“Longevity”
Mineral pigment on Korean paper (Hanji) over wood panel 14" x 42"
This piece has been awarded Special Merit from The “Botanical & Florals” Art Open-Exhibition, Light Space & Time Online Art Gallery in 2018
PRESENTATION
By Lynne Lawner
Long life! That’s something auspicious that we often wish for others and for ourselves. Kate Oh, in her ambitious panel painting currently on view at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in the collective exhibition “The Art Work: Artists Working at The Met” (6-06 to 6-19-22), supplies us with two visions of a long life, First, she attempts to keep alive traditional Korean popular painting from as far back as the 14th century, specifically in the Min-hwa style, while giving it a contemporary look and feeling.
Secondly, her subject matter embraces the very theme of longevity, a recurring favourite in Asian art. In the panel currently on display, Kate, who owns and directs a charming street-level art gallery on the corner of E. 72nd St. and Madison Ave., adeptly sprinkles across her canvas deer, red-crested cranes, tortoises, and other natural phenomena, including mountains, clouds, waterfalls, pine-trees, mushrooms and bamboo—in all, ten symbols of this prized benefit to humanity, when so gifted by the gods. Looking closely, we see that, with a dash of humour, she has added a non-traditional element to the scene, now mounting to eleven elements in her counting: a tiny human being! Surely his well-being and tranquillity are reinforced by the protective forms surrounding him and the rich, warm browns and forest-greens. Surely ours may be, as well, while gazing at this fine work.
Traditional Korean Folk Art
Minhwa refers to a genre of Korean folk art from the late Choseon era, 17th to 19th Century. The paintings embody the mythology, religion and viewpoints of the Korean people and are mainly created for decorative purposes. Minhwa painting conveys artistic expressions of unknown artists, with subjects symbolizing happiness, anger, love and delight in everyday life, as well as wishes for wellbeing.
Dancheong was traditionally developed as a preservative and decorative art to be painted over architectural features on palaces, temples and other prominent buildings in historic Korea. Characteristic Dancheong motifs include lotus flowers, vines, geometric shapes and patterns complementing building frames.
Dancheong
Dancheong
Dancheong in knots, Mineral pigment on wooden panel, 14x22”
2018
Class Sample for Korean Folk Traditions Course at Rutgers University
"The Symbols of Longevity" -Deep blue- Purchased by Ryu 2018.
"The Symbols of Longevity"- Red - Purchased by Bowanghwa 2017.
“Ten Longevity”
Mineral pigment on Korean paper (Hanji) wrapped on wooden panel 72 x 36 x 2.5”
The Sun and Moon and 5 Peaks
by Ekin Erkan, PhD
Kate Oh has, for much of her art practice, been a loyal practitioner of Minhwa painting. A mode of Korean folk art popularized the late Joseon era (specifically, from the 17th to 19th century), Minhwa painting draws on Korean mythology and theology. It is often regarded as a strictly ornamental practice due to its utilitarian use. However, overemphasizing the decorative belies Minhwa’s symbolic elements, which are complex, deeply narrative, and of a piece with the social and cultural subtending history that undergirds the genre’s emergence and rise to popularity. The Minhwa style and motifs reflect the spirit of the Korean populous as, during the 19th and 20th centuries, Minhwa burgeoned in popularity under a growing merchant class. Until the middle period of the Joseon Dynasty, Minhwa paintings were created by court specialists, with these works intended to adorn grand palaces. Given the epochal socioeconomic shifts that took place during the 19th century, artists of lower socioeconomic classes began working in the Minhwa tradition. In turn, the works became accessible for a wider collector class. This transformation also prompted thematic shifts, the most notable being a turn from mere ornament to narrative, isomorphic to the nascent mercantile class’s desire for a prosperous bourgeois life.
In much of her Minhwa work, Oh utilizes traditional materials and techniques although she has also been known to appropriate. “The Sun and Moon and 5 Peaks”, a mineral pigment on Hanji paper over wood panel piece, hews closer to the traditional. It is, specifically, an instance of the Minhwa sub-genre known as irworobongdo, which translates to the titular “Painting of the Sun, Moon and Five Peaks”. During the Joseon period, these expansive panels would be placed behind Eojwa, the royal throne of the king, expressing his dignity and prowess. As Joseon kings would be seated before irworobongdo panels, the “Five Peaks” paintings were intended to visually strike visitors of the royal palace and thereby complement the king’s commanding power. Each visual motif and stylistic facet of irworobongdo attends to this intended use, ranging from the featured vermillion red sun to the stylized salient mountains. Specifically, the sun and moon symbolize the king and queen's devotion and authorial governance; given their celestial positionality, as both would hang close by the king’s seated figure, the implication is that the king’s authority was divine and ordained by the heavens. In irworobongdo painting, the center mountain peak is the tallest cleave, symmetrically positioned to foreground and extend the king's throne. Pine trees and waterfalls bookend the painting and the king, himself, expressing the endurance of nature and natural-born ruler. The irworobongdo genre's motifs hence serviced functional and symbolic ends. Similarly, the palette was intended to be brilliant and captivating as court visitors were, according to custom, not to gaze directly at the king.
Irworobongdo’s symbology is rich in its polysemy: the sun and moon simultaneously symbolize the philosophical concept of yin and yang, king and queen, and also delineate the lawful, harmony-abiding principles of the universe. The five mountains background, two of which are partially occluded, are denominated as follows: Bukhansan (Center), Baekdusan (North), Jirisan (South), Myohyangsan (West), and Geumgangsan (East); these peaks also are homologous to the five moral virtues of humility, righteousness, politeness, wisdom, and faithfulness. The rapids that bisect the mountain peaks pool into the ocean, which unfolds into a foreground of arcing, semicircular waves. Oh’s rendering also features two tucked waterfalls delivering water from the mountains. These are also of symbolic significance, the streams representing the king’s virtue and rule. The waves below illustrate the mass of denizens over which the king rightfully governs. On the left and right side of the painting, we are privy to four glowing apricot-red pine trees. These red pine trees are Pinus densiflora, the most sacred and precious species of pine tree, which connotes the entirety of that which is contained within the cosmos. The king thus not only rules over man but the entirety of nature as such, unbounded by temporality or geographic constraints. The flanking two trees stand erect, each beside a bowed pine that arches inwards, framing the scenery and the king’s visage. The two pairs of pine trees are reminiscent of pillars, culling the regal interior architecture in which the irworobongdo painting would be mounted.
Oh’s painting is clearly in keeping with the genre’s art historical precedents and hence a marvelous instantiation of traditional Korean folk art, foregoing the temptation of appropriation for homage. At once, Oh shows us how one might work within a time-aged and insular genre sans modernization—this is achieved through an affection of beauty and analogy. Bereft of a King, the beauty of Oh’s painting is most striking. Its cerulean-cobalt sky serves as a complement to the prostrated blue-gray waves that populate the lower portion of the picture-plane. The eponymous five peaks—hill-like green crags, ridden with a rocky surface and arboreal trimmings—bow before a tawny moon and saffron sun. Oh’s palette is contained, each monocolor element deepening the genre’s proclivity for flatness. Oh’s pine trees are articulated with vein-like orange-red branches that twist in small furls and knots. This sensitivity to beauty and tradition is altogether rare in our present day and we should countenance ourselves as fortunate to be privy to Oh’s homage.
Ekin Erkan is a philosopher and art history researcher whose writing has appeared in The British Journal of Aesthetics, Philosophia, and the Journal of Value Inquiry, amongst other venues. Erkan also is an art critic who contributes to the Brooklyn Rail.
The Sun and Moon and Five Peaks
Mineral pigment on Korean paper (Hanji) over wood panel 72 x 36 x 2.5”
The Sun and Moon and Five Peaks
Mineral pigment on Korean paper (Hanji) wrapped on wooden panel.
The Sun and Moon and Five Peaks (Night)
Ink, Korean paper (Hanji) wrapped on wooden panel 15 x 37 x 3/4"
This piece has been awarded the Excellence Prize from The Traditional Culture Arts Promotion Association.
2013
Peonies Folding Screen
Ink on Mulberry Paper