근대 서화계의 거장 안중식 - 전통의 계승과 도전, 그리고 한계

Abstract

An Jungsik, an intellectual in Korea’s Enlightenment Period, experienced new foreign cultures on his travels in Qing China and Japan. While in hiding in the aftermath of the Gapsin Coup of 1884, An studied under artist Jang Seungeop and entered the world of calligraphic painting. In 1891, he traveled to Shanghai in order to gain an understanding of the Shanghai School influence found in Jang’s work. As a result, An’s work in the 1890s mainly consisted of Taoist and Buddhist figure paintings; bird, flower and animal paintings; and gimyeongjeoljihwa paints that mixed Shanghai School and court decoration techniques, based on Jang’s style. In February 1899, after announcing his change of name in the newspaper Hwangseong Sinmun, An toured Shanghai and Japan for approximately two years before returning to Korea. This trip can be seen as aimed at examining the painting schools in each country and deciding on the course he was to take as a calligraphic painter.BR Upon his return to Korea in 1901, An took on Lee Doyeong as the first student at Gyeongmukdang, his art academy. The following year, An gained the recognition of the imperial household for his portraits of Emperor Gojong and the crown prince and emerged as a key figure in the world of calligraphic painting. His work as an illustrator in 1907 strongly implies fulfillment of his social responsibility and duty as an Enlightenment intellectual at a time of national crisis. The production of illustrations by An’s disciples, Lee Doyeong, Go Hoedong and Jo Seokjin, indicates considerable knowledge of Western painting, striving to train future generations and produce art that could lead to a revival of the stagnating world of calligraphic painting.BR At this time, based on his wealth of international experience, An assumed a leading role in art education, while remaining active in exhibitions and in collaborative “instant calligraphy painting” gatherings by modern painters. At the same time, he continued his ties with the Imunhoe, which consisted of Japanese senior officials and pro-Japanese officials, and with Japanese painters, based on the realist judgment that it would be difficult to re-establish calligraphic painting without Japanese support or cooperation within the limited circumstances of colonization. Lastly, it can be said that An trained the first generation of Korean painters who went on to lead calligraphic painting in the 1920s, and took on the image of a progressive artist by mixing a base of traditional landscape painting with modern aesthetics and Western painting in his active search for a transition from tradition to modernity. As such, he was both a teacher and a master in the modern art world.