Contemporary Korean Art: Tansaekhwa and the Urgency of Method

I have a Korean friend who had trouble picking art for his home. At first I was going to try to find him a piece of art, but that seemed a bit personal. Instead I found this book.I liked the title. The person whom my gift was for was fundamental to helping me, and my work team quickly create methods of efficiency and consistency to deliver quality results. So “The Urgency of Method” meant something a little different to me.Before I gave it to him I read through and learned a lot about Korean minimalism. I gained a new perspective on minimalism and it’s purpose whithin society to represent a utilitarian consistency that retains a cohesive structure that combines in multiple forms to represent the culture that this type of art represents.I don’t know much about art, and ashamedly little about Korean culture, but I do know a little more about Korean art than i ever knew before. I was able to provide a meaningful and sincere gift to someone which, hopefully, showed I appreciated them, and their culture, as well asl how much I care and respect them as a person.This was a well made book, with lots of full color photos and stories that made each print personalized and placed them in the context of Korean life.Were the need for this to arise again, I would definitely buy this book again.

Joan Kee, professor of Art History at the University of Michigan, is one of the most important scholars of the tansaekhwa movement and this wonderful book is an absolute must read for anyone with an interest in this field. Her passion and admiration for the works are undeniable and this underlying admiration is palpable throughout.The introduction is, in my opinion, one of the best English language histories of abstraction in postwar Korea. Kee’s explanation of the socio-political context affecting Korea’s art world and Korea itself are revelatory. The book moves through a history of the various power players, artists, curators, critics, galleries, museums, and historians at work. Not only are tansaekhwa stalwarts Lee Ufan, Park Seobo, Ha Chonghyun, and Yun Hyongkeun discussed in great detail, Kee also provides valuable insights into works by artists such as Kwon Young-Woo, Suh Se-Ok and Kim Whangki to name just a few.I have revisited this book time and time again and it is a testament to Kee’s wonderful writing style, passion and formidable intellect. A masterful scholarly work presented in an engaging readable form, this is an important book and I believe will be a classic reference for years to come.

wonderful book to learn about the historically important period of artistic movements in Korea known as "Korean monochrome painting" and the artists involved. and it was wonderful to read more about the internationall lesser known Korean artists of this period...

Amazing artists that I had never heard of.

Book came with a large dent when I ordered it "New". Wish Amazon handled their books better because this is a wonderfully printed one with great pictures.

Focuses strictly on painting. I would have liked more explanation of urgency of method itself. Rather it was explained as a reaction to the Japanese colonial period.

Dr. Joan Kee (a mid-career faculty/ Associate Professor, History of Art, at the University of Michigan) has clearly put in what seems to be a life’s work into this book, a detailed description of Korean art, particularly of Korean monochrome i.e. Tansaekhwa (also spelled Dansaekhwa) Art. I am a non-professional art lover (I.e I merely love art, and attempt to paint, but have no formal training in it) who bought the book to learn more about this spectacular, but under-appreciated/ poorly known body of art. The book is a detailed history of the context in which Tansaekhwa developed, and as it related to the history of Korea’s occupations by Japan, the influences of WWII and the Korean War, the subsequent split into North and South, and how the subsequent administrations influenced (negatively or otherwise) the development of art over there. It covers some of the major artists like Park Seo-Bo and his Écriture series, as well as Lee Ufan and others. While this is not a Taschen publication with gorgeous foldout spreads of artworks, Dr. Kee and the publisher have made their best effort to add color pictures when and where available. Combined with a lecture given to (and uploaded by) The Korea Society, that can be viewed on YouTube, titled “Gallery Talk- The Long Breath: Postwar Korean Art, 1953-1979”, which is complementary to the book, this effort can only be described as a labor of love by Dr. Kee. This should be in the library of every art department as required reading.

Provides some great insights into the historical context surrounding the many artists discussed, giving plenty of visual examples of their work. The reader is encouraged to see these works as methods, showing us how to visualize labor and process as an aesthetic product and pointing out ways that tansaekhwa artists were visualizing conceptions of time, space, materiality, and the agency of the viewer.

even ordering a new book, it was delivered with a dent in one of the corners. This is unacceptable!

The book provides some great insights into the historical context surrounding the many artists discussed, giving plenty of visual examples of their work. The reader is encouraged to see these works as methods, showing us how to visualize labor and process as an aesthetic product and pointing out ways that tansaekhwa artists were visualizing conceptions of time, space, materiality, and the agency of the viewer.