This paper explores a stream of korean realism art focusing on the artists in Busan area post Korean war. At that time around Busan, there were some distinctive artistic inclinations to represent the humanistic reality and social issus. Kim Kyung and Kim Youngduk seems to be eminent among the 1950’s painters as a member of ‘Tobyuk [土壁]’ and ‘Chungmak [靑脈]’. After researching their life and arts, I came to a conculsion that their achieves need to be reevaluated as the realism art after korean war.
Follwing the general view on Korean modern art after war, It has been insisted that korean art stream shows the locus from figurative art toward the abstract until resently. But there were radical politic voice like Muijung Art as the realistic art trends in 1980’s and two different kinds of realistic aspects as social realism at 1920-30’s and romantic history paintings of Lee Quedae during the liberation times. Furthermore the diaspora artists like Jo Yang-gyu residing in Japan was newly evaluated as expressive realistic painter. They trid to make artistic efforts to reveal the concerns of life and the social issue of historical statues. Besides I’d like to introduce some artists of Busan area at this time, who didn’t miss the concerns on society and history either. Even though the abstract and pure art dominated the korean modern art during some periods, realism has been never broken off during the whole span of korean modern art.
To this goal, I examined the Busan art field microscopically, then I realized the artists from Seoul invited some animosity to the Busan arti field and the local artists felt the competition toward the visitors. So after the artists returning to their home, the local artist made efforts to make new their own group as ‘Tobyuk’ and ‘Chungmak.’ And they tried to make their own specific art tendencies. As a result they insisted the realistic art contrary to the abstract art which was exploded in Seoul art field.
The specific trends in Busan area were connected to the post war Europe figurative art movement as ‘Homme Temoin’, Mexican mural paintings and German expressive prints of Kathe Kolwitz. Especially post war realistic inclination in Busan seems to be intimately associated with the Japanese post-war realism or reportage art. I think that these connections are exceptional phenomena during the post war korean art.