JoongAng Ilbo | Sun Seung-hye’s Emotional Codes Read Through Art — Tomboys in Hanbok Enter Contemporary Art
In her JoongAng Ilbo Economist column "Emotional Codes Read Through Art," Sun Seung-hye, Head of Curatorial Affairs at the Seoul Museum of Art, introduced Kim Hyun Jung and Heugyoseok as artists gaining popularity for their girl characters dressed in hanbok. She noted that Kim Hyun Jung applies the technique of Goryeo Buddhist painting — first painting the bare skin, then layering clothing over it — to create her "Naesoong" series, winning wide popularity through their cheerfulness and boldness. The column featured her representative work "Naesoong: Xenitis" (2013) and noted that Kim also drew attention as a "sell-out artist" whose exhibited works all sold in a show the previous year.
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Sun Seung-hye's Emotional Codes Read Through Art
A Contemporary Update on the Korean Beauty Painting Reflecting the Character Generation… An Artist as Popular as an Idol Star
Tomboys in Hanbok Enter Contemporary Art
Korea's traditional "beauty paintings" have changed. Reflecting the tastes of the character generation, cute girls appear in paintings wearing hanbok as if doing "cosplay." Like characters from comics and animation, the girls are lively rather than demure. It's as if Shin Yun-bok's Joseon-era beauties have time-traveled into 21st-century girls, growing cheerful along the way. Girls in hanbok began gaining popular appeal for their lively image thanks to the 2006 MBC drama "Goong," a fusion historical drama based on a comic. In the show, actress Yoon Eun-hye switched between a school uniform and modernized hanbok, demonstrating that a girl in hanbok could be endlessly cute.
Now, girls in hanbok have moved from comics into contemporary art. Cute girls in hanbok break the binary fashion code that hanbok is old-fashioned and Western dress is modern. They also decisively break free from the unpleasant modern-era association that a woman in hanbok implicitly evokes a gisaeng. In Korean contemporary art, artists working with women in hanbok as their subject are emerging one after another.
Breaking the Prejudice That "Hanbok Is Old-Fashioned, Western Dress Is Modern"
The representative artists popular for their girl characters in hanbok in Korean contemporary art are Kim Hyun Jung and Heugyoseok. Both are young women artists, free from the psychological weight of the 386 generation that appears elsewhere in Korean contemporary art. They also carry a boldness in asserting their own path even toward social authority. The heroines in their paintings have even formed fandoms as game characters. They enjoy popular appeal more through social networking services (SNS) than through traditional museum exhibitions.
Heugyoseok is a game illustrator well known through her blog. Contrary to the assumption that the artist name suggests a man, Heugyoseok graduated from Ewha Womans University's Department of Oriental Painting and works as an illustrator. Her Hanbok Series reimagines European fairy tales with protagonists dressed in hanbok. The artist holds the copyright and has attempted various commercial ventures such as jigsaw puzzles.
Among the Hanbok Series, "Alice in Wonderland" (2011) has received particular public affection. The work imagines Alice appearing in the Joseon era. The adorable image of Alice, wearing a sky-blue hanbok skirt and white jeogori, falling into Wonderland together with the rabbit, is utterly charming. The rabbit wears a red magoja jacket and gat (traditional hat), nonchalantly puffing on a long pipe. Hanging in the room where they travel through space and time is Kim Jeong-hui's late-Joseon painting "Buiseollando (Painting of Orchid Beyond Duality)." A blue-and-white porcelain jar atop a Joseon-era bandaji chest holds a branch of plum blossoms.
Heugyoseok does not restrict the online sharing of her hanbok illustrations, so they have been widely shared and loved among netizens. Instead, she retains the copyright to the original illustrations herself, producing and selling various goods such as puzzles. Last year, she organized a solo exhibition titled "Alice, Dressed in Hanbok — Heugyoseok" through public crowdfunding, and donated the proceeds to the House of Sharing, a shelter for surviving comfort women.
Heugyoseok has also participated as an illustrator for the online fantasy card game "Million Arthur." The game's characters are girls with youthful faces and voluptuous bodies. Because they are drawn somewhat provocatively, some aspects have drawn the ire of feminists. Still, there is no doubt she is an artist with the charm — or magic — to maximize a girl's beauty in a fantasy style.
Kim Hyun Jung, who paints ink-wash figure paintings with witty flair in a pop-art style, is already a popular star. Her works, in which she seems to project herself onto girls dressed in hanbok using Korean painting technique, have won such popular affection that they even draw envy. A gifted graduate of Seoul National University's Department of Oriental Painting, she skillfully applies the technique of Goryeo Buddhist painting — using solid technical command of Korean painting to first paint the bare skin, then layer clothing over it so it appears semi-transparent. She has won particular affection for the cheerfulness of her Naesoong series, which depicts pretty women who act demure but ultimately reveal their inner tomboy nature — a coy, adorable "naesoong." Women are no longer merely passive, virtuous ladies, nor are they combative figures resisting men. What stands out is their cheerfulness and boldness. Because Kim Hyun Jung herself is as pretty in real life as the heroines in her paintings, she even shows the potential for the art world to have a comprehensive popular star, much like an idol star in the pop music world.
Cheerfulness and Boldness Stand Out
Kim Hyun Jung's "Naesoong: Xenitis" (2013) is worth remembering. The heroine holds a smartphone, listens to music through Dr. Dre headphones, and runs cheerfully in hanbok and rubber shoes. The bicycle wheels, painted in blue, catch the eye with a lively color sense not typically used in traditional ink-wash figure painting. The red rubber shoes, styled like high heels, even stir a curious protective instinct, as if the tomboyish girl might trip and fall. A girl running in hanbok, indifferent to her surroundings, is lovable from every angle.
Last year, Kim Hyun Jung also drew attention as a "sell-out artist" whose works sold out completely at exhibitions large and small. News that all her paintings had sold even made the news. She demonstrates a new strategy in an era when art, too, requires marketing and promotion. The sight of young collectors who bought Kim Hyun Jung's paintings taking commemorative photos and posting them on SNS, beaming with joy, looked much like the excitement of meeting an idol star.
The cheerful tomboy characters in hanbok appearing in Korean contemporary art carry a distinctly Asian charm, different from that of the recent hit Walt Disney animation "Frozen."
Sun Seung-hye is Head of Curatorial Affairs at the Seoul Museum of Art. She researches and practices Korean and East Asian art and theory, combining fieldwork with academic study. She previously served as an assistant professor at Sungkyunkwan University's Academy of East Asian Studies, curator of Korean and Japanese art at the Cleveland Museum of Art in the United States, and a curator at the National Museum of Korea.