1960년대의 한국 추상미술과 국민국가 형성

Abstract

The purpose of this essay is to give light upon the significance of Korean abstract art during the 1960's in relation to the formation of nation-state and the emergence of abstract art in Korean art scene of the time. Abstract art, which was introduced by Korean art students in Japan in the late 30's, had been widely accepted, and became the proper institutionalized form of expression during the 60's. At the same time, the period marked the public, especially in the case of collective university students as a catalyst for overthrowing the corrupt dictatorship, and its continuum led to the April 19 Movement and the 5.16 coup, bringing about a certain change in the society. Therefore, the period saw the establishment of national sovereignty and stabilization of the modern state system in various domains of policy that were being postponed due to the Korean War shortly after the independence from the Japanese colonization. It is not hard to figure out the correlation between the years of newly organizing modern state systems and the rise of abstract art within the socio-political context above. However, abstract art of the 60's in particular has been underestimated its significance among other discourses that were arisen in the same time. This may contribute to the problem of appropriating abstract art of the 60's as retardataire imitations of western formalism which lacks reflecting the local reality, or there is a tendency of interpreting such as to the extent of genealogical development for Monochrome painting movement in Korean art scene, that later flourished and having become the mainstream art movements along with the Popular Art Movement (Min- jung art) in the 80's. Although such ostensible relationship may disturb the clear understanding to elucidate converging point of the political circumstance and the emergence of abstract art, both shares two factors in common. They are: progressiveness and reformativeness. For instance, before the two major political countermovement break out in 1960 and 1961, the early modernists kept demanding the reformation of the Korean National Exhibition that symbolizes the past regime, claiming that abstract art is the genuine art form that would engage the people to confront the newly emerged society through the radical process of denial and break with the past. From this perspective, artists of the 60's were assimilating themselves with the political countermovement, and finally held a dominant position over conventionalized representational art that had been inherited since the Japanese colonization. The fact shows that large number of abstract artists were participated in the 10th Korean National Exhibition to the ~ (몇 회) Korean National Exhibition; moreover, the involvement of Korean artists in foreign art exhibitions, like São Paulo Biennial, Paris International Young Art Exposition and et catera, approves that such representative played a leading role in Korean art scene on the basis of national level. Forming a national discourse in the domain of art is linked to various public monument projects, which frequently adopts representational form of artistic device in order to shape a community of sensible data. Examples of such respect can be arranged from the statue of Admiral Yi Sun-sin, which was made in the era of the Charter of National Education (1968), to the recent case of King Sejong statue in central Seoul. On the contrary, one of the abstract works of the time reveals a much more innate relationship with the art movement and the political phenomenon. From Youngkuk Yoo's (1916-2002) geometrical abstract painting called Circle, which was executed in the same concurrent year of 1968, a sense of yet another potent of impending future to come and utopian phase can be found in accordance with the spirit of the times. As the development of nation-state has been gradually settled down from its chaotic political circumstances after the occurrence of two major political countermovement, in the case of Yoo's paintings of 60's also denotes such variations from his unidentifiable muted matiere period to the use of vivid colour with highly ordered manner of geometrical abstraction period. From the mentioned examples above, Korean abstract art during 60's and the formation of nation-state in political domain shares the same utopian idea. In this respect, such art can be perceived as the cornerstone that reflects the spirit of the age and its social context. As much as the significance of forming modern state validates its meaning in Korean history, the artistic accomplishment thus should not be regarded as less equivalent of the politics of the time.