Raisonné of Lee Jung-Seob’s Works,” Journal of Korean Modern and Contemporary Art History 36 (2018): 349–72.
52 Kim Inhye, “Yi Chungsŏp t’ansaeng 100 chunyŏn ŭl kinyŏm hayŏ” (Commemorating the One-Hundredth Anniversary of the Birth of Lee Jung-Seob), in Yi Chungsŏp, paengnyŏn ŭi sinhwa, 12–19.
53 Ch’oe Yŏl, Yi Chungsŏp pyŏngjŏn, 38.