Mukrimhoe (), literally translated in English to Ink Painting Society, was an avant-garde Korean ink painting collective and movement that heralded the adoption of abstraction within the ink painting circles of 1960s Korea.Song Hee-Kyung. “1980-90년대 한국화의 수묵추상.” 미술사와 시각문화 13, no. 13 (2014): 153. The group was founded by painter-professor Suh Se-ok (1929–2020) at The Department of Oriental Painting at Seoul National University and lasted from March 1960 to June 1964.Park Parang. “동양화단의 추상.” 미술사학, no. 24 (2010): 101. Their influence supported the dissolution of borders between abstract and figurative painting and also between western and eastern artwork. This paradigm shift in the painterly communities led to the adoption of the “nonfigurative painting” category at the National Art Exhibition and led to new abstract ink painting departments being established at universities. Their visual experimentation was characterized by simplifying and deconstruction Hàn-jī characters, smearing ink, splattering ink, and intermingling various techniques and mediums inspired by Western modernism.Song Hee Kyung. “1980-90년대 한국화의 수묵추상.” 미술사와 시각문화 13, no. 13 (2014): 150-152. The main aim was to create a genre of ink painting that transcended cultural binaries and allowed for the complete freedom of expression. Mukrimhoe was ultimately a short-lived group due to ideological and conceptual differences between the founder and the other group members, many of whom were his students, but overall the group played a crucial role in transforming ink painting with Western concepts of abstraction and material.Park Parang. “동양화단의 추상.” 미술사학, no. 24 (2010): 93–124.
Background Muk is Korean black ink made from resin-burned soot.Kwon Ji-young, Ji-young. “Ink Paintings in Modern Context.” The Korea Herald, April 6, 2010. https://www.koreaherald.com/view.php?ud=20050817000028 . The ideological structures delineating the tenets of sumuk (ink painting) was established by painter-theorist Hyeong-ho in the 10th century. Sumuk expressed the 5 cardinal colors with just black ink and was so justified through the principle of Yin and Yang. It was also inspired by Buddhist paintings. In the early 1950s, the acceptance of abstraction in the then-called “oriental painting” art world was sought in the form of experimentation with Western modernism, such as Cubism, Futurism, and Expressionism, by individual artists such as Kim Ki-chang and Park Rae-hyun; followed by Kim Young-ki and Lee Ungno. Oriental painters at this time were charged with ushering the “modernization” of Korean painting, (while paradoxically representing nationalistic values) and spearheaded the ink painting movement.
Before this turn towards modernism, the oriental art departments stressed Chinese and subsequently Japanese aesthetics, during occupation, in training. In the early 1950s Suh Se-ok was inspired from the Cubist style found in Kim Ki-chang's (1913–2001) and Park Rae-hyun's (1920–1976) work.Hong, Sunpyo.The Transition Process and Formative Awareness of Suh Se-ok's Ink Abstract Paintings.Art History Forum, no. 53 (2021), 43. Suh Se-ok, the founder of Mukrimhoe who was trained in Chinese calligraphy and literati painting, began experimenting with deconstructed Chinese characters, reducing them to bold and active ink strokes. With this burgeoning experimentation happening within oriental painting circles, Mukrimhoe was established on March 5, 1960.
History In March 1960, the group had its first exhibition of 16 artists. Although the initial intent of the group was to make abstract oriental paintings, most of the artists still held a strong attachment to figurative painting. Due to this discrepancy between Suh Se-ok's outspoken (and well documented) intentions for the group and the actual pieces shown, the identity of the group was and continues to be dubious in the eyes of history. Also, the struggle of wills between the leader and the artists led to only 8 members exhibiting in the second exhibition in December 1960.Park Parang. “동양화단의 추상.” 미술사학, no. 24 (2010): 102. It wasn't until the 6th exhibition the group put on that membership increased. This was due to the establishment of a loose set of standards for membership: must be under the age of 35, have a strong desire to create and innovate, have a grasp of Western and Eastern painting techniques. Rules were roughly followed as some artists like Geum Dong-won continued to only make traditional oriental painting. For others figuration and abstraction were still internalized, so aesthetic and stylistic orientations were never truly settled within the group. The 9th exhibition the group held was in June 1963. By the next year, Suh Se-ok stepped down as leader in June 1964 due to internal conflicts over management and ideological issues.Park Parang. “동양화단의 추상.” 미술사학, no. 24 (2010): 103.
Artistic style Members’ works consisted mainly of landscapes and figurative scenes that pulled from their respective traditional ink painting training rather than any sort of abstraction. Other artists infused their work with Western matiere such as collage, oil painting, and glue-infused-paint. Documentation of the artwork and exhibitions exists solely through newspaper publications so it has been difficult to track any visual developments or transformations from one group exhibition to the next.Park Parang. “동양화단의 추상.” 미술사학, no. 24 (2010): 104. Therefore, the general conundrum of stylistic experimentation within the group can be illustrated by following the trajectories of a few of the group's key artists: Suh Se-ok, Min Kyung-gap, Ahn Dong-suk, Jeong Tak-young, and Cha Pyeong-ri. Each of these artists' approaches to abstraction was idiosyncratic and teetered on a spectrum between Western modernism and the traditions of ink painting. From flattening the form to the departure from ink into Western materials, one can see why the delineations between the well established Oriental ink painting traditions and Western Painting were blurred by the boom of abstraction. There were also artists who never interacted with the group as members who became established abstract ink painters in their own right such as Kwon Young-woo and Ahn Sang-Cheol. Mukrimhoe was a collective attempt at breaking free from the traditions of figurative ink painting in response to the confluence of foreign and national influences and agendas. The group's works represent a unique consciousness that was molded by Japanese, European, and ancient Korean painting.
Suh Se-ok At the first exhibition (1960 March) Suh Se-ok exhibited Noon (1958–59), which featured sharp bold strokes resembling boomerang shape that weigh heavily upon each other, and also Twilight of Yeongbeonji (1955) a piece with thinner strokes and some repetitive vertical strokes, with ink wash bleeding on the sides.Park Parang. “동양화단의 추상.” 미술사학, no. 24 (2010): 105. At the 3rd National Exhibition in 1954 Suh's work Chapter of Cloud and Moon won the Minister of Education Award.
At the group's second exhibition (1960 December) Suh's piece Ceremony for Rain expressed rain through the effect of flowing ink strokes that overlapped in a chaotic manner. He reduced forms into clear ink strokes reminiscent of calligraphy.Park Parang. “동양화단의 추상.” 미술사학, no. 24 (2010): 106-107.
At the third group exhibition (February 1961) Seo showed Chaimu, an abstract rendition of a peacock whose feathers were represented through a dabbling effect of ink that formed a halo around a simplified body figure. In his pieces City and Seasons, concrete shapes disappear altogether and ink wash is used to fill the paper. These works show abstraction through simplification of form and sink stroke. From 1962 to 1965 Suh Se-ok incorporated matiere, mixing glue and ink for a textured surface.Park Parang “동양화단의 추상.” 미술사학, no. 24 (2010): 108.
Min Gyeong-gap Min Gyeong-gap (b. 1933) was also a writer and the group's successor after Suh Se-ok. His work was considered by member Jeong Tak-young to be the most innovative since the first exhibition due to his use of chance processes such as dunking paper into mixtures of ink. None of his works from the 1st exhibition remain. In 1960, his piece Work was shown and depicted a blotchy mountain based on the amorphous qualities of Informal painting.Park Parang. “동양화단의 추상.” 미술사학, no. 24 (2010): 109.
In 1961, he used overlapping layers of glue and ink in Work (Production) and his Alive series. Min Gyeong-gap developed his style in the context of Western Informel painting, which he saw in Japanese art magazines.
Ahn Dong-suk Ahn Dong-suk (b. 1922) exhibited his piece January (1958) at the 5th group exhibition in 1961. His paintings feature a Modernism-based abstract expressionism.Park Parang). “동양화단의 추상.” 미술사학, no. 24 (2010): 110. Untitled, now owned by National Museom of Modern and Contemporary Arts, made in 1950s and showed structural and compositional abstraction that delineated the subject and background into color fields. His paintings simplifies objects through a flattening effect.Park Parang). “동양화단의 추상.” 미술사학, no. 24 (2010): 111.
In 1963, his piece Untitled utilized a woven grass matt as a canvas and broke the formal tradition of oriental painting formats. Ahn Dong-suk explored beyond traditional materials and techniques of ink painting and freely introduced modern materials such as acrylic and oil paints and paint rollers. To him, as he stated,”the process of modernizing Oriental painting is possible through experimentation with materials.”Kim, Keongyeon. “A Study on Korean Oriental Abstract Painting of the 1970’s - On the Role of the Non-Figurative in National Art Exhibitions of Oriental Art.” Art History 32 (2016): 9.
Jeong Tak-young Jeong Tak-young (b.1937) showed Mountain (1960) “Mountain” in the 2nd group exhibition. He used various shades of ink to show the dissipation of forms, leaving only hints of a mountain form. Figurative form remained intact, but one can see the process of dismantling figurative tradition in his work.Park Parang. “동양화단의 추상.” 미술사학, no. 24 (2010): 112.
Cha Pyeong-ri From the 3rd to 7th group exhibition he exhibited pieces from his Outsiders series. Through ink wash painting he simplified human forms thru expressive, bleeding lines. For example, his Two Travelers piece shown in the 5th group exhibition featured two semi-abstract, semi-figurative forms that highlighted the expressiveness of ink as a spiritual medium.Park Parang. “동양화단의 추상.” 미술사학, no. 24 (2010): 113.
Controversy and legacy