Mt. Geumgang

Mt. Geumgang Manmulsang – Autumn

2011 · 240×120 cm · Korean Paper, Acrylic on Canvas

Keywords #Mt. Geumgang#Jingyeongsansu#Manmulsang#Autumn

Image size 6.1 MB

Exhibitions

2014 〈To That Shore〉 · Noam Gallery (Insadong, Seoul) (Solo exhibition)

Citation

Related materials for this work

Text Review 2014-06-18 · Shin Jang-sik; Choi Tae-man

〈To the Other Shore〉 — Artist Note and Choi Tae-man Review (2014)

That yonder shore may be the "Arirang pass," may be "Mt. Geumgang," may be "samādhi — the completion, the highest, the supreme attainment of practice," may be my interpretation and practice (行) of "pāramitā (波羅蜜)."
From this shore to that yonder shore ......
From this world of suffering to that yonder world without suffering, from the actual shore (此岸) of reality to the yonder shore (彼岸) of the ideal — the "Arirang of hope."
— Shin Jang-sik
Once Shin Jang-sik said of himself, "My fifties in life are those of a wayfaring practitioner (a wanderer on the path)." For my part, I do not think he defined himself as a religious practitioner in the strict sense. This can be confirmed in his own words: "I have come to think that the way of the artist is also the way of the practitioner, and that painting too is an instrument of practice. What was I looking for, wandering East and West, past and present? If I can express even a little of that light, that would be good. I want to sing 'the Arirang of hope' in painting." The practitioner he speaks of is, in another phrasing, "one who is searching for a way."
As he wished to be a wayfaring practitioner, Shin Jang-sik loves to travel. For him, travel is not merely a time of pause to escape the chains of daily life and to recharge, nor a reward bestowed upon a hard-working self. He is one who searches for something, and when the object appears, he sets out on the road in order to remain absorbed in it.
It was the same when he painted before tours to it had opened. He collected, surveyed, and studied an abundance of materials related to Mt. Geumgang and reconstructed it on the surface. After the opening of Mt. Geumgang, that same passion, through countless field surveys, was also the driving force that made him "the Mt. Geumgang painter."
Excessive passion can become attachment, but his painting of Buddhist statues must also have been driven by some kind of vow-force (wonryeok). What might it be? He is not, drawn by religious faith, painting the Buddha as an object of worship. Perhaps he has taken Buddhist statues as a "means" not for the statue itself but in order to know the identity of the deep thought that dwells within them.
From to to the Buddhist statues, there is no conflict or opposition in Shin Jang-sik's paintings. What he is searching for, as he himself has said, is "the Arirang of hope." Is not art such a thing? Searching for a light that cannot be declared in clear terms but rises faintly into view.
— Choi Tae-man / art critic

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Text News 2014-06-25 · Beopbo News

Beopbo News Coverage — Shin Jang-sik Solo Exhibition "To That Shore"

Beopbo News (June 25, 2014, issue 1250) coverage of Shin Jang-sik's solo exhibition "To That Shore" (June 25–29, 2014, Noam Gallery, Insadong, Seoul). The exhibition is themed on the artist's "interpretation and practice of pāramitā" — the artist explains that "To That Shore" derives from "crossing over to the shore of enlightenment," and offers his own readings of the Pass, , and . Art critic Choi Tae-man analyzes the artist's Buddhist imagery — "Perhaps it is not the Buddha statue itself, but a means to understand the deep contemplative essence dwelling within it."
Coverage (1)

Beopbo News 2014-06-25 · Nam Su-yeon

Beopbo News Coverage — Shin Jang-sik Solo Exhibition "To That Shore"
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Text News 2018-04-26 · Artist's Blog

Press Coverage: Shin Jang-sik's "Mt. Geumgang from Sangpaldam" at the April 27 Inter-Korean Summit Venue (2018)

Five-outlet coverage surrounding the April 27, 2018 inter-Korean summit and the painting from (2001, 681×181 cm) installed in the second-floor meeting room of the at Panmunjom. On April 26 (eve of the summit), three phone interviews — Yonhap News (Jeong A-ran), JoongAng Ilbo (Lee Eun-ju), and Kyunghyang Shinmun — cover the painting's technique (fusing ink-painting lines, folk-painting colors, and contemporary landscape sensibility around the motif), 25 years of practice (the 1998 first North Korea visit that shifted his work from conceptual to realist landscape), the Mt. Geumgang lineage in Korean art history (Jeong Seon's Geumgang-jeondo, Byeon Gwan-sik's Samseonam), and the other artworks installed throughout the Peace House (Min Jeong-gi's Bukhansan, Kim Jun-gwon's San-un, Park Dae-seong's Ilchul-bong). On April 27 (summit day), MoneyToday (Shin Hyeon-woo) reports the Blue House quote that the painting replaced a Mt. Halla piece originally hung in that spot. On April 28 (day after), OhmyNews (Lee Ju-yeon) publishes a full Q&A spot-interview: the painting had been stored in the artist's studio for 17 years since 2001, and the artist's analogy that "if Brandenburg Gate symbolizes German unification, Mt. Geumgang would symbolize Korean unification."
Coverage (5)

Yonhap News 2018-04-26 · Jeong A-ran

"May the Energy of Mt. Geumgang in the Painting Bring Peace to the Peninsula"

JoongAng Ilbo 2018-04-26 · Lee Eun-ju

"I Wanted to Capture the Ascending Energy of the Baekdudaegan"

Kyunghyang Shinmun 2018-04-26

"Hoping for a World Where Our People Live in Peace, Like the Beautiful Mt. Geumgang"

MoneyToday 2018-04-27 · Shin Hyeon-woo

The Meaning of "Mt. Geumgang" in the Inter-Korean Summit Venue

OhmyNews 2018-04-28 · Lee Ju-yeon (Editor: Kim Ji-hyeon)

"Moon Jae-in and Kim Jong-un Before the Painting that Sat in 17 Years of Dust"
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