Abstract Expressionism, Art Informel, and modern Korean art, 1945--1965.
Item
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Title
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Abstract Expressionism, Art Informel, and modern Korean art, 1945--1965.
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Identifier
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AAI9959173
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identifier
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9959173
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Creator
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Chung, Moojeong.
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Contributor
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Adviser: Mona Hadler
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Date
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2000
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Language
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English
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Publisher
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City University of New York.
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Subject
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Art History | History, Asia, Australia and Oceania
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Abstract
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This study discusses the development of modern Korean art in connection with the presence of American and European art in Korea. In particular, it focuses on the relationship between the Informel movement and American and European Abstract Expressionism.;The Korean War, which was brought to the attention of the American art community through the MOMA's 1951 exhibition "Korea: The Impact of War in Photographs," Pablo Picasso's Massacre in Korea of 1951 and War of 1952, and David Smith's Parallel 42 of 1953, forms a backdrop against which to understand Korean Informel art. The war led Korean artists to reject all the existing moral, esthetic values and to start over from zero. Their struggle to create a language to express their unique experience resulted in the Informel movement.;During the 1950s, Korean artists were eager to absorb information on American and European art. Exhibitions, little known today, such as "Student Work from College and University Art Department" (1956), "Eight American Artists" (1957), and "Art from the University of Minnesota" (1958) gave the Korean art community the opportunity to see some examples of contemporary American art. Magazines were another source of information about American and European art. During the 1950s, such magazines as Life, Time, Art in America, and Art News, which were easily available in Korea, mainly focused their attention on unconventional techniques of Euro-American Abstract Expressionism and Harold Rosenberg's idea of Action Painting. For Korean Informel artists, these stylistic characteristics became effective tools for accommodating the specific nature of the national experience.;The cultural conflicts between the United States and France were another factor that made it easier for Korean artists to embrace Euro-American Abstract Expressionism. In these conflicts, Asian art and culture served as a means for both injuring and defending the prestige of rivaling American and French positions of modern art. In the process, Asian art and culture unexpectedly emerged as a source of artistic independence, originality, and universality. In this sense, what Korean Informel artists saw in Euro-American Abstract Expressionism was a possibility of cultural convergence in which Asian artistic practices have been enjoined with Western artistic traditions.
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Type
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dissertation
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Source
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PQT Legacy CUNY.xlsx
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degree
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Ph.D.
