Quelques caractéristiques de la peinture des lettrés en Corée, comparées à la Chine

The XVIIIth century during which deep social cultural changes took place in the Korean society, reaches the apogee of the Korean literati painting. The art of that time is to be particularly distinguished by its remarkable originality with regard to the other periods of its long pictural history. In opposition to the points of view, traditionnally Chinese in the literati painting, the Korean art saw its evolution in ite own cultural conditions, through its purely Korean, artistical conceptions and languages. In the field of the literati painting, the artistic creation of the professional painters is as important as the one of the literati, which is not the case in China. In order to give a better description of the Korean painting of the time, I used the distinction between the Southern and Northern schools in an historical comparison with China. Whereas in China the development of both schools was parallel although being opposed to each other, in Korea, the evolution was different — both styles instead of being opposed were going to interpenetrate themselves, an eclectic style followed to reach an extreme wealth. I tried too to make you discover the Korean painting theories through eminent art critics. The supreme value of beauty pursued by the literati painters as well as by the professionals, was connected to the aesthetics of the literati according the ideal of neo-confucianism. This part of my work (lid part) together with the properly comparative one (IVth part) was focussed on aesthetics (through various theories) and on the pictural analysis of the "painting" itself. As a matter of fact, nothing but a thematic analysis can reveal the characteristics proper to each painting. The composition, the combination laws, the preferences of some motives, the patterns were analysed in a comparative perspective. We tried to support the comparison, using two systems of representations recommended by the Korean and Chinese painters. Always object of reference, China, equally in the scope of this painting, holds an outstanding position, but owing to the contribution of the literati in the XVIIIth century, the Korean painting succeeds to free itself and to make its own conceptions evolve, conceptions where the cultural particularisms of Korea are reflected.Ann-Baron Ok-sung. Quelques caractéristiques de la peinture des lettrés en Corée, comparées à la Chine. In: Arts asiatiques, tome 45, 1990. pp. 97-113