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Women's art [yeoseong misul]
Kim Insoon, Good Wife and Wise Mother, 1986, Acrylic on canvas, 91×110cm. MMCA collection

Women's art [yeoseong misul]

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Yeoseong misul, or "women's art," is a term that distinguishes artworks that are produced by women from those of men. It is also an umbrella term for "yeoryu misul" and feminist art that emerged in the history of Korean art in the twentieth century. In modern Korea, works of art created by women were referred to as "yeoryu misul" to distinguish between the genders, implying that women's work was inferior to men's. Until the 1970s, the term yeoryu misul was used to separate and disparage women within the male-dominated mainstream art world, but it also came to mean art by women artists that incorporated women's experiences and perspectives. In the 1980s, the Women's Art Research Society [Yeoseong misul yeonguhoe], organized within the Minjung art movement, began to use the term “yeoseong misul” anew. The women artists rejected the term “yeoryu misul,” which disparaged women's work, and wanted to resist the Western ideas of feminist art, which were not in line with Korean conditions. They devised the term yeoseong misul as an alternative. Oh Hyejoo and Min Hyesook defined yeoseong misul as distinct from yeoryu misul, and the former was not merely an expression of femininity but rather art for the liberation of women oppressed by gender and class. In the 1990s, criticism and discussion of the concept of yeoseong misul expanded. Park Shineui agreed with the view that women's issues are issues of all human beings, however, she argued that it is necessary to move away from the rigid thinking within the Minjung art movement that equates yeoseong misul with the liberation movement of working-class women. She also urged that Minjung art should move beyond a limited form of realism and develop diverse mediums and also criticize patriarchal issues within the art world. Kim Hong-hee distinguished between the yeoseong misul born out of the context of the 1980s Minjung art movement and the yeoseong misul that emerged in the context of postmodernism in the early 1990s. Later generations, however, criticized the error of evaluating Korean yeoseong misul based on 1970s feminist art in the United States. They argued that Korean yeoseong misul is a manifestation of feminism itself, which opposed the male-dominated culture, and asserted that it is an independent feminist art that cannot be confined to concepts like yeoseong Minjung misul or Minjung art.
* Source: MMCA

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