National Museum of Korea Director You Hong-june gives a special lecture on Joseon-era painter Danwon Kim Hong-do at the museum in Seoul, Tuesday. Korea Times photo by Lee Hae-rin
While the National Museum of Korea may be best known for its wildly popular souvenirs, there is something else that makes the place a hot cultural destination: its own director, You Hong-june, a star cultural commentator and public intellectual, and his popular public lectures.
Over the past year and into early this year, You — former head of the national heritage agency, Korean art history professor and writer — has invited the general public to the museum for story-driven special lectures on the arts world and lives of the painters featured in the museum’s ongoing exhibitions.
This week, he returned with a two-hour immersion in art and history about Danwon Kim Hong-do (1745-1806?), the beloved painter cherished for his vivid depictions of everyday life, landscape paintings and pioneering realism during the 1392-1910 Joseon Dynasty.
The 750-seat auditorium was filled to capacity, with a cross-generational crowd ranging from Gen Z students to middle-aged office workers and retirees with gray hair, many clutching exhibition leaflets and notebooks. Online registration for the free event closed just one hour and 40 minutes after opening.
Throughout the two-hour talk, You’s humorous, anecdote-laden storytelling and vivid description of paintings kept the audience laughing and focused.
“There are some incredibly realistic moments in Kim’s paintings,” You said, pointing to a threshing-yard scene as an example. “The landlord is sprawled out smoking, his shoes kicked off any which way. The farmhands are joking and giggling as they sweep, probably ganging up on another worker, and we can see that the poor one is really pissed,” he added, drawing laughter from the audience.
National Museum of Korea Director You Hong-june gives a special lecture on Joseon-era painter Danwon Kim Hong-do at the museum in Seoul, Tuesday. Yonhap
He delivered the lecture with an easy, humorous touch, weaving in modern analogies. He emphasized how Kim’s “unrestrained yet clear personality” shows through both his paintings and calligraphy, so that audiences could grasp, in plain language, the life of a beloved “national painter,” the texture of his times and the cultural value of his works.
“King Jeongjo once ordered painters to draw a scene that would make everyone burst out laughing at first glance,” You said. “If anyone could do that, it was Kim Hong-do.”
Source: Korea Times News
