Hyperrealism in Korea in the Late 1970s

Korean hyperrealism, a style that transfers photographic imagery and conventions to the medium of painting, is one of the few art forms of the late 1970s that has yet to receive substantive re-evaluation. Contrary to some critics’ derogatory dismissals, the style raises issues of cultural identity central to the aesthetics and critical theory of art after the Korean War. This study investigates how the hybrid forms and iconographical attention paid by Korean hyperrealism to common objects of everyday life reflect Korean society at a time when sophisticated encounters of opposing socio-political identities were taking place. After reviewing the history of this little known art form, especially of its critical discourse with prevalent social currents in the Korea of the period, the present study proceeds to define its iconography in relation to its “cultural other,” American hyperrealism. Many works of Korean hyperrealism engage some of the most pressing issues of Korea in the 1970s. In terms of subject matter, the works show complicated views of the character of the urbanization policies under President Park Chunghee (Pak Chŏnghŭi 朴正熙). Formally, the works present photographic details with a monochromatic tendency, a minimal surface infused with a sense of real-time theatricality, and an image of actual objects confluent with the illusionistic details. Juxtaposing and combining many antithetical concepts in an attempt to maintain a fragile balance, Korean artists struggled to create a culturally relevant mode of modernist expression and representation, and thereby translate their experience into a distinctive artistic language that is unique to their time period.