During the Korean War, a significant ideological disruption existed among the South Korean Artists. The ideology taken by the artists, whether it is right(Denmocracy-South Korea) or left(Socialism-North Korea), it is directly related with their life p...
During the Korean War, a significant ideological disruption existed among the South Korean Artists. The ideology taken by the artists, whether it is right(Denmocracy-South Korea) or left(Socialism-North Korea), it is directly related with their life perse.
Since much Korean territory was conquered by the U.N. troops and also by China over and over, most of the artists could not escape from treasonous felony. Therefore, the artists crossed the 38 Parallel and headed for South or North upon their ideology and became members of war-artists or volunteered for military service.
During and After the Korean War, the Do-gang Pa, a group of artists who crossed the Han river and settled down in the South, assumed hegemony. This was a prelude for power games between groups of artists, a faction. Since then, the factionalism played a important role for competition of the Korean art contests.
During the period of the Korean War, there was no further development of art works but a structural change was witnessed in the factionalism. This was a pro-America art group in one side and a conservative art group leaded by Ko, Hee-dong in other side. Most ideological conflicts in the world of Korean arts, experienced after the Korean War, in fact began during the Korean War. Because anti-communist ideology also emerged in the world of Korean arts after the Korean War.
This study examines artists’ activities based on the ideological perspective in the South during the Korean War. Also this study reveals that collective behavior among the artists dominates the world of Korean arts and patterns of the art works.
During the period of the Korean war, main art organization was the member of war-artists and irregular partisans and anti-communist military groups belonged to this organization. The reasons why the artists participated at the organization and the tasks what they did revealed the true nature of the Korean War. The member of war-artists participated at the organization to be shown as the right wing and fear against revenge from the Korean forces leaded the artists to become irregular partisans. This study showed for the first time the reality of art world of the irregular partisans artists who were taken advantage of psychological warfare.
War experience of the Korean artists during the Korean War yielded no criticism for obedience and anti-communism against the hegemony which was the main stream to lead modernism. However, we witnessed a challenge against the taboo-subjects in the year of 1980s when new artists with no war-experience emerged in the world of art.