The inauguration of the collective Reality and Utterance (Hyŏnsil kwa Parŏn) in 1979 and 1980 marked a watershed moment in Korean art. This is not only because the collective gave birth to the politically-engaged art movement that would come to be labeled “Minjung Art” by the middle of the 80s, but also because it enthusiastically embraced a wide range of images from the urban culture. With a special focus on the members’ early work, my research explores an issue largely neglected in the dominant narrative of Minjung art as a form of activism against the authoritarian Korean government during the 80s. The issue is what was at stake in Reality and Utterance’s exploration of contemporary urban visual culture. The aim of this essay is to recognize the engagement with the urban visual culture as central to the group’s early project and to consider it at some distance from the anti-urban and anti-mass culture perspective which was endorsed by the Minjung narrative. Focusing on members’ turn to urban visual culture, this essay instead argues that this turn was by no means merely a means to making art as social critique, but more importantly, it was an experiment with the shared image world, as opposed to the rarefied visual vocabularies of abstract modernism. Visual productions such as advertisements, billboards, posters, and kitsch paintings, which come from outside the narrow confines of fine art, were definitely ominous signs of the colonization of everyday life in the capitalist city, but at the same time they were anticipated to be a catalyst for redefining Korean art in a more communicative, accessible, and democratized way. In this regard, in the early 1980s—in particular 1980 and 1982—the members’ gesture oscillated between critique and embrace, which allowed the group to occupy a unique domain in the realm of Korean art production.
목차
I. 들어가는 말 II. “산업사회와 미술,” 그 모호한 관계 III. ‘아우라’의 소멸에 대한 두 가지 입장과 두 대중문화론 IV. 광고, 포스터, 키치의 이해, 수용, 활용 V. 나오는 말 참고문헌 Bibliography Abstract
한국미술이론학회는 미술이론의 고유한 역할과 방향을 모색하고자 창립되었다. 미술창작과 해석에 필요한 제반이론을 생산하고 다양한 미술현장의 활동을 검증하고 비판하며 연구하는 학회로서 미술의 이론과 실제사이의 분리현상을 극복하는데 기여하고자 한다. 현재 미술관련 학회들의 성격이 대부분 이론영역에 치중해있고, 학과나 전공에 특화되어 있는데 반하여, 본 학회는 미술의 현장과 창작과정을 적극 반영하고 미학, 미술사 등 기존의 미술이론 영역 뿐 아니라 실기와 미술교육, 경영, 행정, 전시 등 다양한 분야를 총괄하는 학제 간 연구를 활성화시키고자 한다. 앞으로 다양한 미술이론 영역에 대한 심도 있는 연구는 물론 한국미술계의 발전과 변화에 조력할 수 있는 실천적이고 생산적인 미술이론의 형성에 본 학회는 최선을 다할 것이다.