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| Oh In-hwan's "Finding Blind Spot" displayed at the National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Seoul as a part of the 2015 Korea Artist Prize exhibit. / Courtedy of MMCA |
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| "Korean Painting: From Modern to Contemporary, 1945-1980s" by Cho Eun-jung |
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| "Postmodern Art in Korea: From 1985 on" by Chung Young-mok |
The Art Council Korea (ARKO) has completed its 15-volume series on Korean modern culture, covering a wide range, including fine art, theater, dance, architecture and K-pop.
"The Korean Contemporary Arts Series," first published in 2011, aims to introduce and promote Korean contemporary culture abroad and improve cultural exchanges.
The two latest and final additions to the series shed light on Korean modern and contemporary art, which coincides with recent international attention to Korean art.
The 14th installment of the series, "Korean Painting: From Modern to Contemporary, 1945-1980s," deals with the history of Korean modern art after the liberation from Japanese colonial rule and how art contributed to shaping the country and its cultural identity.
Mokpo National University art professor Cho Eun-jung penned the book, starting from the political and social situation of Korea from the liberation in 1945 to the Korean War (1950-53).
The birth of Korean Modernism was led by groups of artists formed soon after the liberation and the artists worked for the Korean War as well, documenting the war scene.
As the art college system settled down, the academic clique influenced academism into Korean art. Cho also chronicles the rise and fall of the National Art Exhibition, which once had enormous authority and leverage.
Then artists diversified — some opposed the state-led system while others developed the Informal Movement. Avant-garde came on in the 1970s and introduced conceptual art and monochrome paintings now known as "dansaekhwa."
Art history is closely related to social situations and as Korea went through the democratization movement in the '80s, "Minjung Art" was born, putting emphasis on political and populist aspects of Korean culture.
The 15th book, "Postmodern Art in Korea: From 1985 on," focuses on the more contemporary part of Korean art.
Written by Seoul National University art professor Chung Young-mok, the book addresses issues regarding postmodernism in Korea. Chung classifies postmodern art into four major categories of painting, sculpture and installation, photography and video and moving image.
In Korea, the discourse on postmodernism was initiated in the late '80s, amid the democratization process. The book discusses how postmodernism was accepted and interpreted in its early stages in Korea and how it developed in the '90s.
The book also features works of individual artists as examples of the four categories mentioned above — Suh Yong-sun and Choi Jin-wook in painting, Choe U-ram, Suh Do-ho and Oh In-hwan in sculpture and installation, Jung Yeon-doo and Yoon Jeong-mee in photography and notably Paik Nam-june in video.
The ARKO distributes the books to some 500 cultural facilities, Korean studies institutes and libraries and diplomatic offices overseas.
Previous books in the collection include "Diaspora: Korean Nomadism," "Harmonia Koreana: A Short History of 20th-century Korean Music," "City as Art: 100 Notable Works of Architecture in Seoul," "K-POP: Roots and Blossoming of Korean Popular Music," "Gugak: Traditional Korean Music Today" and "Korean Theater: Beyond Tradition and Modernization."
Hollym publishes the series. Each book costs 10,000 won. For more information, call 02-723-4280.
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