Japan Focus has an article detailing and displaying Gobau’s Korean War art which has a plethora of arresting images. Gobau worked from the Republic of Korea side: North Korean forces are not shown in a good light, but South Korean forces don’t get a pass on their purportedly anti-communist atrocities.

Thanks to Adam at Mutantfrog for pointing me to these North Korean Propoganda posters. I think this is my favorite but the whole group is worth a look.

There is a wonderful photo exhibit, 벽(癖)의 예찬, 근대인 정해창을 말하다 at the Ilmin museum of art right next to 광화문 station of the works of 정해창, whose 1929 exhibition was the first private photographic art exhibit in Korea. The exhibition is both artistic and in a sense historiographical as it also displays a number of photos of the 1929 and other exhibits by 정해창.

I visited the exhibit with two friends, including 우물 안 개구리 contributor Kim Gyewon, who was briefly in Seoul. Gyewon is much better qualified to speak about the content of the exhibition, but I will just note that it was fascinating to see the selection of subjects and the range of styles of photography used, as well as snapshots of colonial period lives in Korea.

You can read more about the exhibition and 정해창 at the Ilmin museum linked above and in some of these articles and postings (1, 2, 3)

Brochure blurb below:

벽癖의 예찬, 근대인 정해창을 말하다

20세기 초, 서양문물의 유입과 일본유학을 통해 신문화를 접하게 되었던 지식인들에게 이제까지 경험하지 못했던 문화적 표현방식들은 신선한 충격이었을 것입니다.

정해창선생은 일본 유학길에 사진기라는 경이로운 물체를 접하고 귀국한 후, 사진작업에 몰두하며 다가오는 세계에 대한 흥분과 기대를 과학적인 방식으로 접근하고자했고, 서예와 전각에 전념하며 자신의 취미 벽(癖)을 공공화(公共化)하고자 했습니다.

근대의 인문적 시각문화를 되짚어 현대를 알고자 노력해온 일민미술관은 무허 정해창선생 탄생 100년을 맞아 벽(癖)의 예찬- 근대인 정해창을 말하다 전을 열면서 한 개인이 당시에 일으킨 센세이션과 후대에 미친 역량을 살펴보고자 합니다. 이 전시가 우리의 일상문화가 나아갈 길에 작은 지표를 제시할 수 있길 기대합니다.

일민미술관

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이 전시는 1929년 우리나라 최초로 ‘예술사진개인전람회’를 열었던 무허( 舞 虛) 정해창 선생의 탄생 100주년을 맞이하여 개최하는 기념전시회이다.

1907년에 태어난 정해창은 보성고등보통학교를 졸업 후 일본으로 유학을 떠나 독일어를 전공하면서 그림과 사진을 배웠으며, 금석학 연구를 위해 중국유학을 다녀온 근대지식인의 한 전형이었다. 그는 해방 이전 사진가와 서도전각가로 활동했으며, 해방 이후에는 금석학 연구 및 불교미술사 연구에 전념하면서 미술평론가로 활동하기도 했다.

본 전시는 이처럼 다양한 예술 및 학문 연구 활동을 한 그의 삶의 궤적을 따라 근대지식인의 한 전형을 살펴보고, 딜레탕트의 한계를 넘어 취미를 벽의 수준으로까지 끌어올린 그의 문화예술 관련 작품들을 새롭게 조명하고자 한다.

이 전시는 정해창의 예술활동 영역에 따라 크게 제1부 ‘사진인문학을 열다’와 제2부 ‘서도전각의 길을 가다’의 2부문으로 나누었다. 제1부는 1929년부터 1939년까지 사진가로서 활동한 시기의 사진작품들을 중심으로 구성하였으며, 제2부는 1941년 서도전각전 의 개최 이후 서예가와 전각가로 활동했던 시기의 서예 및 전각 작품들로 꾸몄다.

이번에 처음 공개되는 정해창의 빈티지프린트는 한국근대사진사연구에 있어 소중한 실물자료이자 일제강점기에 우리나라 사람이 촬영한 몇 안 되는 근대기록물 중의 하나이다. 또한 해방 이후 전국을 답사하면서 촬영한 총 2,483점의 불교미술사진은 근대시각문화유산이라 할 만하다.

식민지 지식인으로서 전통문화에 대한 재인식을 통해 민족의식을 고취한 정해창은 평생 ‘조선적인 것’을 쫓아 사진에서 서예와 전각으로 그리고 우리나라 불교미술 연구의 길로 걸어갔다. 그 과정에서 그가 성취한 예술작품과 연구 성과들은 우리에게 문화적 자산으로 남겨졌다. 이번 전시가 그가 남긴 자료들을 발굴・정리・복원하여 정해창이라는 근대적 텍스트를 다시 읽는 자리가 되기를 바란다.

이경민 (객원기획, 사진아카이브연구소 연구원)

A Korean stone memorial commemorating victories over Hideyoshi’s armies has been returned [via]

After decades of negotiations, the Bukgwan Victory Monument was driven through the demilitarized zone between the two Koreas on its circuitous journey back home. Because communist North Korea does not have formal relations with Japan, South Korean diplomats secured its return and then turned it over to their estranged neighbor.

It marks the first time that Seoul has formally intervened on Pyongyang’s behalf to recover a cultural relic, and could set a precedent for the future.

It’s good to see a cultural icon returned, but it raises all kinds of interesting and troubling issues. First, of course, is the location of the piece

Although the stone tablet was less valuable than some other artworks, its presence at a shrine that honors the souls of 2.5 million military dead including those convicted of war crimes was particularly rankling to Korean activists. South Korean President Roh Moo-hyun took up the cause during a meeting last year with Japanese President Junichiro Koizumi.

“There were a lot of psychological factors with this monument. It was about an embarrassing and humiliating defeat for the Japanese, and I think they wanted it hidden away,” said Kang Kyung-hwan, director of the Cultural Heritage Administration’s international division.

Toshiaki Nambu, the head of Yasukuni Shrine, told the media that his board never contested the return of the monument. “The monument is not ours. We are only keeping it temporarily and planning to return it,” Nambu was quoted as saying

Which has to qualify as one of the most bald-faced lies ever uttered, given that Koreans have been trying to arrange repatriation for 27 years. This is not the end, though,

This is only the starting point for a national movement to recover all that they stole from us,” said Choi Seo-myeon, the scholar, now 76, who found the pilfered monument at Yasukuni after a lengthy search.Choi and his fellow Korean scholars say the Japanese were as bad as the Nazis in Europe: Imperial forces plundered treasures during an occupation that ended only with Tokyo’s surrender to the Allies in 1945.

The items range from the exquisite — celadon vases, bronze Buddhas, gold jewelry — to the macabre. Among the latter are as many as 100,000 noses and ears that Japanese samurai sliced off Koreans as trophies during a brutal 7-year war in the late 16th century. The body parts were buried in a mound in Kyoto.

When Japan and South Korea normalized diplomatic relations in 1965, the Japanese returned more than 1,300 items. About 1,700 more have come home through private negotiations. Korean collectors have bought back some pieces on the open market, and some Japanese citizens have donated pieces. But Koreans say it is only a fraction of what remains missing.

One of the interesting questions at this point has to be whether there might be distinction, on repatriation, between items taken by governments (and their agents) by force or by seizure laws later deemed illegitimate versus those held in private hands and acquired through purchase, even under adverse economic conditions. If the latter distinction isn’t made — and the legal situation now is considerably less friendly to the export or purchase of culturally significant achaeological finds — then there will have to be a massive global repatriation out of Western museums. I’m thinking, for example, of the Museum of Fine Art, Boston, which has some astounding collections based in no small part on purchases made in the 19th century, when Japan was at an extreme economic disadvantage to the West.

[Crossposted to Frog In A Well: Japan]

There’s a lot of presentist fallacies and overdrawn conclusions — just because a society has a reputation for sexual restraint doesn’t mean that it is and always was asexual — in this article [Thanks, sepoy, but I don't do personal memes here] about sexual imagery in Korean artifacts and art, but it does have some images and facts which are potentially very interesting. Any suggestions for richer, better substantiated works or websites on Korean art (or sexuality and gender issues) which could put this stuff into proper context?