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This book explains the principles underlying traditional East Asian paintings and provides a roadmap for better understanding those artworks. In the East, men of letters were the main producers and consumers of art; they equated paintings with poems that had to be deciphered. The author relies on his training as an anatomist and his extensive knowledge of Chinese classics to identify and classify recurrent subject matters and to extract their respective meanings. He translates these objects into a lexicon that can be used to communicate specific messages. Chou Yongjin After majoring in traditional East Asian art at the College of Fine Arts and Graduate School of Fine Arts, Hongik University, Chou Yongjin studied human anatomy for 7 years at the School of Medicine of the Catholic University of Korea, and subsequently received a doctoral degree in fine arts from the Tokyo National University of Fine Arts and Music (now Tokyo University of the Arts). He has taught at various institutions (Kunsan National University, Seoul National University of Education, and Hanseo University) and has been giving talks about his ongoing research on art history, and its links to neuroscience and physiognomy. He is Director of the Korean Phenotype and Culture Institute.
Preface Introduction
Chapter 1 Questions That Cross Our Minds as We View Eastern Paintings Irrational details Paintings with the same format Events that did not take place in the real world Art is a cultural compact Appreciation of Eastern art should begin with an Eastern approach Eastern paintings are for reading A lone heron on a pond with a withered lotus is a typical example of art-reading The forgotten principles of art-reading
Chapter 2 Homophony-based Reading Distortion of the magpie and the tiger It should be a pine tree, a magpie, and a leopard in the painting Countless examples equating homophony with synonymy Mere homophony is sufficient A trend especially pronounced in ideogram systems like the Eastern culture Why pair the crab with reeds? Two crabs holding reed flowers in their mouths White deer paired with Chinese juniper Spelling longevity (壽) with a Chinese juniper Writing longevity (壽) in 16 different ways The reason for pairing the bamboo with rocks So long as we are drawing a bamboo, let us draw a Phyllostachys edulis What is an autumn cricket doing on a summer orchid? The creepy bat signifies fortune Reeds and wild geese symbolize a comfortable old age Cat paintings congratulate someone who just turned 70 Cat-and-butterfly pairings A cat next to chrysanthemums Owl paintings with the same congratulatory meaning The ingrained belief in the power of language or letters The act of sedition by National Academy (成均館) students under King Sejo Bookcase paintings in the study
Chapter 3 Allegorical Reading The winter bird mandarin duck on a pond in July The contents of the Five Blessings, revised in Tang China Guo Ziyi and his many descendants Pomegranate paintings denote a wish for many sons Peony paintings stand for wealth and nobility The Memorabilia of the Three Kingdoms is responsible for the mistaken belief that peonies are odorless Peonies were painted without butterflies as early as the Tang Dynasty Queen Seondeok was unaware of the principles of art-reading The iconography of Hanafuda Pairings of peonies and a rooster Peonies with a vase A pine tree, bamboo, and a pair of white-headed birds Peonies and plum blossoms do not bloom at the same time Crane paintings A crane with a pine tree A crane by the rolling sea The pine and the lingzhi mushroom The lingzhi mushroom means, ‘to have one’s wish realized’ Most paintings of vessels with cut branches (器皿折枝圖) express a wish for happiness in this life The rose is a symbol of youth The peach should be painted green Donfang Shuo (東方朔) of the three thousand jia and the peach It is incorrect to draw Dongfang Shuo as a grizzled old man holding a peach The ugly black crested myna denotes filial piety Goldfish paintings convey the message, ‘May gold and jade fill your home!’ Lotus paintings encourage a thrifty lifestyle Chrysanthemum paintings symbolize longevity It is wrong to pair the chrysanthemum with multiflora rose hips Seeking meaning in objects is a cognitive attribute specific to humans Finding meaning in the shape or biology Art-reading principles may sometimes restrict artistic expression Minnows and duckweed Why draw the carp in twos? Minnows, duckweed, carp, water pepper, lotuses, mandarin ducks, wild geese, and reeds
Chapter 4 Reading Art by Invoking Classical Quotes or Anecdotes Pictures were also used in the pursuit of spiritual values The moral of The Three Hibernal Friends concerns the society of good friends Flowers from all four seasons in the same painting Even paintings of foot-bathing mean something If the water of the Canglang is clean … The reason scholars adopted the character 滄 in their pen names The Four Books and the Three Classics at work even in palatial architecture The patterns shaped like the calyx of a persimmon were inspired by the Classic of Poetry (詩經) Paintings of three fish belong in the study Qi Baishi’s message in his painting of three fish Paintings of nine fish “Long live the homeland” (江山萬代) Nine quails Quails stand for comfort and peace Fish idling about Nine herons The foremost consideration(s) Art criticism in the East The Four Grades A boy pointing at a mountain shrouded in clouds Scene of an old man fishing Painting of a middle-aged man fishing The Eight Anecdotes Ear Bath in the Yingchuan Painting of four old men playing Go Sailboat against an autumnal backdrop Staring at Nanshan leaning against a pine tree Pointing at wild geese in flight Admiring a waterfall Standing on a bridge on a donkey’s back as a blizzard howls With the plum blossom as wife, and the crane as son Painting as another medium depicting the ideals of Eastern scholars
Chapter 5 How To Appreciate Contemporary Korean Art How to appreciate contemporary Korean art Eastern art and Western art are fundamentally different Western artists paint as they see, whereas Eastern artists recorded what was Art criticism in the East versus the West Paintings that are read do not exist in Europe What every Korean artist longs for The factors that have landed Korean painting in its current quandary The fundamental problem of Eastern art in Korea?a dead end Twenty years later: The artistic community in Korea today Five requisites for the establishment of Korean art
Bibliography Index
Selected Publications Bulsang gyecheukbeop (The Measurement of Buddhist Icons). Seoul: Seongui Chulpansa, 1979. Seoyanghwa ingneun beop (How to Read Western Art). Seoul: Sagyejeol, 1997. Eolgul: Hangugin ui nat (The Korean Face). Seoul: Sagyejeol, 1999. Uri mom gwa misul (The Human Body and Fine Arts). Seoul: Sagyejeol, 2001. |
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