• The Journal of Art Theory & Practice
• /
• no.16
• /
• pp.107-137
• /
• 2013

This paper examines a number of Korean artists-Whanki Kim, Po Kim, Byungki Kim, Lim Choong-Sup, Min Byung-Ok and etc-working in New York in the 1960s and 1970s, focusing on their motivations to head for the U.S. and their life and activity in the newly-emerged city of international art. The thesis was conceived based upon the fact that New York has been one of the major venues for Korean artists in which to live, study, travel and stay after the Korean War. Moreover, the United States, since 1945, has had a tremendous influence upon Korea politically, socially, economically, and, above all, culturally. This study is divided into three major sections. The first one attends to the reasons that these artists moved out of Korea while including in this discussion, the long-standing yearning of the Korean intelligentsia to experience more modernized cultures, and American postwar cultural policies that stimulated them to envision life beyond their national parameters, in a country heavily entrenched in Cold War ideology. The second part examines these artists' pursuit of abstraction in New York where it was already losing its avant-garde status as opposed to the style's cutting edge cache in Korea. While their turn to abstraction was outdated from New York's critical perspective, it was seen to be de rigueur for Koreans that had developed through phases from Art Informel in the 1960s to Dansaekhwa (monochromatic paintings) in the 1970s. The third part focuses on the artists' struggle while caught between a dualistic framework such as Korea/U.S, East/West, center/margin, traditional/modern, and abstraction/figuration. Despite such dichotomic frames, they identified abstract art as the epitome of pure, absolute art, which revealed their beliefs inherited from western modernism during the colonial period before 1910-1945. In fact, their reality as immigrants in America put them in a diasporic space where they oscillated between the fixed, essentialist Korean identity and the floating, transforming identity as international artists in New York or Korean-American artists. Thus their abstract and semi-abstract art reflect the in-between identity from the diasporic space while demonstrating their yearning for a land of political freedom, intellectual fulfillment and the continuity of modern art's legacy imposed upon them over the course of Korea's tumultuous history in the twentieth century and making the artists as precursor of transnational, transcultural art of the global age in the twenty-first century.

• (The) Research of the performance art and culture
• /
• no.35
• /
• pp.175-202
• /
• 2017

In this article, I focused on the identity of the Japanese magician, Tenkatsu(天勝), who appeared in Exhibition of Joseon, 1915, and the social gaze and reverberation of them. I would like to see how Tenkatsu group appeared, how it was active, and how it was utilized. Because It was a big stimulus for traditional performing artists. 'Ma-sul' was a new word, taking the place of 'Hwan-sul(幻術)' or 'Hwan-hee'(幻?) for a term of english 'Magic'. In the various articles published during the Japanese colonial period, we can find the performers of the contemporary magic and the Korean artists who tried to make them nationalized. In the mid-1920s, a magician of Korean origin appeared. Kim Mun-phil(김문필), Park Chang-sun(박창순), Kim Wan-shil(김완실) were them. They had experience of studying abroad, such as Russia, and were also helped by religion, the Chondo-kyo. They attracted popularity while touring around the country. Incidents of social problems often arise by linking magic to a form of fraud, though. But the appearance of a Korean magician confirms the existence of a performer who actively engages in new performances.

• The Journal of Korean Philosophical History
• /
• no.50
• /
• pp.171-200
• /
• 2016

The full-scaled study of Joseon conducted by Japan in the 1910s was part of its colonial policy, while the native Joseon studies against it contained political aspiration to recover the national rights and independence. Accordingly, the conceptual meaning of 'Joseon' varied according to its subject of speech. The establishment of modern nation-state failed along with the extinction of Korean Empire, but 'Joseon' was newly discovered within national ideology. It became a historical concept in which the experience of the past and the expectation toward the future could be united. The so-called 'Joseon Studies' was only limited to intellectuals in the academic circle, but 'Joseon' embraced the articulations from more various social agents. Furthermore, it is only natural that 'Joseon Studies' should be interpreted within the historical semantics of 'Joseon', considering the connection between concept and discourse. In his The History of Joseon Civilization, An Hwak encompassed the history from the times of ancient mythology to the contemporary times under the banner of 'Joseon'. Opposing Japanese distortion of history carried out in the name of historical positivism, he idealized Joseon history as comparable to that of the Western democracy. He extended the study of 'Joseon' into culture at large, foreshadowing a kind of Joseon philosophy. In his An Overview of Joseon Philosophical Ideas, the first description of 'Joseon philosophy' as an independent field, he proposed philosophy as one of three sources of pride in Joseon and asserted its uniqueness and originality compared to the West. It was an attempt to grasp the peculiarity of Joseon ideas from a perspective of the history of universal human civilization. He considered 'Jong'(倧) as an ideological foundation held from the ancient to the modern times, and the acceptance of Buddhism and Confucianism as beneficial to 'Joseon philosophy'. The birth of 'Joseon philosophy', the modern transformation of the traditional knowledge system, was an intellectual experiment to apply traditional knowledge to the modern disciplinary classification system.

• Cross-Cultural Studies
• /
• v.48
• /
• pp.31-66
• /
• 2017

This study examines ways of recognizing and aspects of describing Korean modern literature revealed by each literary history from the viewpoint of 'transculturation', focusing on Lim Jeon-Hye's "History of Korean Literature in Japan until 1945", Shirakawa Yutaka's "Footsteps of Korean Modern Literature", and Saegusa Toshikatsu's "Taste of Korean Literature" from the history of Korean literature written in Japan. First, Lim Jeon-Hye periodically examines Korean literature written in Japan, focusing on literary activities of Korean students in Japan and the proletarian literature movement, and addresses points of active cultural negotiation, mutual understanding and political solidarity between Korea and Japan. Shirakawa Yutaka focuses on the concurrency and connection of Korea, China, and Japan in the process of modern literary formation, covering Japanese language literature and pro-Japanese literature with great care, and describes the middle-layer position as a mediating researcher in the conflicting boundaries between Korea and Japan. Saegusa Toshikatsu provides interesting transcultural momentum in exploring internal logic and denotation of Korean literature via comparative literature review encompassing East Asia, implementation of literary forms and themes connecting tradition and modernity, and an out-of-boundary point of view to overlook 'pro-Japanese literature', etc. Transcultural aspects in this literary history to examine are as follow. First, the history of Korean modern literature based on 'national literature history' is catabolized in the magnetic field of the 'colonial experience' and 'national nationalism' and considered in multifaceted context. Second, they provide the possibility of three-dimensional and micro-narrative description of literature that complement the narrative aspect of existing Korean literature history. Third, they provide an opportunity to expand and open the description of literature history through acceptance of comparative literary perspectives encompassing East Asia. Fourth, through discovery of Korean-Japanese literature and Japanese language literature, they contribute to broadening the history of Korean modern literature and enriching foundations.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Traditional Landscape Architecture
• /
• v.40 no.3
• /
• pp.36-45
• /
• 2022

This study examines the historical transition process of Hwanseonjeong Pavilion in Suncheon, identifies the landscape of the original Hwanseonjeong Pavilion in the past and its constituent elements, and compares it with the landscape of the present Hwanseonjeong Pavilion at Jukdobong area. It was intended to identify the problems and draw implications for future restoration of Hwanseonjeong Pavilion. Hwanseonjeong pavilion, the subject of this study, was built in 1543 by Tong-won Shim, the governor of Seungpyeong, as a garden architecture for government. Since then, it has been renovated several times, and as a pavilion representing "Seonhyang(immotal world)" Suncheon in the past, it was located along with an artificially created lake and other elements of the garden at a location where can be seen Dongcheon stream and Jukdobong Peak on the opposite side at a glance. Hwanseonjeong pavilion, which had been safely maintained during the Japanese colonial period, was lost on August 28, 1968 due to a major flood in Suncheon. The difference between Hwanseonjeong Pavilion and other lost is that another Hwanseonjeong Pavilion for the role of archery was built on Jukdobong Peak in 1935, before it was destroyed. The restoration case of Hwanseonjeong pavilion provides the following important implications for the restoration of pavilions as a garden architecture: First, the value of a pavilion is not formed from the building itself, but from the relationship with the surrounding landscape. Therefore, restoration of a pavilion should not be approached in the same way as restoration of buildings. Restoration of a pavilion requires efforts to understand the existing landscape value and to restore landscape elements together with buildings. Second, an artificially created long north-south lake along with Hwanseonjeong pavilion was a very important landscape component and a means of providing a way to enjoy the landscape. For restoration in the cultural context of Hwanseonjeong pavilion, efforts are also required to restore not only the architecture, but also the experience of cultural activities through an integrated examination and restoration based on an understanding of the cultural activities performed in Hwanseonjeong Pavilion. Third, compared to the past original Hwanseonjeong Pavilion, the existing Hwanseonjeong Pavilion shows a different shape, composition, scale, color, etc. In terms of the restoration of buildings, it is thought that restoration will be possible only when restoration is done through more accurate historical evidence, research, and investigation.

• The Korean Journal of Archival Studies
• /
• no.80
• /
• pp.43-88
• /
• 2024

The National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) is a relatively quiet latecomer to the traditional archives of the Western world. Although the United States lacks a long history of organized public records·archives management, it has developed a modern system optimized for the American historical context. This system focuses on the systematic management and preservation of the vast amount of modern records produced and collected during the tumultuous 20th century. As a result, NARA has established a modern archival system that is optimized for the American historical context. The U.S. public records·archives management system is based on the principle that records·archives are the property of the American people and belong to the public. This concept originated during the British colonial era when records were used to safeguard the rights of the colonies as self-governing citizens. For Americans, records and archives have long been a symbol of the nation's identity, serving as a means of protecting individual freedoms, rights, and democracy throughout the country's history. It is natural, therefore, that American life and history should be documented, and that the recorded past should be managed and preserved for the nation's present and future. The public records·archives management system in the United States is the result of a convergence of theories, practices, lessons learned, and ideas that have been shaped by the country's history, philosophies, and values about records, and its unique experience with records management. This paper traces the origins of records and archives in the United States in a historical context to understand the organic relationship between American life and records. It examines the process of forming a modern public records management system that is both uniquely American and universal to the American context without falling into the two forms of traditions that reflect the uniqueness of American history.