Orientalism is a cultural and political discourse regarding the Orient as the center of the world. For the Orient center to exist, the existence of its ‘other' is required, which becomes the counterpart of the Orient, the West. Thus, Orientalism can b ...
Orientalism is a cultural and political discourse regarding the Orient as the center of the world. For the Orient center to exist, the existence of its ‘other' is required, which becomes the counterpart of the Orient, the West. Thus, Orientalism can be defined as Orient-centrism constructed through the process of making the West ‘the other' as a different entity from the East. At the same time, Orientalism found the basis of argument for restoration of the East by recognizing the East as the other of the West as propagated by Western Orientalism. As the impossibility of Oriental solidarity became apparent with Japanese imperialism, Orientalism in the political sense lost its realistic persuasiveness and warrant in eastern countries other than Japan. However, cultural Orientalism became a means of shedding the subordination of Western culture.
Orientalism arose in Korean Art from the late 1920s when Korean modernist painters who studied in Japan began to return home. The modernist painters Kim Yong-joon(金瑢俊) and Koo Bon-woong(具本雄), who pursued modern art after post-impressionism, attempted to attain universal and modern aesthetics while still adhering to their subjective identities. At this time, the Korean art scene was dominated by the eclectic academic style, derived from the union of Impressionism and Classicism, which was formed around the Chosun Art Exhibition(朝鮮美術展覽會). Meanwhile, Proletarian art argued for ideological and instrumental art against such Academic art. In this surrounding, Orientalist art rejected the cliche of academic style and the repression of free expression in propaganda art and thus evolved as a modern art movement founded on purist aesthetics that would break the dependency to Western art and become a haven for creativity in Chosun art.
Although they declared they would selectively adopt from Western modern art with the Orientalist view in order to establish a ‘true' Chosun art, most of their works were criticized for being limited to only following Western art. This led to a dual phenomena where Orientalism which sought oriental traits became acknowledged, while modernism that reflected western modern aesthetics became rejected. Thus, Orientalist art, that originally desired to reveal the critical consciousness of reality through the aggressive expression of modern art, altered course towards contemplation of nature and introspective thinking.
This drastic change of Orientalist art was directly related to the establishment of oriental traits. Japan formed the ‘History of Oriental Culture(東洋文化史)' to integrate all eastern cultures and abstractized oriental traits into a unitary entity through oriental discourses. As an extension of the ‘east = moral' and ‘west = technique' viewpoint, oriental traits as contemplative, meOrientalism tinted with Taoist nothingness lacks legitimacy to this day. Informel Art of the 1960s and Monochrome Painting of the 1970s, which evolved from the integration of Western Modern Art and Orientalism, is still problematic in that Orientalism here is only concerned with inactive, trans-history, and meditative aspects.
ntal, spiritual, meditative, symbolic, and passive qualities became utilized and accepted as general academic concepts.