Kwon Jinkyu, Bust"Z", 1967, Terra-cotta, 50×32×23cm. MMCA collection
Kwon Jinkyu
* Source: MMCA
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Korean Figurative Sculpture Association
The Korean Figurative Sculpture Association was founded in August 1976 by a group of Hongik University alumni sculptors. Gradually, it became a nationwide association when artists from other universities joined the group. Starting with the inaugural exhibition in 1977, the association hosts member exhibitions, seminars, and workshops. In particular, the association held the MBC Korean Figurative Sculpture Exhibition every year from 1990 to 2015, the Korean Figurative Sculpture Exhibition from 2016 and the Korean Figurative Sculpture Selected Artists Exhibition from 2019 on. In 1991, the association created the Sculpture Criticism Award to examine articles and criticism, and Choi Tae Man (1992), Cho Eun Jung (1994), and Ko Yeo-song (1997) were awarded. In 1991, it also published the journal Figurative Sculpture. Currently, about 150 members are active.
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Seongbuk Painting Academy
The Seongbuk Painting Academy is an art research institute founded by Western-style oil painter Lee Qoede in 1947. From 1946 to 1947, the institute was located within a forty-meter square space in Donam-dong rented by Lee Qoede. In 1948, the institute moved to Myeongnyun-dong, where it stayed until 1949. The institute recruited students to teach various subjects including anatomy, art theory, croquis, and figure drawing. Students also participated in Lee Qoede's masterpiece A Crowd series. Kim Suhbohng, Kim Souckchin, Kim Tschang-Yeul, Nam Kyungsuk, Shim Chookcha, Lee Youngeun, Lee Yonghwan, Chang Seongsoun, Jeun Loijin, Jeong Jeonghui were all educated at the institute. In 1950, Lee Qoede co-founded the Seoul City Art Research Institute with Lee Haesung to continue his pedagogical method.
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Figurative art
Figurative art refers to a style that depicts objects, both real and imaginary, in a realistic manner. It became popularized within Western Art in parallel with the emergence of Modernist abstract art during the early 20th century. In the Korean art community, discourses on figurative art began when the Western Art division of National Art Exhibition (Gukjeon) was separated into the figurative, semi-abstract, and abstract categories in 1961. In 1969 the Western Art division of the Grand Art Exhibition was reorganized into the figurative and non-figurative categories. At this point the idea of figurative art was established within the Korean art community to primarily refer to painting and sculpture created in an Academic realist style.
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Kim Bokjin
Kim Bokjin (1901-1940, pen name Jeonggwan) was born in Chungwon-gun, Chungcheongbuk-do. He graduated from Paichai High School and then attended Tokyo School of Fine Arts in Japan in 1920. In 1922, he organized Towolhoe with other Korean students in Tokyo and later created the Towol Art Research Group with stagehands at Towolhoe plays. In 1925, he graduated from Tokyo School of Fine Arts and taught at Paichai High School and Gyeongseong Women’s Commercial School. He also practiced art criticism and produced studio art. He gained public attention when his work Nude Study was destroyed at the Joseon Art Exhibition [Joseon misul jeollamhoe]. He organized the Joseon Cartoonist Group and contributed to the foundation of the Korean Artists Proletarian Federation (KAPF). He founded the YMCA Art Research Institute to educate students about modern sculpture. He won a special award at the Joseon Art Exhibition in 1926 and was selected for the Teikoku Art Exhibition (Teikoku Bijyutsuin Tenlankai) in 1925. However, he was imprisoned by the colonial Japanese government because of his participation in the Joseon Communist Party and the Association of Goryeo Young Communists. After being released in 1934, he published the book Cheongnyun Joseon (Joseon Young Man) with his brother Kim Kijin and established a publishing factory. He was arrested again in December and released from Jeonbuk Police Station in 1935. Kim Bokjin argued that “Joseon Art should be art for the sake of ordinary Korean people, not art for art’s sake.” His view was that to successfully reflect proletarian art theory and nationalist ideology an artist should combine traditional and realistic aesthetic approaches. Even though some of his works were destroyed during the Korean War, several works, such as Geumsansa Temple Maitreya Buddha Statue, Sorim Temple Buddha Statue, and Jeonghyesa Temple Buddha Statue, survive today.
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Lee Qoede
Lee Qoede (1913-1965) was born in Chilgok, Gyeongsangnam-do as the second son of a wealthy landowner family. He was strongly influenced and supported by his brother, leftist intellectual Lee Yeoseong and specialized in the history of art, clothing, and folklore. He graduated from Soochang Elementary School in Daegu in 1928, Whimoon High School in 1933, and the Department of Western Painting at the Teikoku Art School in Japan. His works, such as Fate (1938), Night Picnic (1939), and Swing (1940), were selected for the Nikakai Exhibition. After his return to Korea, he founded and led the New Artists Association and its exhibitions from 1941 to 1944. After independence, he was appointed as a committee member of the painting division at the Korean Plastic Arts Federation [Joseon johyeong yesul dongmaeng] and a chairman of the Western Painting division at the Korean Art Alliance [Joseon misul dongmaeng]. After visiting North Korea, he became a centrist and founded the Korean Art and Culture Association [Joseon misul munhwa hyeophoe]. where he was appointed as a chair. In 1948, he joined the National Guidance League. While working as a lecturer at Hongik University, the Korean war broke out, after then and he contributed to the Korean Art Alliance. He escaped Seoul just prior to the 1950 September operation to retake the city but was arrested by the South Korean army and held in prison camps in Busan and Geoje. In an exchange of prisoners, he opted to go to North Korea. In 1988, when the ban on artists who defected to North Korea was lifted, his family revealed his works, such as the People series, A Beggar, and Fate, to the public. He then was re-evaluated as one of the most significant artists in Korean modern art history.
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Yun Hyojoong
Yun Hyojoong (1917-1967, pen name Buljae) was born in Jangdan, Gyeonggi-do. He learned sculpture from Kim Bokjin and graduated from the department of sculpture at Tokyo School of Fine Arts. In the 1940s, his work Purification was selected for the 2600th Anniversary Celebration Art Exhibition and The Earth was selected for the Joseon Art Exhibition [Joseon misul jeollamhoe]. His pro-Japanese works, such as Senninbari (1943) and Sound of the Bow String (1944), won special prizes at the Joseon Art Exhibition. In 1945, he became a founding member of the Association of Joseon Sculpture and an associate professor at the newly established department of sculpture at Hongik University in 1949. In organisational rather than creative terms he significantly contributed to the development of post-war Korean art as an administrator and educator by serving as a vice chairman of the Great Korean Art Association. His early works were mainly wooden body statues based on realism. He created the Admiral Yi Sun-sin Statue in Jinhae city where Naval Base Command located during the Korean war. In the 1950s, he actively participated in the National Art Exhibition (Gukjeon), and mainly focused on the creation of statues of political figures, such as the Min Yeonghwan Statue and the Syngman Rhee Statue. He is recognised as a sculptor who combined local materials with modern formal influences, and his works are defined by qualities such as precise proportion, dynamic movement, and sophisticated technique.
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