천경자의 예술세계: 전설의 빛깔 - 서울시립미술관 소장품을 중심으로

Abstract

A legendary painter, Chun Kyung-ja (千鏡子, 1924~2015). Epithets that follow her name, such as ‘The Painter of Light and Sorrow’, ‘The World of Light and Fantasy’, ‘The Painter of Flowers and Women’, ‘The Painter of Flowers and Souls’, ‘Brilliant Grief’, transcend the boundaries of journalism, and are sentiments that she depicted with a sense of a destiny and words that are the essence of her oeuvres. Studies on Chun Kyung-ja, considering her status in modern and contemporary Korean art history and popular recognition, cannot be deemed to be deeply accumulated. This research uses stylistic history analysis, with focus on the 93 representative works donated by Chun Kyung-ja to Seoul Museum of Art. The research, regarding Chun Kyung-ja’s oeuvres, classifies it as: (1) The birth of Chun Kyung-ja, a born painter (1940s to early 50s); (2) A bold attempt to modern Oriental paintings (mid 1950s to 60s); (3) The establishment of Chun Kyung-ja’s style of female form (1970s to early 80s); and (4) The maturity of poetic lyrics (early 1980s to 90s). After receiving pictorial education in Japan during the end of the Japanese Occupation Period and beginning a career as a painter, Chun Kyung-ja became a pioneer who above all others frontiered the issue of modernization of Korean paintings. Until the 60s, she attempted bold and experimental methods to form her first maturity, and later shows second and third maturity and created fatalistic feminine images of splendid sorrow. Where Chun Kyung-ja can be positioned in modern and contemporary Korean art history is believed to be an issue that will be more actively dealt with when her works are more thoroughly researched, discovered, and the research environment for cooperation and publication of works improved.