Brushstrokes in a broken nation: 3 Korean modernists who painted new identities
Korea’s first generation of modernist painters came of age in a country shattered by colonization and the Korean War (1950-53), long before K‑culture became a global brand and art auction records made headlines. For Park Re-hyun, Rhee Seund-ja and Kim Whanki, making art meant reinventing both themselves and their nation’s visual language while navigating poverty, patriarchy and exile in post-war Korea. Their works, now showcased at Global Sae-A Art Space in Seoul, trace how a modern Korean identity was rebuilt on canvases long before it was projected on global streaming platforms and pop stages. The works also reflect their personal struggles, especially for the two women artists. Modernism's arrival in a broken country Modernism was an art movement that emerged in the West in the late 19th and early 20th century, rejecting traditional authority and pursuing rationality and autonomy on the basis of reason and individualism. After liberation from Japan, Korea’s art scene came into direct contact with the spirit of Western modernism, and "the realistic, academic painting style of th
