Kim Hyun Jung x Korea University Newspaper

Old calligraphy and painting have returned, reborn as today’s newspaper.

My painting came to decorate the front page of issue No. 1813, the commemorative edition marking the 69th anniversary of the Korea University Newspaper. I reinterpreted Painting Appreciation, by Danwon Kim Hong-do, the greatest genre painter of the Joseon Dynasty, for the present day — placing a newspaper-holding Naesoong woman alongside the old scholars who once admired calligraphy and painting (seohwa). Seohwa refers to writing and painting with a long history, much like Korea University itself. This led me to wonder whether today’s ‘newspaper’ (sinmun) might be what has come, in modern times, to take the place of that seohwa — and it was from that thought that this painting was born.

In celebration once more of the 69-year history of the Korea University Newspaper, founded by students in 1947, I hoped that readers might, every now and then, pick up an actual newspaper instead of a smartphone, or visit a museum to admire old calligraphy and painting.