Cho Duck Hyun , History of Korean Women

1991, conte, ink, Korean map and objets on canvas, 270 x 300cm

Born in 1957. B.A. and M.A. in Western Art, the College of Arts and the graduate school of Seoul National University. Grand Prize awarded at the Dong-A Art Festival, 1991. Professor of Western Art, College of Art, Ewha Woman  University.

A group of people seated in stiff poses gaze at the camera. Cho's black and white images, which evoke a feeling of the end of the Choson Dynasty, are drawn carefully on old, faded photographs. These retouched photo images lead viewers to meditate on existence and time.

Using old photographs of historical figures as a background, the artist tries to rediscover the true side of human history and gives some respect to those past times. Of these works, History of Korean Women covers the miserable and chaotic chapter of Korean history which deals with women. However, the past does not stagnate in wretched confusion. The artist infuses breath to bring back its liveliness.

The portrayal of the delicate pleats of clothes and of accessories and the frame of the painting decorated with colorful threads and silk patches contrast with the monotone canvas.

Through the contrast between the white and black canvas done in hyperrealistic style and the minimal and geometrical patterns of the frame, a contrast between minute detail and blunt mass, he sets women inborn nature against that of men. The artist also raises the contrast between viewers in the present and these figures in the painting from the past. Cho's  painting is freed from hackneyed hyperrealism by his superb sensitivity.