〈Mt. Geumgang — Hope〉

Korea Forest Service · 2018-08-28 11:00

There is a painter who has rendered the verdant, sturdy beauty of Mt. Geumgang onto canvas. Shin Jang-sik, who has painted Mt. Geumgang from 1992 to the present, has held some twenty solo exhibitions devoted to the subject. His Mt. Geumgang works drew worldwide attention when one was hung at the historic inter-Korean summit room — and they returned to our hearts a famous mountain that had drifted from our collective memory.

## Mt. Geumgang Brought Back to Life by His Brush

The Chinese writer Lu Xun once said, 'Hope cannot be said to exist, nor can it be said not to exist. It is like a path on the earth — at first there is no path, but when many people walk on it, a path comes into being.' On April 27 of this year, the world saw hope through the inter-Korean summit. We witnessed the first step of a path that, for so long, had felt within reach yet never quite crossed. On that day, one painting caught the eyes of the world. It was 〈Mt. Geumgang from Sangpaldam〉, by painter Shin Jang-sik — also a professor at the College of Fine Arts at Kookmin University. The work, first presented at his 2001 solo exhibition, had sat in storage for seventeen years before being made known to the world through the 2018 inter-Korean summit.

"It was deeply moving. I knew 〈Mt. Geumgang from Sangpaldam〉 was being installed at Peace House in Panmunjom, but since it is a large work nearly seven meters wide, I had assumed it would be hung in the lobby. When I learned it had been hung in the second-floor meeting room, I was startled. And when I saw the two leaders shake hands in front of this very painting, I felt deeply proud. I hoped the hope and the spirit of peace held within the painting would reach both of them — and through them, reach us as well."

〈Mt. Geumgang from Sangpaldam〉 is a work in which the artist adhered handmade dak (mulberry-fiber) paper onto canvas, then painted Mt. Geumgang in acrylic over the textured surface. Shin Jang-sik says he 'fused the line (線) of ink-wash painting with the color (色) of folk painting, all framed by the sensibility of contemporary landscape — depicting Sangpaldam, a vista no one who has once seen it can forget.'

"When you reach Sangpaldam, all the main peaks of Mt. Geumgang open out before you like a panorama. The whole grouping of peaks is called Cheonhwadae — 'the flowers blooming in the sky.' I felt that flower-like beauty, and the spirit rising straight up into the sky, accord well with the hopeful sensibility our people carry."

For us — especially for those in their teens and twenties — Mt. Geumgang feels like a mountain out of legend. With access cut off for so long, it would be honest to admit that old documents alone fail to move the heart. Yet in 2018, at the tip of Shin Jang-sik's brush, Mt. Geumgang has been newly brought back to life.

## Becoming an Artist Who Interprets Our Own Beauty Through Contemporary Art

So what led Shin Jang-sik to take up Mt. Geumgang as a theme? The beginning goes back to the time of the 1988 Seoul Olympics.

"While serving as assistant director of the art-direction team for the opening and closing ceremonies of the Seoul Olympic Organizing Committee, I studied Korea's own beauty in depth. I wanted to share our character with the world. From that time, I felt that revealing — through contemporary art — the formal language and content hidden within our people would be my path. So I set 'Arirang' as my theme, and brought into the canvas the cheongsachorong lantern, Gyeongbokgung Palace, lotus flowers, and so on. One day, while painting Gyeongbokgung, Bukhansan and Bukaksan caught my eye. The thought arose — 'Now I want to paint mountains.' At first I considered Mt. Seorak or Bukhansan. But suddenly, Mt. Geumgang — across the Demilitarized Zone — came to mind. We say, 'crossing the Arirang pass.' I thought of the DMZ itself as the Arirang pass, and of crossing it to reach Mt. Geumgang."

In 1992, Shin Jang-sik began gathering materials on Mt. Geumgang and starting his research. It was an era before the internet — he searched through everything from Joseon-dynasty paintings, to photographs of Mt. Geumgang taken by Japanese photographers, to tourist photo albums from the Japanese colonial period. He eventually held a large Mt. Geumgang exhibition at Pyo Gallery in 1993.

"Many people asked me why I painted a Mt. Geumgang I had never seen with my own eyes. At that time, no one in Korea was painting Mt. Geumgang. But Mt. Geumgang is the sanctum upon which our aesthetics were built — a sacred site of our painting history. As one can see in 〈Jijang Bosaldo (Kṣitigarbha Bodhisattva)〉 by No Yeong of the Goryeo dynasty, in 〈Geumgang Jeondo (Complete View of Mt. Geumgang)〉 by Jeong Seon, in the album-leaves of Kim Hong-do, in 〈Geumgangsan Manmulcho Seunggyeongdo (Scenic Wonders of Manmulcho, Mt. Geumgang)〉 by Kim Gyu-jin — it has been the most important theme in the history of Korean painting. Then in 1998, after Chung Ju-yung, the former Hyundai Group chairman, crossed into the North with one thousand head of cattle and the borders began to open, tours to Mt. Geumgang began. I took the very first ship across and visited Mt. Geumgang. Over the following decade, I returned more than ten times — diligently photographing and sketching."

Though much time has passed, Shin Jang-sik vividly remembers the swelling excitement of November 19, 1998 — the day he first saw Mt. Geumgang. The moment when the Mt. Geumgang he had only ever seen through various documents filled both his eyes, the first thought that came to him, he says, was 'This is our mountain!' Many famous mountains exist around the world, and one may marvel at their grandeur — yet the feeling of 'our mountain' does not arise. But Mt. Geumgang stirred something in his heart the moment he laid eyes on it.

"This past February, I sent works to the Metropolitan Museum of Art's exhibition 〈Diamond Mountains: Travel and Nostalgia in Korean Art〉 in New York. As a painter whose greatest wish is to express our sensibility and beauty through contemporary art — and to spread it widely — it was deeply moving. If I am able to visit Mt. Geumgang again, I would like to bivouac there and paint it wrapped in mist. And I sincerely hope a day soon comes when anyone can freely visit Mt. Geumgang and feel its grand, dignified beauty."

Behind Shin Jang-sik, 〈Light of Okryudong, Mt. Geumgang〉 is visible — a work he painted in 2018. Gazing at the painting for a moment, one feels a light of verdant hope spreading beyond the canvas. Like crossing the Arirang pass — a light that passes through the rusted barbed fence and tints a frozen heart. As Shin Jang-sik wishes, may peace, like a flower, accompany us from here on. Bringing this interview to a close, I quietly press my two palms together.

Thirteen photographs taken by the artist of the 〈Mt. Geumgang — Hope〉 solo exhibition (July 1 – 6, 2020) at Dongduk Art Gallery, capturing the Mt. Geumgang series installed across the gallery's entire floors.