Calligraphy class, Photo, 1970, Image provided by Lee Ungno museum
Académie de Peinture Orientale de Paris (The Paris Oriental Painting Academy) was an academy of Eastern painting run by Lee Ungno in Paris, France, from 1964 through 1989. Early on in his Parisian life around 1962, Lee began teaching East Asian calligraphy and painting to Europeans by offering an East Asian art course in his home. In 1964, he became friends with Vadime Elisseeff, the director of Musée Cernuschi (Cernuschi Museum), the municipal Asian art museum in Paris, and came to open an academy within the museum. At the time, the name of the academy was formalized as the Académie de Peinture Orientale de Paris. Its supporter’s association was composed of fourteen prominent figures, including Jacques Lassaigne, Chou Ling, Hans Hartung, Pierre Soulages, Fujita Tsuguharu, Zao Wou-Ki, Chang Da-Chien, and Lee Huiseung. The curriculum was divided into calligraphy and Eastern-style painting. Lee Ungno published his own Eastern painting instructional textbook
L'Art de peindre à l’encre de Chine (The Art of Painting with Ink and Wash) in 1987 (an updated edition was published in 1988). In 1971, the Paris Oriental Painting Academy organized the exhibition
Oeuvres et études de l'Académie de peinture orientale de Paris (Works and Studies of the Paris Oriental Painting Academy) that presented its students work at the Cernuschi Museum. Since 1977, it was held four times (1977, 1980, 1982, and 1988) at the Goryeo Gallery, which Lee opened in Paris in 1976. After Lee’s death, the Paris Oriental Painting Academy was continued as the Goam Academy run by his wife Park Ingyeong and his son Lee Yoongse. The Paris Oriental Painting Academy was the successor of the Goam Atelier, an Eastern-style painting school Lee Ungno founded in Seoul in 1945, indicating that Lee maintained his identity as an Eastern-style painter even after moving to Europe.
* Source: MMCA
