이응노의 식민지 이후(해방공간-1950년대): 사생과 지필묵의 탈식민적 근대성

Abstract

This research tracks down, with a critical attitude, the historical path Ji-pil-muk, or paper, brush and ink stick, took as a modern medium after the dismantling of seo or calligraphy and hwa or painting. This text aims to examine the paintings of oriental painters in the colonial/modern period as well as the colonial/modern characteristics of ji-pil-muk by which these artists painted their works, ranging from the era of the Choseon Art Exhibition to the late 1950s. Oriental painters in the colonial period originally began as classical seo-hwa or calligraphy and painting artists. However, they soon converted to ‘Dongyanghwa[Oriental painting]’ thereby forming a subaltern under the colonial rule, performing the roles of colonial modernity. They had to face two problems in the liberation space: Firstly, they had to fix the harm done by the colonial modernity, and secondly, they had to find a way to liberate themselves from the restraints which the classics cast upon. That is, they had to dismantle both the tradition and the colonial modernity at the same time. In such circumstances, Ungno Lee converted from classical seo-hwa to Dongyanghwa during the colonial times, focusing his efforts on sketches from nature. From the Liberation space to the late 1950s, he strolled the streets, taking in the modern life that was striving there, and captured these scenes on paper with lively brushing and inking, thus trying to modernize Dongyanghwa. The people whom Ungno Lee painted were laborers who moved their bodies within their living spaces. This distances itself away from the contemplative stereotype of figure painting in government-organized art exhibitions or definitions set by the government school. He painted not the dramatic scenes ‘set up’ for aesthetic contemplation, but scenes from the real life where hard labor took place. His paintings, unlike the dark atmosphere of that time, is vivacious and in some cases even humorous. Ungno Lee, through realism, successfully freed himself from colonial modernity and achieved postcolonial modernity.