Lee Jung-seob

Bull, oil on paper (probably 1953)
Korean spelling
Chosŏn'gŭl	이중섭
Hancha	李仲燮
Revised Romanization	I young seop
McCune- Reischauer	I Chungsŏp
See also : Korean name

Lee Jung-seob ( Korean 이중섭 ) (born April 10, 1916 in P'yŏngwŏn-gun ( 평원군 ), P'yŏngan-namdo ( 평안 남도 ) Province , North Korea ; † September 6, 1956 in Seoul ) was a South Korean painter .

Life

Lee Jung-seob was born on April 10, 1916 in P'yŏngwŏn-gun into a wealthy family. During his school days at Jongno Elementary School he lived with his mother's family in P'yŏngyang ( 평양 ) and from 1930 he attended the privately funded Osan High School in Jŏngju ( 정주 시 ) under the tutelage of Im Yongryeon, a Yale graduate , in the province of P'yŏngan-pukto ( 평안 북도 ). In 1936 Lee went to Tokyo to study art, first attending the Imperial Art Institute and from 1937 to 1941 Bunka Gakuen University . During his studies there, he became a member of the Association of Free Artists , which included Yoo Young-kuk ( 유영국 ). During the Pacific War in 1943 Lee returned to his family, who lived in Wŏnsan ( 원산 시 ) at the time, and in May 1945 married his wife Yamamoto Masako , a Japanese woman whom he had met during his university days in Tokyo.

When Wŏnsan was bombed during the Korean War , Lee fled to Busan ( 부산 광역시 ) with his wife and children in December 1950 , but had to leave his mother and all of his works of art behind, which is why none of his works have survived before 1950. In 1951 he and his family temporarily moved to Jejudo Island ( 제주도 ), but returned to Busan in December 1951, from now on living in refugee camps. His wife then left him in July 1952 and returned to Japan with the children. Until June 1954 Lee earned himself with artistic activities and then took up a teaching position at the School of Lacquerware Inlaid with Mother-of-pearl in Tongyeong ( 통영시 ), while he was able to continue working artistically.

Lee died lonely on September 6, 1956 in a Red Cross hospital in Seodaemun, Seoul.

Working as an artist

In 1941 Lee founded the Association of New Artists in Japan together with other Korean artists, such as Lee Quede , Jin Hwan , Choi Jaedeok and Kim Jongchan . Together they organized their first exhibition, which received a lot of attention in the art scene. Back in Korea, his works of art, which he had made until 1950, were lost due to the Korean War and his escape to Busan. After his wife left him in 1952, Lee devoted himself to painting, creating illustrations for magazines and book covers, and exhibiting his work in exhibitions. After he moved to Tongyeong, he created his pictures of the bull series and his landscapes, inspired by the landscape of Tongyeong.

Retrospective for the 100th birthday

On the 100th anniversary of his birthday, the National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art in Deoksugung in Seoul honored Lee's artistic work with a retrospective. The exhibition opened on June 3, 2016 and lasted until October 3, 2016.

literature

• Chung Jae-suk: Lee Jung-seob . Art as a documentation of the power of truth. In: Koreana . Volume 11, No. 3. The Korea Foundation , 2016, ISSN  1975-0617 , p. 40–45 (German language edition).

Web links

Commons : Lee Jung-seob  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files

• Lee Jung-seob 1916-1956 . (PDF 698 kB)National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, 2016,accessed on November 19, 2017(English, flyer for the exhibition in Deoksugung, Seoul). 

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b} National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art (ed.): Pyeongwon, Pyeongyang, Jeongju, Tokyo, and Wonsan (1916–1950) . 2016 (English).
2. ↑ ^{a b} National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art (ed.): Seogwipo and Busan (1950–53) . 2016 (English).
3. ^ ^{A b} National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art (ed.): Tongyeong (1953–1954) . 2016 (English).
4. ↑ Chung: Lee Jung-seob . In: Koreana . 2016, p. 45 .
5. ↑ The 100th Anniversary of the Birth of Korean Modern Masters_Lee Jung-Seob 1916 ~ 1990 . National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art , accessed November 19, 2017 .  

Note: This article places the family name before the person's first name. This is the usual order in Korean. Lee is the family name here, Jung-seob is the first name.