Korean art
Korean artists sometimes modified Chinese traditions with a native preference for simple elegance, spontaneity, and an appreciation for purity of nature.
Attempts at bringing Western conceptual art into the foreground have usually had their best success outside of Korea in New York, San Francisco, London and Paris.
[5] The earliest pottery style, dated to circa 7,000 BC, were flat-bottomed wares (yunggi-mun) were decorated with relief designs, raised horizontal lines and other impressions.
Buddhist missionaries introduced Buddhism to Goguryeo in 372 CE, which then covered the central and southern parts of Manchuria and the northern half of modern-day Korea.
Everyday customs were displayed within the tomb paintings as an attempt to surround the deceased with positive memories of their previous personal lives.
Subjects are often depicted alone or spouse, enjoying bountiful nature scenes like Korea’s fields and mountains, and participating in joyous behavior such as dancing and playing.
These murals reveal valuable clues about the Goguryeo kingdom including the importance of Buddhism, its architecture, and the clothing commonly worn at the time.
[6] Because of Silla gold artifacts bearing similarities to European techniques along with glass and beads depicting blue-eyed people found in royal tombs, many believe that the Silk Road went all the way to Korea.
Shown are some aristocrats, warriors, and musicians and maids of the Balhae people, who are depicted in the mural painting in the Tomb of Princess Jeonghyo, a daughter of King Mun (737-793), the third monarch of the kingdom.
Korean celadon displayed organic shapes and free-flowing style, such as pieces that were made to look like fish, melons, and other animals.
Koreans invented an inlaid technique known as sanggam, where potters would engrave semi-dried pottery with designs and place materials within the decorations with black or white clay.
To produce the designs on a single lacquered box, currently held at the National Palace Museum of Korea in Seoul, artisans utilized about 45,000 fragments of mother of pearl.
While the Joseon dynasty began under military auspices, Goreyo styles were let to evolve, and Buddhist iconography (bamboo, orchid, plum and chrysanthemum; and the familiar knotted goodluck symbols) were still a part of genre paintings.
In the 1970s and 80, these challenges eventually became the foundation of Dansaekhwa, or Korean monochrome painting, one of the most successful and controversial artistic movements in twentieth-century Korea.
Academic painting inspired by Japanese modernism was favored by the Park Chung-hee dictatorship and shown in state-run shows called Gukjeon (National Art Exhibition).
During Kim Il Sung's rule, painting was allowed only in the socialist realist genre and propaganda posters were the stock of North Korean visual arts.
[18] Art forms other than socialist realism are particularly seen in the patriotic films that dominated that culture from 1949 to 1994, and the reawakened architecture, calligraphy, fabric work and neo-traditional painting, that has occurred from 1994 to date.
[citation needed] The impact was greatest on revolutionary posters, lithography and multiples, dramatic and documentary film, realistic painting, grand architecture, and least in areas of domestic pottery, ceramics, exportable needlework, and the visual crafts.
Sports art and politically charged revolutionary posters have been the most sophisticated and internationally collectible by auction houses and specialty collectors.
Korean pottery is typically divided into three different categories: Cheongja (blue-green celadon), Baekja (white porcelain) and Buncheong (slip-coated stoneware).
Many were decorated with a variety of painted designs using oxidized iron, copper, or cobalt blue pigments imported from Persia via China.
The skill of contemporary Korean performing artists, who have had great recognition abroad, particularly in stringed instruments and as symphony directors, or operatic sopranos and mezzos, takes part in a long musical history.
Competition with China for tourists has forced a much larger attention to traditional Korean musical forms in order to differentiate itself from the west, and east.
Recreations of this music are done in Seoul primarily under the auspices of the Korea Foundation and The National Center for Korean Traditional Performing Arts (NCKTPA).
Court musicians appear in traditional costume, maintain a rigid proper formal posture, and play stringed five-stringed instruments.
Teaching by this the "yeak sasang" principles of Confucianism, perfection of tone and acoustic space is put ahead of coarse emotionality.
Famous works of court music include: jongmyo jeryeak, designated a UNESCO world cultural heritage, Cheoyongmu, Taepyeongmu, and Sujecheon.
Narrative storytelling, either in poetic dramatic song by yangban scholars, or in rough-housing by physical comedians, is generally a male performance.
These stories have a heavy base in Confucian, Buddhist, and Shamanistic idealism that help shape the cultural values in society that they want to pass down to future generations.
[23] They have been studied by Cho Dong-Il; Choi In-hak, and Zong In-sop, and many others who also helped contribute publications (often in English editions) for foreigners or for the teaching adolescent children.
