Jeong-wol Na, Hye-suk(1896-1948) came of a wealthy family in Suwon and was the first Korean woman to study oil painting in Women's College of Art in Tokyo. When she came back to Korea after completing her study, she gave her first solo exhibition to i...
Jeong-wol Na, Hye-suk(1896-1948) came of a wealthy family in Suwon and was the first Korean woman to study oil painting in Women's College of Art in Tokyo. When she came back to Korea after completing her study, she gave her first solo exhibition to inform people of what is oil painting. She represented the lives of common people in wood print. She exhibited her paintings for every Joseon Art Exhibition except when she travelled overseas, and won prizes. She was more than the artist herself. She wrote a novel named Gyeong-hee that suggests women should awake to enjoy their lives as humans, and presented specific methods to improve their household when she studied in Japan- During the 1919 Independence Movement, she was active in attracting women to the movement and jailed for five months. When her husband became a consulate of Andong Hyeon in China, she lived there with him and helped the people who struggled for Korea's independence using her position as a wife of the consulate who was allowed to come and go across the national boundary. In particular, she suggested that women are also humans and wrote about it. She was a progressive practical thinker who struggled for women's liberation. She, as a nationalist, wrote and painted with the subject matter that women should be respected as humans. She recognized self-consciously that her progression would help Korean women progress. Based on her experiences, she insisted that women have human rights, and uncovered the oppression of conventional ideologies and decomposed them. When she wrote about them, she was criticized from society, but she was confident in her action and made a serious question, "what are the functions of women as humans in the new century?"
This study analysed her artistic works and activities, and reviewed her life and position in art history to reconsider her works of art, However, unfortunately, few works remain, and authenticity of those that are thought as her paintings should be passed on for true evaluation.