Kim Hong Do's painting vs Shin Yoon Bok's painting

Introduction

The Choson dynasty (1392-1910) court painter Kim Hong-do (1745-c.1818), one of the most prolific and versatile creative persons Korea has ever produced, is most famous today for his little genre paintings executed in a distinctly casual and naturalistic style. In these works he broke away from centuries of China's long-respected pictorial custom to conceive an solely new kind of Korean painting in both subject issue and style. In subject matter, these works aim on the lower strata of Choson humanity to depict, for the first time in the annals of Korean art, a broad spectrum of the commoners' daily inhabits, from work to leisure activities. Stylistically, they are also well known for their new informality, with figures arranged on a plain background in an uncomplicated composition using simple, abbreviated brushstrokes. Hence, in their ease, immediacy, and directness, these paintings have long been considered as impromptu sketch-like images apprehending the essence and factual essence of ordinary people.

However, careful examination of Kim Hong-do's paintings reveals that the apparently unplanned and highly informal nature of some of his works did not outcome from the artist's spontaneous proceed of painting. Rather, it was an outcome of a attentive, carefully conceived numerical placement of the figures, akin to a complicated awareness of values of composition. His commemorated decorating "Ssirum" ("Korean Wrestling"), instantly recognizable to all Koreans, is one of these significant works.

Careful Consideration

Kim Hong-do's painting depicts a large number of villagers, young and vintage, who have accumulated on a warm day to watch an strong wrestling match. (Note the fans.) Arranged within the four bends of the painting, the passionate spectators, seated round the wrestlers in a feeling of delight and relaxation, pattern a large, nearly circular configuration resembling (16-1,p. 5) the note "C." This "C" form, clearly proposed to echo the convoluted, intertwined pose of the two wrestlers, helps to impart a sense of balance and harmony to the composition. Of the villagers, a larger number were put in the top portion of the painting to propose the presence of a lively gathering at this village event. Despite their number, this large crowd appears steady and balanced due to the addition of two upright props, formed by the juvenile standing vendor on the left and the two in twos of wrestlers' shoes on the right.

However, what truly assists to the strong sense of unity in the work is the very alignment and balance of figures in the composition. The artist's discerning use of numbers is revealed in several distinct ways. The first is discovered in the use of the number two and its multiples in the grouping of some of the spectators. For demonstration, the two spectators seated at the base right-hand corner give balance to the two wrestlers, and these four figures, in turn, numerically echo the four seated spectators who live at the lower left-hand corner of the painting. The use of these even figures thus enhances the sense of balance between the ...