| Title | Enjoying Wayu (the view while lying down): Enjoying in the quotidian l… | |
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Enjoying Wayu (the view while lying down): Enjoying in the quotidian life and landscape” Song Hee-gyeong (Doctor of Literature, visiting professor of Ewha Women’s University,) Ⅰ. Prologue Art is the product of history. Art not only expresses discourse of the time and events of the moment in the faithful manner but also describes the universal life of humanity. This is the reason for which art is inseparable from history. Korean painting is no exception. Korean painting has evolved inline with sudden changes and tradition of Korean modern history. Despite the events of several transformations of regimes and rapidly changing circumstances from home and abroad, Korean painting has been keeping its position in silence in the corner of art world going through countless variations.
Korean painting normally refers to painting drawn based on paper, brushes and ink stick (meok) and completed with added coloring pigment. Until the 1970s, this type of painting was called “Oriental painting.” This term “Korean painting” was created to distinguish it from the Western painting since it was introduced during the stage of modernity. Painting named “Oriental painting” or “Korean painting” was never free from the proposition of “succession of tradition” compared to any other contemporary arts. The long-standing philosophical context that started from Confucianism and Taoism, served as a treasure warehouse giving infinite artistic inspiration to artists, but it also worked as a sort of an inescapable bridle or an unclimbable wall. It was because the wall of tradition build for thousands of years seemed too high, thick and strong.
For this reason, artists of Korean painting had to have a fierce fight with the past when carrying out a work. They finally felt relieved when they stayed in the category of tradition and they armed themselves with this effort to thoroughly learn the required tradition. Moreover, they even tried some other agile ways yet always based on tradition. Not a few people think that this fierce fight of artists of Korean painting is nothing but legacy of the old days. Artists of Korea painting carry the burden of the general mood of the art world where they are considered authentic artists only when they express the newly forming “high-tech” creation discourses in their work. However, in-depth exploration and interpretation of tradition is never a useless effort. Tradition is like a tip of the iceberg floating on the water, so it has infinite potential of creation like sunken rocks in the sea. In sum, tradition is the excellent teacher of creation.
In the seventeenth regular exhibition of the Women’s Association of Korean Painting entitled “Enjoying the view while lying down: Enjoying in the daily life and landscape,” we will review the journey of artists of Korean painting, who inherit tradition of Korean painting in the 21st century, reflect their aspect and explore a new direction. In particular, this exhibition will allow us to find the method of succeeding and accepting the long art philosophy and formative language of the Orient based on the term “Wayu” meaning enjoying the view while lying down (dream journey), which was created during the Jin Dynasty and the Northern and Southern Dynasties of China, as well as the experiment to bring variation of this. This exhibition will lead us to the path of how Wayu developed and was applied to modern art. Furthermore, we can discover the moment of how unique emotions and awareness of beauty of female artists sublimate into paper, brushes and ink stick, manifesting differentiation from male artists.
Ⅱ. Birth and development of “Wayu” Traditional painting of the Orient that realized inimitable formativeness based on paper, brushes and ink stick (meok) as main materials is no different from the microcosm encompassing thoughts and view of life of people from the Orient. It is because it has been unceasingly expressing the social situations, historical values and philosophy of the time through the unique art language. As is the case of all arts, the main subjects of traditional Oriental painting were diverse aspects of humans and nature. In China, they painted human figures with a mask in the earthenware of the New Stone Age. Moreover, in the Chu tomb of Changsha of China, the tomb of the 3rd century B.C., they excavated a silk drawing of a dead person buried in the tomb showing the dragon and Oriental phoenix ascending to the heaven. After passing through the era of the Oriental painting of which the main purpose and function were focused on ancestral rites and occult values, Oriental painting gradually transformed into an object of appreciation and evaluation. When intellectuals, lovers of art started to enjoy painting, it began to describe it in the respective language of thinking and a sense of beauty.
This change began in earnest from the Jin Dynasty and the Jin Dynasty and the Northern and Southern Dynasties of China. Gu Kaizhi (c.344-406), the Chinese painter, who was even appointed in the high official rank (shangshu zuo cheng), commented “obtainment of mystery and profoundness by mind transcription” referring to “drawing divinity through shapes” through his books such as “Theory on painting,” “Introduction of Famous Paintings of Wei and Jin Dynasties,“ and “Painting Yuntai Mountain.” Xie He (479-502), a portrait painter and writer of “The Record of the Classification of Old Painters” proposed the well-known “Six principles of painting” to criticize 27 painters from the state of Eastern Wu including Cao Buxing to other painters of the late period of the Southern Qi. The terms such as “transcription of mind,” “obtainment of mystery and profoundness by mind transcription,” and “six principles of painting” are the words of criticism on portrait painting when Xie He and Gu Kaizhi in quality of painters and critics learned directly from painting themselves.
The well-known concept of Oriental painting formed in the same period is “Wayu.” It was first mentioned by the hermit Zong Bing (375-443) and it refers to “enjoying while lying down. As is widely known, Zong Bing was from Niyang of Nanyang of the Song Dynasty. He was fond of Geomungo and excelled in calligraphy and painting. He was a man of refined taste loving mountains and a hermit artist. His friends, who recognized his talent and competency, called him to the Royal Court for assuming a political position. However, Zong Bing refused to have a public office in any stage of his life telling that he was content with his life on the hill surrounded by the valley for more than 30 years. He added the following comment.
For I loved mountains and rivers, I enjoyed roaming about. To the western side, I climbed up Mount Jing and Mount Wu. To the Southern side, I went up Mount Heng. I built a house in the Mount heng, I kept my will in Shang Ping. When falling ill, he returned to his hometown Jingzhou. He sighed, “I am afraid of having difficulty looking at famous mountains for I am getting old and falling ill. All I want is to purify my mind and contemplate the correct path (Tao) to enjoy the places while lying down. I will draw pictures of all the places I have been to."
Zong Bing felt extremely sorry for not being able to climbing up his favorite mountains as an old man. For self-consolation, he hung a painting of mountains and rivers in his room to enjoy “travelling in the mountains while appreciating the views lying down. The political confusion of the time also led Zong Bing to have a hermit life away from the worldly noise and enjoy “Wayu.” During the period of divided regimes, he made a decision to be away from the corrupt world and return to nature until the concept of “Wayu” was created. For this reason, Wayu is in line with the concept of Zhuangzi teaching the idea of returning to nature by overcoming the human world full of worldly restrictions. The spirit of “reification” of Zhuangzi meaning the union between me and object gives personality or character to nature leading mountains and human emotions to mutual communication. By considering mountains, rivers and trees as objects of beauty, it intends to reflect them onto the human life. Humans after successfully achieving union with nature, built the capacity of reasoning with autonomy and achieved the bliss of “enjoyment of leisurely wandering” to have insight of all things based on this autonomous capacity of thinking). While Gu Kaizhi and Xie He designed many concepts as a tool of criticizing painting, Zong Bing used this expression of “Wayu” showing his firm will of life against any external temptation after having achieved this completely.
This way, Zong Bing referred to Wayu when appreciating the “fake mountains” that are visually represented and not the real mountains. However, observing connotation of Wayu carefully, we can see that, apart from the meaning of watching Sansuhwa in the relaxed position, “enjoying while lying down” also includes the meaning of nature in imagination, utopia that does not exist in reality and dreaming of a fantasy world. The typical work reflecting this is “Mongdowondo” of An Gyeon. Grand Prince Anpyeong, the third son of King Sejong asked An Gyeon to draw a picture after strolling around the peach field with Park Paeng-nyeon (1417-1456) and Sung Sam-moon (1418-1456) on April 20 of 1447 of the lunar calendar and An Gyeon completed this “Mongdowondo” in only three days. A recent research result says that the “Mongyudowondo” written in the beginning of the roll of this painting is not the authentic handwriting of Grand Prince Anpyeong.
All scholars, who appreciated this painting when An Gyeon was alive, denominated this painting as “Mongdowondo,” which gives a reason to call it “Mongdowondo” and not “Mongyudowondo” though. The narrative of “Mongdowondo” reminds us of ““Dohwawongi” or “Peach Blossom Spring” of Tao Yuanming (365-427) of China. A fisherman, the protagonist of this story was barely managing to stay alive in the rough and dry world after the war and he suddenly discovers a grotto and starts a journey to the past. After passing through the grotto, a fantastic peach field and peaceful rural area spread out before his eyes. The fisherman experiences peace and abundance in the peach field and comes back to reality, but he fails to visit the place again. The new world of peach field full of warmth and splendor may be the third space where no place of this world can offer. When the world is turbulent and life is harsh, one takes a journey of fantasy to have consolation of mind dreaming of a utopia. This journey is no different from Wayu leading one to imagination of high mountains and deep valleys by looking at Sansuhwa in the room. This is the reason for which Wayu is translated as “dream journey” in English.
Ⅲ. “Creative interpretation” of Wayu By reflecting the view of life of Zong Bing who denied the path of life as a political official, Wayu became a philosophical concept of “inactive nature” of a hermit secluded from the world. Until reaching the 20th century, it has settled as an indispensable appreciation code when criticizing Sansuhwa. By applying Wayu, which had settled as an appreciation code of Sansuhwa, the landscape painting to other genres, we can expand the meaning. Old scholars must have enjoyed Wayu of their own while looking at paintings and not necessarily Sansuhwa. They developed sense of veneration to remember and follow the figures of the past through portrait paintings of the ancient history representing everyday life of grand masters and sages. Moreover, they observed emotional landscape of the time and described how people lived through humorous genre painting. By displaying flowers, birds and plants symbolizing wealth and prosperity, they prayed that blessing should be accompanied in the space of their own. By drawing still life recording valuable and precious objects, they were proud of their wealth and connoisseurship. The painting depicting psychology and desire of humans in a multiple manner is the very object of Wayu allowing literal appreciation of “enjoyment while lying down.” Once not only nature but also all creatures of the universe coming into sight are invited to the canvas, they are recreated as other objects of Wayu.
To make consilience of Wayu with the 21st century, we will review the concepts of “quotidianity” and “landscape.” First, let’s see the concept of “quotidianity.” This term started to appear with dynamism in Korean art since the 1990s. Quotidianity during this period can be defined as “experience in the contextualized meaning.” When it comes to context, it refers to time and space one experienced. The subjects placed in the context act different practices. Different acts practiced by different performers in dissimilar contexts give rise to different meanings. In other words, you and I are different and my yesterday can never be the same as today. 2) A process of experiencing difference in the same time and space, and the state of accumulation of this process… this is the invisible power of quotidianity. The second concept is about “landscape.” This term was used in Europe of the 17th century to bring beauty of nature to the canvas. However, landscape discussed during this period was not only about beautiful nature. It is the structure of representation and projection of consciousness that the artist selected and edited with autonomy. For this reason, landscape acts like an external world of humans, but it plays a role as a path giving the opportunity of looking at inside of the artist. 3)
Thinking about quotidianity and landscape, we can substitute Wayu for Korean painting of the 21st century for a while. The view spreading before our eyes on waking up in the morning, big and small events happening from person to person, various colors of objects reflected by the warm sunshine, mountains, trees, water, flowers referred to as components of nature, a variety of feelings and differentiated thoughts formed in the course of perception and observation of these elements, and the different feelings despite contact of same event and object…. All these gradually become visible through paper, brushes and ink stick (meok). The work completed this way is the object of Wayu of the artist. People watching this work also enjoy Wayu of their own. This is the reason for which Wayu referred by Zong Bing of the 4th century as a means of hermitage can be freely discussed in this age even after a long time and process.
Ⅳ. Epilogue
Artists of Korean painting has been making every effort to learn how to employ ink stick and apply traditional coloring method as well as explore typically “Korean” materials and expression method. While valuing the past yet facing the present, they has been keeping the work foreseeing the future. Moreover, while keeping mentality of the Orient, they have been trying to express their state of mind through the canvas in silence. To have this fruit, artists are still inquiring into the aesthetic concept of Oriental painting.
The same happens with members of the Women’s Association of Korean Painting, who have been cherishing and keeping the traditional materials such as paper, brushes and ink stick. The fruit of their effort can be seen in the very Seventeenth Regular Exhibition entitled “Enjoying Wayu (the view while lying down): Enjoying in the quotidian life and landscape.” In this exhibition, we can read a variety of codes of Wayu. Some small everyday life that artists usually experience and the scenes they see in the neighborhood are the objects of Wayu, and the way they faithfully convey this onto the canvas by sublimating it with their respective color and shape is the product of Wayu. The process of practice of Wayu embraces both representation revealing clear images and non-representation with blurred visibility. It is also possible to apply diverse properties of matter and materials other than paper, brushes and ink stick. Delicate sensitivity and straightforward emotions cherished exclusively by women are simply born again as a completely new object of Wayu through the irreplaceable touches of female artists. Thus, the Seventeenth Regula Exhibition of the Women’s Association of Korean Painting is a stage of sympathy allowing the visitors to experience and enjoy multifarious forms of Wayu manifested by each artist. Furthermore, it is a stage of culture proposing enduring vitality and infinite possibilities of creation of Korean painting. We expect that this exhibition will contribute to verifying power of creation provided by tradition.
1) Xu Fuguan, Chinese humanistic spirit, Dongmunseon, 1999, p, 250
2) Park Su-jin, “Elements of popular culture and dailiness of Korean art since the 1990s,” Art History Culture Critique, 4. Association of Art History, Culture & Critique, 2013, p. 70
3) Ahn So-yeon, “(Im)possible landscape,” (Im)possible landscape, Plaoto, 2012, p. 9 |