일제강점기 한국미술사의 구축과 석굴암의 ‘再맥락화

Abstract

This paper examines the roles of imperial Japan on the establishment of the paradigms of the Korean art. Due to the effort by the Japanese scholars, the Korean art could be developed as the modern field of study. Since the Meiji Restoration, Japan colonized the Joseon dynasty and asserted ‘the directions for civilization(文明指導論)’ based on the Western European model of colonial control. One of the main colonial missions was the reconstruction of history and art in Korea. Before the Japanese annexation, the art of Joseon had not been categorized as an art. The Japanese scholars then placed Buddhism and Buddhist art in the center of the Korean and Japanese art histories. Their investigation on historic remains in Joseon offered a preliminary data, which eventually became the groundwork for the paradigms of the art of Joseon. The Japanese scholars played a key role not only in building the theory of the art history of Joseon, but also in defining the knowledge system and forming the identity of the Joseon people. The Joseon art, which was ‘discovered’ by Japan, had gone through the restoration, repair and re-contextualization processes. The art of Joseon, including Sogguram, came to mean the “recontextualization” of the indigenous art in the name of “art.” Here, the recontextualization can be conducted in the process of being “de-contextualized”, and then “re-contextualized”of the indigenous art according to the tastes of Japan. If we call the process of defining the indigenous arts as an art or cultural assets, the process to define the indigenous art as the “history of Joseon art” falls into the category of “re-contextualization.” The essence of the “re-contextualization” of the history of Joseon, then, was laid on “lauding the classics and antiquities” and “filling up the missing links in Oriental Art.”Sekino Tadashi(關野貞) in his lecture note, History of Joseon Art, wrote that the Korean art reached its peak in the periods of the Three States and the United Silla, while marking the decline in the Korea dynasty and the Joseon dynasty. The arts of the Three States and the United Silla became the “classics” and “exemplary sample” for the people living in thepresent time. The reason why the Japanese scholars put emphasis on antiquities was to create the “Great Oriental Civilization” which was comparable to the “Occidental Civilization.” Sekino’s perspective to see the Korean art from the evolutionary point of view, which saw it through the diagram of the ‘birth-maturity-decline,’ left considerable influence on the intellectuals of Joseon during the Japanese occupation. The Japanese scholars, including Sekino, tried to characterize the art of Joseon as a link connecting the arts of Japan and China. Yet, this view is simply erroneous. What they attempted by this analysis was to find the meanings of the art of Joseon merely as the one filling up the vacancy in the Asian art, while finding the value of the Japanese art in the world history of art. In conclusion, the Japanese intellectuals established the paradigms of the Joseon art and developed it as a modern study field. By them, the Joseon art was certainly sophisticated with the Japanese reasoning and systems. This means that the Joseon art was subjected to the Japan's hegemony of knowledge, which was politically calculated. Moreover, Japan advertised and educated these art paradigms to the public. The values and historical perspectives of the Joseon art were produced by the imperial Japan. In the process, the intrinsic substances and values were changed through the processes of “de-contextualization” and were “re-contextualized” by Japan. Yet, what urges our attention is that our cultural heritage has its own substance and its material values do not change over time. This diagnosis on the problems existing in the art paradigms then draw our attention to the need to rectify the Japanese-made art paradigms.