한국 극사실 회화의 미술사적 규정 문제

초록

Now is the time when the Korean hyperrealism painting should be established as an independent mode. For many scholars agree to a modal and substantial ground for differentiation of the Korean hyperrealism painting from its American counterpart. In addition, many scholars tend to admit that the historical background of and the social conditions for the Korean hyperrealism painting is different from those for the Western hyperrealism painting. Some scholars seem to perceive that it would be no problem to subject the Korean hyperrealism painting to the American one in this age of globalization. Such perception must be wrong. As mentioned already, the Korean hyperrealism painting differs from the American one in terms of materials, expressions and formal logic. In other words, the Korean hyperrealism painting has a different raison d'etre as well as its own independent value. In such circumstances, we need to review the historical background of the hyperrealism painting in depth as well as the legitimacy of the neo-figurative art engaging the contemporary artists. And we also need to expand the scope of our review by examining the aspirations for the neo-figurative art within the National Art Exhibition and reflecting on the context of the so-called 'Modernism Movement' affecting the neo-figurative art in the process of its globalization, just beyond accommodation of or reaction to the American hyperrealism. For art works are cultivated and sprouted by the environmental factors provided for in a certain age and at a certain place to bear fruits. Although the Korean hyperrealism painting has evolved accommodating the American pop and hyperrealism and reacting to them, but its origin should be traced back to the historical context of the Korean painting. The origin is three-fold: a maternity room of academism or the experimental trend within Korean National Art Exhibition, the horizon of People's Exhibition which emerged in pursuit of a new figurative form in late 1970's, and the experimental tendency of a modernism for the period for mid-1960's to mid-1970's. Although concept and formal logic of the Korean hyperrealism painting has a structure of contradiction and irony, the critical criteria or the aesthetic principle surrounding such tendency seem to bear fruits. However, I feel that further discussions would be required to decide on whether such tendency should continue to be named 'hyperrealism painting' or it should be subsumed into the 'neo-figurative painting'.

키워드