The Diamond Mountains as Backdrop to the Historic Korean Summit — Curator's Essay by Soyoung Lee (The Met Perspectives) (2018)

At the historic summit held in the Joint Security Area of the Korean Demilitarized Zone on Friday, April 27, the leaders of North and South Korea appeared before a monumental, panoramic painting of the iconic Diamond Mountains (Mount Geumgang). These mountains, located in present-day North Korea and inaccessible for much of the post-war period, are the subject of the landmark exhibition Diamond Mountains: Travel and Nostalgia in Korean Art, on view at The Met Fifth Avenue through May 20, 2018.

The artist whose painting appeared at the summit, Shin Jangshik, is among the painters featured in the show. Shin has almost exclusively devoted his energy to the subject of the Diamond Mountains since the early 1990s, before he ever visited them. When the Diamond Mountains reopened to tourism in 1998, he was on the first ship sailing for Geumgang. Since then, he has journeyed multiple times, through different routes and locations and at all times of the year.

In 2014 he painted a series of twelve scenes depicting various sites within the mountains in the four seasons. The Light at Cheonhwadae captures the brilliant sunlight reflected off the snowcapped peaks. Shin, who trained in Western techniques, typically uses acrylic on canvas (or on Korean mulberry paper over canvas), capturing the effervescence and luminosity of the landscape in bright colors.

Another work in the Twelve Scenes of Mount Geumgang series, Raining on Manmulsang Rocks, finds the artist deliberately recreating the effect of traditional ink painting in acrylic. The muted and haunting impact offers an unexpected counterpoint to the vividness of the rest of the paintings in this series.

The tradition of creating visual imagery of the Diamond Mountains based on actual travel can be traced back to the eighteenth century, with the master painter Jeong Seon, whose important paintings have inspired generations of artists since and anchor The Met's exhibition.

I invite you to The Met's Arts of Korea Gallery to experience the breathtaking landscapes of these mountains, here in New York.