Women’s News | ‘Naesoong’ Is a Self-Portrait Carrying an Honest Confession
Korean painter Kim Hyun Jung stated that through her 'Naesoong' series, combining traditional Korean painting technique with modern collage, she expresses the duality of human beings whose outside and inside differ, as confessional self-portraiture. She explained that she used see-through hanbok to convey the message that 'the outside and inside differ,' and shared that she donated her prize money from the 2015 Women in Culture Award to support young female artists.
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Spotlight on Korean Painter Kim Hyun Jung
Drawing Attention with Eye-Catching 'Unconventional Korean Painting'
Fusing Traditional Coloring Technique with Modern Collage
Aspires to Be a Missionary Spreading the Beauty of Korean Painting
Korean painter Kim Hyun Jung said, "Going forward, I want to become a 'missionary' who widely spreads the charm and beauty of Korean painting to the public." © Lee Jeong-sil, Women's News Photographer
Instead of formal ceremonial dress, a woman wears a hanbok skirt with her bare skin plainly showing through, hitching it up as she rides a galloping racehorse; elsewhere, a woman astride a large white horse twists back toward her own shoes and bag lying on the ground, reaching out her hand.
These are works by Korean painter Kim Hyun Jung (27), on view in the exhibition '(New) Portrait of a Beauty on Horseback' at the Let's Run Park Seoul Horse Museum in Gwacheon, Gyeonggi Province. Known as the "idol of Korean painting" and carrying descriptors like bold, audacious, and unconventional, she doesn't disappoint expectations in this exhibition either. Using horses and women as her subject, she newly expresses the theme of "naesoong" she has explored all along. Meeting Kim at the Horse Museum on the 3rd, she looked exactly as if she had just stepped out of her own paintings. That's inevitable, since the works are "confessional self-portraits" using the artist herself as the model.
"There are people who say nice things smiling to my face, then evaluate me unfairly behind my back. Hurt by such people whose outside and inside differ, I began the 'Naesoong' series to caricature their image. But one day, while working, I happened to look in the mirror, and there in the mirror was the very person caricaturing myself, looking back at me. In the end, the figure in the painting I was caricaturing was me — it was a universal, instinctive phenomenon arising from the desire to be recognized by others."
Having begun painting self-portraits, the artist confesses her desires as if in a whisper, drawing out the audience's empathy. She fuses hanji collage with traditional Oriental coloring technique to express her theme. While the jeogori is collaged from various colors of hand-dyed hanji, the skirt is consistently rendered in translucent ink black. The expressive technique occupies a large part of her subject matter.
"I draw the figure nude, then dress it in clothing. The jeogori is collaged with thin hanji to express the distinctive rustle of hanbok, while the skirt is rendered in light ink wash so the inside shows through. I thought of translucent hanbok as a technique for expressing the message that 'the inside is fully visible.'"
Kim's working method is also distinctive. Once she conceives a work, she sketches it and takes reference photographs to aid the underdrawing. The photographs are taken to capture the body's silhouette while wearing leggings, then taken again in the exact same pose while properly dressed in hanbok. Explaining why she chose this method, she said, "It's because I'm dressing the figure's silhouette in clothing, as if playing a paper-doll game."
Having broken the conventional notions of Korean painting by treating traditional technique with a contemporary subject, she has wittily woven modern everyday life into her work, drawing the public's empathy. There's also a frankness about desire on display. As the saying goes, "you see as much as you know," but Kim's work can be fully enjoyed even by those unfamiliar with Korean painting. Active communication through social media has also contributed to her popular appeal. Since holding three solo exhibitions on the theme 'Naesoong Story' starting in 2013, her exhibited paintings have sold out completely. As interest in the artist has grown alongside her work, various interpretations and critiques have poured in. In particular, a painting featuring Starbucks coffee and a Louis Vuitton bag drew comments such as "a painting meant to demean Korean women" or "a depiction of a doenjang-nyeo (a materialistic, status-obsessed young woman)." In response, she said, "I think the expression 'doenjang-nyeo' unfairly belittles and suppresses even a woman's legitimate wish for an affluent, glamorous life," adding, "Regardless of gender, I hope we can move toward an atmosphere that honestly acknowledges, rather than suppresses, everyone's taste for beautiful things and desire for an affluent life." She added, "That's one of the honest values I've come to acknowledge through my work."
Though a rising star, her days are no different from an office worker's. Without fail, she comes into the studio every morning and fills her set working hours. Overtime is routine too. This is thanks to the influence of her role model, Picasso.
"Studying Picasso's life, I calculated the volume of work and time across his career, and found he completed roughly one work every 2.2 days. Comparing that to myself, painting just 3-4 works per semester in college, I felt embarrassed. Since then, I've been investing most of my time in my work."
Having received the Cheonghyeon Culture Award at the '2015 Women in Culture Award' ceremony last October, she donated the 5 million won prize to the Women & Culture Network. The donation will go toward supporting young women in culture and the arts facing difficult circumstances. Personally, she also continues to donate goods, gathered from royalties and other income, to an orphanage near her studio.
Kim's dream as an artist is clear. She wants to become a "missionary" who widely spreads the charm and beauty of Korean painting to the public. Next year looks to be a year in which she takes a step forward toward that dream. She plans solo exhibitions at the Metropolitan Museum in New York in January and in Insadong, Seoul, in March. "Compared to music, the reality is that art doesn't have as broad a base of public enjoyment, and among the arts, Oriental painting and Korean painting in particular don't receive much attention. Wouldn't it be truly rewarding if more people came to feel interest and enjoyment in Korean painting and Korea's traditional culture through my work and activities? And for that, I plan to first focus on work grounded in 'empathy,' scratching the itch many people feel."
Reporter Lee Ha-na
lhn21@womennews.co.kr
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