민예론에 나타난 일본 근대미술인식의 가치 전도

초록

A comprehensive understanding of folk painting is the popular and practical painting, with ethnic themes and traditional techniques. However, the main concerns of most art theorists in writing about folk painting paradoxically focus on aesthetic values, artistic meanings, or cultural significances rather than about the utility of the painting. That is to say that the practical objects are reduced to very impractical aesthetic objects. This way of understanding the painting go forward to repository for images and symbols from Kogurye to Chosun, unceasingly rather than made an abrupt appearance on outcome of late Chosun. The theorists even insist, if we discover the artistic value in the tradition of the painting, we can find a better path for artistic development in Korea.This theoretical ground first comes from a Japanese theorist, Yanagi Muneyoshi. He grasps craft, especially folk craft made by nameless craftsmen, as the perfect form of art. In the paper, I will track Yanagi’s argument on the folk art, pursing his purely artistic ideal down to how his craft theory reflects the political significations of the ideals of the modern Japanese nation state. Afterwards I will consider how fork painting in Korea has been influenced by his theory. In the end, I will revisit the conceptualization of early modern Korean Art via Japan, and examine closely the essence and the significance of art.

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