Paradigm Shifts of Regions and Icons: The Aesthetic Significance of Kim Hong-do's Paintings

• Published in: Korea journal 2006-07, Vol.46 (2), p.208
• Main Author: Tae-seung, Lim
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Aesthetics; Art criticism; Kim Hong-Do
• ISSN: 0023-3900

The most distinctive feature of Kim Hong-do's genre painting, shown in the composition, can be said to be the plane "dichotomous regions" of the motif. This composition is totally different from the cubic "multi-regions" of space that appear in the composition of earlier landscape painting. The dichotomous regions imply dividing the motif into two parts: "the main part" and "the concomitant part." The advent of the concomitant part implies a release from cultural chauvinism and cultural hegemony, signifying that Confucian monistic way of thinking had collapsed and that a pluralistic way of thinking had come into consideration. Kim's landscape has two characteristics: One is that the dichoto-mous regions of the motif in genre painting changed into the multi-regions of space in landscape painting. Supposing that traditional multi-regions were general ones, then the spatial composition of his style uses simple and layered multi-regions. This simple composition implies that the key motif has been transferred from "symbols" to "impressions." The other characteristic lies in the fact that the para-digm of icons shifted from traditional to new ones. In other words, a significant change appeared as icons changed from traditionally established symbols to icons without established meanings, namely from icons-as-symbols to icons-as-impressions. [PUBLICATION ABSTRACT]