Recording history in paintings

By Kim Ji-myung

A professor at the Academy of Korean Studies (AKS) suddenly realized one day that twelve mural-sized oil paintings had always been hanging on the walls of the auditorium, library and other school buildings in AKS, but were totally ignored by people.

Portrayed in the paintings were significant moments and themes of Korean history, from pre-historic to the contemporary period. For example, one depicts people in a primitive ancient society inscribing shapes of whales, fish and tigers on rock walls along a river near what is now Pohang. Another painting presents the meeting of independence fighters during the colonial rule in the early 20th century.

He took photos of these paintings one by one and, together with his students, conducted a survey which found that there were in fact over 100 such paintings in existence around the country, held in institutions like the War Memorial Museum, Independence Hall, Saemaul Movement Association and Hyeonchungsa Shrine for Admiral Yi Su-sin.

Officially classified as national documentary paintings (minjokgirokwa), these historical paintings, mostly done in a socialist realism style, were produced as a government project between 1967 and 1979, during the later period of former President Park Chung-hee.

They were created to "emphasize the value of the people of the nation and also to awaken people to the importance of modernization." They were produced reportedly for both political and socio-economic reasons: to document the achievements of the regime and also to help artists via high-paying public projects when the average income for intellectuals and artists was relatively low.

All the paintings featured an astonishing dimension of imagination and skill of expression by some 50 master artists of that period. Each piece carried an enormous amount of information on historical events, figures, policies, the natural environment and stories.

The information related to these paintings has become the backdrop for a digital humanities project at AKS, led by Prof. Kim Hyeon, in which not only are the paintings themselves to be digitized, but all the information related to them is to be turned into over 1,000 nodes of information, linked together in a knowledge network, and supplemented with extensive multimedia resources.

This national documentary paintings project will bring all the pieces of art, currently scattered across the nation, into one virtual space _ not only in the form of painting, but accompanied by related knowledge and information including timelines and historical maps showing the locations of events. Architecture, figures, heritage sites and the environment connected to the themes of the paintings will be identified, defined, narrated and presented in text, visuals, videos and locations on real-time maps.

Recording a nation's historical moments or significant ideas and stories in paintings has been practiced throughout history in all parts of the world. The Royal Academy of London and the influential French Academy of Fine Arts place history painting as the arch genre of five painting categories including portrait, genre, landscape and still life. Because paintings with religious, historical and allegorical works with a moral message ranked top on the hierarchy of genres in the academic art tradition, many paintings we see at museums, palaces, churches in Europe and in art textbooks belong to this category.

In 1435, an Italian artist identified istoria with the representation of the exemplary deeds and struggles of moral figures _ such as saints or other Biblical figures, pagan divinities and mythological heroes as well as those of historical events.

South Korea's national documentary paintings are close to the socialist realism, led by Russian history painters such as Ilya Repin. His astonishing mastery in realistic technique and daunting thematic expression impressed the Korean audience when an exhibition was held in Seoul.

While the socialist realism style has been forgotten in the south, North Korea has continued to focus on the unique genre which they call chosonhwa (Paintings of Joseon or North Korean-style Paintings). It is interesting that the socialist realism style of old historical painting survives most actively in places like North Korea, Laos and Vietnam. The production of such historical paintings not only survives in Nhe north, but is prospering as a source of foreign cash.

According to the website of the North Korea's Mansudae Art Studio (http://www.mansudaeartstudio.com/), there are some 1,000 artists, supported by a 3,000-strong support staff, who create paintings, bronze sculptures, ceramics, woodcuts, embroidery, jewel paintings, posters and charcoal paintings.

It is surprising that an exhibition "Contemporary North Korean Art: The Evolution of Socialist Realism" was held in Washington D.C. with some 50 paintings. An article on this show was headlined "North Korea's Artists are Breaking Out of 70 Years of Isolation."

Creating artwork to document legends, history, religious stories and mythological narratives have been common in human history. However, in the case of Korea, a project carried out during the Park regime, is bluntly defined as a "dictatorship" project, and is denied a proper evaluation. In this regard, the past controls the present.

I wonder if Prof. Kim and his students' project will bring fresh attention to those documentary paintings, and shed new light on the by-gone days' genre.

I also wonder if a cyber or virtual gallery can feature South and North Korean artists side by side without any borders, as in reality painters from both sides can hold shows in the States.

The writer is the chairwoman of the Korea Heritage Education Institute (K*Heritage). Her email address is heritagekorea21@gmail.com.