Towards Communal Identity: Shifting Self-Image in Ko Hŭi-dong’s Paintings

Abstract

This paper explores the shifting self-image of Ko Hŭi-dong (1886 − 1965), best-known as the first Western-style painter of Korea, and rethinks the meaning of Ko’s ink paintings beyond the medium-based bifurcation. The individually constructed self-images of the artist’s early oil portraits are reconfigured in his ink paintings, when his perspective shifted, to embrace the network of his circle of friends. Ko’s new interest in communal identity is reflected in these seemingly traditional depictions of “elegant gatherings,” where his initial struggle to define his self-identity gives way to an effort to locate himself in another modern space of colonial Korea.