| Title | Landscape silhouettes of mountains and rivers-Cho Eun-jeong (Art criti… | |
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From nature to landscape
Cho Eun-jeong (Art critic) From nature to landscape
In “Record of calligraphic method,” Jing Hao meets an old man and manifests his view of painting while exchanging questions and answers with him.
“Painting is beauty. Can any one deny that it is something good if we value the form and obtain truth out of it?”
The old man answered. “It is not true. Drawing is an act of drawing. It is obtaining truth after contemplating an object. It is getting beauty from the beauty of an object, and getting substance from the substance of of an object. You are not supposed to insist that beauty turns into truth. If you do not know the technique, some plausible form can be created but it will be hard to seek truth.”” I asked him again. “Then what is the form? What is the truth?”
The old man answered. “A form is something that obtains a shape and leaves its energy, while truth is abundant in dispositions. Every energy forms the technique of beauty and leaves figuration, and the shape ceases to exist.”
By dividing painting into the external form and the internal one, the old man defined the purpose of painting as drawing an object but regarded it as an act of expressing truth inherent in the object and not the external form.
According to him, every painting has truth and the source comes from vitality. Since the purpose of painting lies in expressing truth inherent in the form, the sole act of acquiring the external beauty does not make painting. The ensemble of all objects is nature, for this reason, Sansuhwa (literally, painting of mountains and rivers or painting of nature) has been the center of research in this sense. However, it is the appearance of nature in terms of form, but the truth is captured. For this reason, it is the symbol of images projected by ensemble of ideas and experience of the artist in terms of content. In the landscape (Sansu), which became symbol of nature and icon of concept and not the space of human images, we can perceive the energy of the time and concentration of ideology of people of the time. By highlighting humans, trivial existence compared to nature, the ideas of humans reside in the space where concept of naught and emptiness is emphasized and the reality is manipulated. Sansuhwa began to have the political color on top of the intrinsic character of nature by reflecting the view of the world of the nobility. No big difference is observed in the landscape painting of the West, which has the similar form to that of Sansuhwa of the Orient. The elaborate bridge made of stone at the entrance of the forest, magnificent fortress and vast field… all symbolize the feudal lord or the state power governing the area.
Sansuhwa as painting is imbued with the attitude of the time on the other side of the surface called nature. As an expression of concept of ideal, Sansuhwa was used. To be specific, even though their bodies are in the political position, their minds are in the depth of mountain as hermits for spiritual training accompanied by a little Buddhist monk. Sansu or nature (mountains and rivers), which inspires human emotions and evokes grandeur of nature, transforms into a space of ideology by embracing hermit life as reflection of view of the world away from the secular world. The classical scholars and noblemen in public office politically instrumentalized this hermitage philosophy staying in nature along with Taoism, philosophy of Laozi and Zhuangzi by showing affection to Sansuhwa. Therefore, it is extremely uncommon to find Sansuhwa painted by women among numerous paintings in the museum. Why? It was because nature as ideal, the space of ideology was never allowed to women.
Lefebvre states that a space is a social product as a stage of life conditions and experience. Obviously, he paid attention to social nature of space as a mans to consider urban problems after the arrival of capitalism. However, the aspect of which a space manifests in the process of forming a space as an experience presents grounds for an argument to define a space as realization of ideology. Mannheim appropriately explains the correlation between utopia, the ideal space and ideology. According to him, these two have in common in the sense that both disagree with existence, in other words, symbols of transcendental existence meaning the state away from reality. However, utopia is a concept that has possibility of putting new ideal into practice by destroying the previous orders. Utopia draws power to move forward by transcending reality. On the other hand, he regards ideology as something unrealizable. He insists that ideology works as false awareness if it is not accompanied by organic changes because it can lead to the direction of reproducing while keeping the previous life style. For this reason, history is understood as a cyclic process between ideology distorting and hiding reality and utopia, which is unreal but criticizes reality.
Utopia with a politically perfect state has the aspect of the ancient Arcadia. Sansuhwa is fundamentally based on the transcendent scenery. Utopia, a place to reach by boat, is a space that still exists going against the ancient time. Utopia can be a perfect point reaching thesis-antithesis-synthesis in the sense that it exists as a being in the point where different time and space integrate as one and as an ideological phenomenon, and a place that belongs to no specific point and that can be reached only by wealth, according to Foucault.
The fact that utopia was not permitted to women brings about the problem of subjective identity. Poussin symbolizes a space where death and life cross the border by combining natural landscape and utopia. Arcadia of Watteau praising secular pleasure is depicted as a place of lovers reaching complete love. Immortal hermits or visitors accompany the transcendent scenery and utopia in the Oriental painting as a mechanism including humans in the grand Mother Nature. In that place, there is no woman like an ordinary person, but the transcendental scenery exists in the painting depicting Buddhist and Taoist themes as a place where immortal hermits like Mago Grandma stay. With such figures who stay and enjoy in the world of Sansuhwa, it makes it possible that Sansuhwa exists as a space where their ideology is combined with virtual utopia. For this reason, women are not allowed to make an access to the world of Sansuhwa, not even as an utopia as a realizable space or as an ideology. However, it is possible to confirm that femininity as vitality from Taoist vision, located in the contrary position of dominant ideology, has been accepted and allowed.
Sansu (nature: mountains and rivers) and emotional landscape
In “Gyeonggukdaejeon” stipulating systems of the society of the Joseon period, there is a record of “Sichwi” or an exam-based recruiting to select artists of Dohwaseo or Office of Painting. The article of “Chijae” or “Talent selection” of “Yejeon” defines bamboo as the first rank, Sansu as the second rank, human figures, birds and animals as the third rank and flowers and plants as the fourth rank. Grading method followed certain rules. For example, when “Tong” is received from the bamboo, it was five points. When “Yak” the medium grade was received, it was three points. When “Tong” was received from flowers and plants, which were considered less important than bamboo, it was two points. When the medium grade was received, it was one point. Therefore, receiving medium grade from the bamboo can assure a higher grade than receiving “Tong” from flowers and plants. In other words, the case of receiving all “Yak” by choosing bamboo and Sansu, the subjects that give the highest rank assured a higher grade than the case of receiving all “Tong” by choosing human figures, birds and animals. For this reason, it was more advantageous to choose subjects with higher grades. From this information, we can deduce that the subjects such as bamboo and Sansu were defined as the area desired by the society of the time or the realm that artists of the time must have mastered as basics.
It is estimated that the origin of Sansuhwa dates back to the Spring and Autumn period and the Warring States period. In the “Seonhwa hwabo” published in the yearbook of Emperor Huizong of the Song Dynasty of China, the themes of painting are largely divided into ten. They include the so-called Ten Doors to Painting such as Taoism & Buddhism, human figures, royal palace, nomad life, dragon, Sansu, horse & bull, flowers & birds, bamboo and fruit & vegetable. However, in the course of time, the subjects of painting were also divided into Sansu, human figures, noble women, flowers / plants / birds / animals, insects / flowers / plants, stones, plum, orchid, chrysanthemum and bamboo. Even over time, Sansu settles a certain position as a key subject of painting.
Jing Hao in “Vision of Sansu” mentions that “when drawing Sansu, my will precedes brushes.” This means that the artist’s mind drawing nature is more important than nature. This refers to the importance of subjectivity, and the origin of Sansuhwa was influenced by Xuanxue (Dark Learning) trends, the school mainly developed by Zhuangzi. Xuanxue trends refer to poetic literature from hermitage vision, and this thought based on harmonious relation between nature and humans is considered to have already started from the Zhou Dynasty. “The Butterfly Dream” of Zhuangzi means joy in the world of nature and is also quoted as praise to beauty of nature. Laozi spread the thought of which humans approach nature by explaining circulation and repetition of nature through his vision of “non-doing” or ‘inaction.” “Sangwon” of Laozi states that “humans follow the earth as a law, the earth follows the heaven as a law, and the heaven follows Tao or ‘a way’ as a law. However, Tao was created by itself in accordance with nature” describing that growth and vitality of all creatures can be Tao and the aspect of nature. Sansuhwa depicts nature, so it connotes the order of nature.
This idea of which great mountains and gran rivers influence humans was emphasized during the era when the Jin Dynasty was going into collapse. They opted for hermit life away from the active society after having established justification influenced by Taoism (thoughts of Zhuangzi and Laozi). Seeking joy in nature remoted from the human reality was taken for granted for they were fostering Tao, spirituality. In fact, it was inevitable that this concept maintained as long as the political incidents persisted. They believed that “Confucianism socializes humans while Taoism helps humans assimilate into nature.” For intellectuals who were not able to ignore the reality, the teachings of Confucianism confirmed the sense of reality. Nevertheless, when dreams frustrated intellectuals in reality, they needed wisdom or philosophy to control their mind, and this necessity can be found from hermitage thought. The exquisite combination between Taoism and Confucianism is faithfully reflected in hermitage thought, and the object of visualization of such thoughts is the very Sansuhwa.
They chose Sansuhwa as a subject of painting because it was the symbol of nature. The thought of humans was highly valued to depict Sansuhwa. Seolgang of the Ming Dynasty considered Sansuhwa the optimum subject of painting saying that “Sansu in the painting presents profound loyalty and infinite will, so the meaning of many people is simply immeasurable.” This implies that the thought of the artist is equally immeasurable for nature is infinite. Wen Zhengming, a painter of the Ming Dynasty emphasizes the importance of thought of people interpreting Sansu saying that “hermit nobles often painted Sansu but their thoughts were wrong.” In other words, according to him, subjective emotion serves as a vehicle of completing Sansu.
It was Gu Kaizhi who first talked about the theory of Sansuhwa in the independent manner. His books only hand his name down to posterity. He mentions how to concretely express Sansu with real expressions based on observation of nature. For instance, in his book “Painting Yuntai Mountain,” it is indicated that painters should express the sky and water with blue color. He emphasized “mind manifestation through painting” and “obtainment of mystery and profoundness by mind transcription.” This can be understood as a synonym of “empathy.” Zong Bing was also influenced by Taoism and in his book “Hwasansuseo,” he states that Sansuhwa is an art seeking the quality of form and realizing Tao of fostering spirituality, by saying that “the saints react to objects while fostering spirituality and the wise contemplate the form by purifying mind. In Sansu, they achieved spirituality out of quality… They enjoyed themselves in the famous mountains. This is joy of the benevolent and the intelligent. Saints manifest Tao of fostering spirituality through divinity, while the wise beautify Tao through the forms acquiring joy as benevolent souls.”
Also, he put emphasis on the importance of experiencing the real approach to well-known beautiful mountains. He mentioned, “I have lived feeling ashamed for not being able to keep my body healthy and firm with strong spirit away from aging, longing for Mount Lu and Mount Heng and not being able to live in Mount Jing and Mount Wu. However, when I sprained my ankle and had to come back, I drew a painting and colored to adjust the composition, I realized that it was the “Drawing of hill in cloud or Woonryeongdo.” Referring to Wang Wei, Dong Qichang stated that “painting is in the middle of poetry, and poetry is in the middle of painting.” This can be interpreted as lyrical combination of attributes between poetry and painting.
As mentioned before, Jing Hao stressed the “will of brush.” This means that the intention of the artist is the most important element in Sansuhwa. He says that this is manifested by composition or proportion and truth is revealed through painting. Guo Xi also underlines that it is necessary to strengthen the status of art through artistic cultivation in nature by observing as many things as possible and seeking techniques to fill one’s mind with thoughts for broad expression. All debates on Sansuhwa imply that it is important to obtain spirituality through understanding of nature, as Guo Xi, who insists that creation is required through Sansu as an object of experience, views that we must obtain figuration at a distance but truth at a close distance.
It is not coincidence that An Gyeon, who was deeply influenced by Guo Xi, became an authority in Sansuwha. Among his works, the only work with his confirmed authorship is “Mongyudowondo (1447)” and is closely related to “Dohwawongi” or “Peach Blossom Spring” of Tao Yuanming of China. In this work, we can clearly see that there is clear division by fog between the world of reality composed of earthy mountain on the left side and the transcendent world composed of rocky mountain of the right side. This type of division can be also observed in paintings of the Joseon Dynasty, following the thoughts of transcendent immortals based on the interpretation of which Sansu was the fundament of real natural landscape, as seen in “Geumgang jeondo” of Jeong Seon portraying negativity and positivity as an earthy mountain and a rocky mountain.
Sansu as women and a space Based on the space as practice field of experience, we can see that even the female artists of modern impressionism had limited experiences considering that they only drew images of their home yards, indoor opera theater seats through which children walk, a racetrack or outskirts of Paris at most. The same way landscape, nature as experience, limited record of body, we can see that Sansu, nature as ideal of the Orient, was the world denying thinking. A space controls thinking. In this sense, the fact that female artists did not draw Sansuhwa very much means that there was restriction of spaces, in other words, restriction of thinking.
According to Lee Seong-mi, art historian, only 17 female artists are known from Goryeo period to Joseon period and works of only 5 of them are available today. In particular, the amount of Sansuhwa is insignificant. In sum, nature was not allowed to women and this means that social world was not allowed to them either.
Among female artists of Joseon period, we can see only one piece of painting revealing a small part of Sansu painted by Heo Nanseolheon, who is more known for her poetic name than her artist name. Though the drawing is not really significant in the history of painting, we can pay attention to the fact that a woman painted the mountain, river and thatched houses. In this work entitled “Anganbigeumdo,” there are trees on the left side and birds are flying in the sky. We can see a man wearing traditional Hanbok gown and a child holding his hand. The man in Hanbok is carrying a long stick and has beard. He is looking at the child. The child is looking up at the sky to see the flying birds, so her head is downward while her mouth is upward. The child is wearing a red upper garment jeogori and a loose skirt. We can guess the child is a girl. This is the first girl image appearing in paintings of Joseon period.
Through the historical record, we can find that the fact that a seven-year-old Shin Saimdang drew Sansuhwa by imitating the picture of An Gyeon was absolutely exquisite. In “Seonbihaengjang” Yi I wrote about his mother Shin Saimdang, he mentions that no one else surpasses his mother in drawing of grapes and many use folding screens and scrolls imitating her painting. Through this anecdote of Shin Saimdang who learned Sansuhwa by copying paintings of An Gyeon, we can measure the importance of his Sansuhwa.
Thousands of miles away,
over the numerous mountains to reach my hometown Awake or asleep, every single minute,
I long for the day of going back home
The moon over the pine tree looks lonely. A gust of wind blows by Gyeongpodae. Seagulls gather and scatter by the sandbank. The fishing boats keep coming and going over the sea. Would the moment ever come again
to step on my hometown Gangneung? Just to sew wearing colorful clothes… Her poem “Sachin” showing his nostalgic longing for her mother manifests that she experienced natural landscape of his hometown and knew how to portray that natural image. Her poem is imbued with meaning of nature and experience in nature. In the sense that she was often compared with Lee Seong, well-known for Sansuhwa, we can guess that her Sansuhwa reached a high level. However, among the Sansuhwa works believed to be works of Shin Saimdang, the work considered an authentic one other than some Sansuhwa works, which were revealed lately, there is only one folding screen work belonging to National Museum of Korea.
It is presumed to be a picture book in the beginning, but they made it as a small folding screen later. The relevant story of the painting is recorded in the epilogue of Park Jae-jo written behind the folding screen while making it in 1975. Is it said that this picture belonged to Younguijeong Shin Man (1703-1765), the grandson of Jipeuigong Shin Myeong-gyu, from the family Shin of Pyeongsan. It was handed down because the mother of Shin Myeong-gyu was the poet Maechang. The picture has a poem of Meng Haoran saying “Rowing the boat, I anchor by the misty shore. At dusk, the vagabond is enveloped with new worries. The field is vast and trees touch the sky. The moon reflected on the clear water gets closer to people.” The drawing seems to be the landscape of this poem expressed in painting. There is the moon in the sky and the boat is leaning against the river. In the second screen, we can see a poem of Li Bai saying “A wild goose flying far away in the cloudless sky… The sea is vast but a lonely sailboat floats slowly. The sun is about to set. When will the apricot tree by the sea bloom?” The image expresses a lonely sailboat and the setting sun. We can see that the artist intended to describe the poetic image onto the screen.
Unlike the drawing of flowers, plants and insects, the identity of Sansuhwa must be the view of the world, which is not accepted but surely exists, and to which today’s female artists pay attention. While Sansu was considered a quotidian element in the world of men, it was a reserved sacred place not allowed to women. Even though Sansuhwa was painted, it was the painting of the world of poetic intention and not the space of hermitage or relaxation. These places were public spaces such as a detached house or a test site for official examination. Since such places were political ones with the aspect of nature, women must have not been allowed to enter.
Today, Sansu as a subject of painting works as a channel to recognize the reality. As a symbol of nature meaning the space of human life and as a place of invisible contemplation, Sansu serves as a subject matter and theme to express emotions. Considering this, Sansuhwa of today possesses different meaning only by the fact that female artists focus on it to analyze and illuminate it in the collective manner. Sansuhwa as observation of nature can be interpreted from a woman’s perspective illuminating law of extensive nature. As a place of cognition of one’s ego, as an event of which record of experience occurs and as a time, the symbol of infinite flow, we come to have life, experience and thoughts projected onto Sansu. Nature as a place of experience and not as ideology in contemporary art provides an opportunity of expanding feminine spaces limited by Sansuhwa.
Ecotopia and everyday life
Barbara Sichtermann comments that “women who want something more than a family life come out of their house and make individual thing as a political one every time they take a step forward.” It is because they face the world transformed into ideology by men when the detailed values of women defined only in the home become something social running into political problems. The identity one faces moves toward the dimension of body, and this body has been considered not only a part of nature but also a being that modern-day influence penetrates and works. For this reason, the frame analyzing focused on body before this question of “Is feminine sensitivity biologically defined or is it a mere social composition?” presents extremely political for it sometimes uses sexual icons. Despite this, another method of which women exist in the society, this ecological method is the way catching ideology off guard called “society.” According to Gorz, maternal instinct is based on a sense of bonds without possibility of socialization, the threat to other social order by nature, shaking all bases established by socialization. This particular sense of bonds cannot approach from outside to inside because “it is impossible to externalize interiority or objectify subjectivity.” This “ecological” sense of bonds plays an important role in the stream of thoughts of the West of which human-centered view of the world moves to the nature-centered view of the world. A series of situations with increasing interest in Taoism prove this kind of stream. According to Jeong Jae-seo, Taoism values body for its culture is based on respecting and growing life. In Asia, Taoism meant an emotional system in opposition to rational Confucianism, the ruling ideology. He insists that Taoism began presenting pro-woman dispositions.
Ernest Callenbach published “Ecotopia Report” in 1975 and spread the concept of “Ecotopia” as a new utopia by coining a new word between “ecology” meaning ecosystem and “topia” meaning a place or location. Ecotopia is a concept of which the main agent is ecology in which the ecosystem exists in harmony in the whole natural system and not in the arcadia as nature defined and arranged by humans. Under this concept, humans exist as part of the ecosystem. Contemplation on humans as existence adjusted by the law of Mother Nature requires behavior of a harmonious life with nature and a life conforming to nature, while practice gives rise to intervention. The settlement from political utopia to survival-based utopia is a space with possibilities of participation of women, the most fundamental existence as continuation of individuals.
The space putting ecology in the center is a point which does not exist in the social space, but is a space where a social frame coexists in the removed area. Ecotopia, an icon of space as a stage of practice resides as a resource making the utopia, which was absent in women as ideology, exist for real. In the sense that Ecotopia is circulation as part of life and ecosystem, it gives birth to a practical space developed from Sansuhwa However, reality is a shadow reflected onto the mirror. Sansu as time and space interpreted as emotions manifests as a symbolic world of mystery because awareness of reality passes through the film of emotions. The motions of mountains, waters, wind and mind are not only applied to Sansu as a subject of painting. The source of energy penetrating life breathes there. The aspect of the reality occurring by mind reaction is a shadow reflected onto the mirror. It is because it is possible to meet truth of reality even in the stream of colors not allowing us to recognize flowers, birds, faces and forms since the drawing painted exteriority and interiority of this object.
Su Shi once mentioned that “since an object is a rationality, if we reach its will, everything reaches harmony.” This can explain why “emotional landscape” as a landscape evoking emotions and thoughts is different from Sansu yet same at the same time. Literally, it exists with a mind landscape not depending on nature, and the artist can express true ultimate principle of nature through all objects of the world. Mind-depicting figure painting and everyday aspect portraying some fragments of life all belong to the world of painting cultivated by reactions of mountains, waters, wind and mind.
On the other hand, the phenomenon focused on reaction of individual taste or decoration emphasized by Simmel is established, for instance, an identity figure is established when individual objects get together and this whole figure is thoroughly individual and reveals each one’s character. It is possible that the collective phenomenon in the art history is not closely related to phenomenon chosen by individuals. In sum, aspects chosen and appeared in many materials such as Sansu, landscape, human figures, flowers and plants can act as social and individual elements. Choosing subject of painting totally depends on one’s taste. Sansu exists not as the same ideology as practiced in the past, but as mountains, waters, an object of landscape or nature. All these are adjusted by emotions. All objects projected onto the canvas stay as an emotional landscape.
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