The Final Exit to Reach for the Art _1

 

도 1. (좌) 추사 김정희·이재 권돈인, 『완염합벽』 중 「지란도」; (우) Marcel Duchamp, 「Fountain」, 1917 

 

大抵此事直一小技曲藝其專心下工無異聖門格致
之學. 所以君子一擧手一擧足無德非道若如是又
何論於玩物之戒. 不如是卽不過俗師魔界

Even though it is a small technique to make paintings
and calligraphies, it is not so different to create
art works with all our heart from the study to reach
the truth. That is, if there is no virtue and truth in all
gentlemen’s behaviors, how can we discuss right or
wrong of the things we love? This is just a mundane
teacher in the world of evil.1)
- Chung-Hee Kim, Ran-Hwa-Il-Kwon, 1850s

“…Kitsch, using for raw material the debased and
academicized simulacra of genuine culture, welcomes
and cultivates this insensibility. It is the
source of its profits. Kitsch is mechanical and operates
by formulas. Kitsch is vicarious experience and
faked sensations. Kitsch changes according to style,
but remains always the same. Kitsch is the epitome
of all that is spurious in the life of our times. Kitsch
pretends to demand nothing of its customers except
their money? not even their time…2) …the true and
most important function of the avant-garde was … to

find a path along which it would be possible to keep culture moving
in the midst of ideological confusion and violence … And
this, precisely, is what justified the avant-garde’s methods and
makes them necessary.3) … it is true that once the avant-garde had
succeeded in“ detaching”itself from society, it proceeded to turn
around and repudiate revolutionary politics as well as bourgeois.
The revolution was left inside society, a part of that welter of ideological
struggle…”
-Clement Greenberg,“Avant-Garde and Kitsch”, 1939

                                        I
Art has changed ceaselessly in a variety of forms, including
media, techniques, and many others from the beginning. None of
us know exactly ‘when and how art began.’Art was gradually
developed in forms and techniques with the philosophies of societies
at the time. Generally, the quality of art reached its peak during
the Renaissance period in terms of the ｅxpression of ideal
beauty and three- dimensionality, and started to decline from
Mannerism in the Western history of art. After the outbreak of the
industrial revolution in the eighteenth century our societies experienced
dramatic changes in technological advances, and changing

life patterns. Thereafter our cultural patterns including
art entered, what we now call, the post-modern era.
Even though it is impossible to judge clearly which art
form is developed or declined, art has been modified
with the cycle - up and down and rise and fall in general.

After the emergence of the totally new concept of
art, ‘Ready-Made’by Marcel Duchamp (1913), the
forms of art have greatly changed not only in Western
countries but also in Asia. Under post-modern culture,
everything can be a work of art and anyone can also be
an artist. Because art has become too abstract (meaningless
abstract), the general public4) can not understand the
meaning of the works by so-called “artists.”It is even
very difficult for art historians and art critics to understand
this new form of art as well. Art is gradually getting
separated from the general public at present. So
the questions are ‘What is Art?’and ‘What should
Art be?’

I will explore and trace the main concept of

Modern Art, focusing on the concept of Greenberg’s Modernism
and his scholarship of Avant-Garde art and the core thoughts of
Asian scholarly art focusing on Korean scholar based artist,
Chung-Hee Kim and his art theory. I will then examine how
Greenberg and Kim applied their theories to practical art works.
Through out this study I will also demonstrate the positions of
Greenberg and Kim and their respective views of the theories of
art. Finally I will re-evaluate their concepts and try to describe
what art should mean and what it constitutes.

This is only one way to understand art, however, since Chung-
Hee Kim and his theory of art well represent the core concept of
Asian scholarly art which was very influential until early
Twentieth century in Korea. Greenberg was also the most influential
art critic and his theory of art was also very pervasive in
Western thought of the modern era. The comparison of these two
art theories can prompt us to re-think and re-consider our present
views of art sincerely.

ⓒ 모암문고 www.moamcollection.org