— Overview
This reading stays with the pictures Oh Chi-ho painted after liberation, and with a manifesto that treats painting as excitement at nature, turned by deformation into a new excitement.
— Contents and key concepts
After 15 August, and two islands in Heuksando
This reading begins after 15 August, with liberation. From Impressionism, they write, Oh Chi-ho went on to firm and deepen a world of his own. They do not add a birth year, or earlier works, that the telling never gives.
The first picture they name as showing that change is Heuksando, painted in 1949. Two islands lie far out in the sea. The parts that take the sunlight are yellow; the shadowed parts are a deep brown or blue, so that light and dark stand against each other. The water far off is a deep blue, the water close by a yellowish green, giving both perspective and rhythm. The strokes that stand for waves and for the glitter of the water have grown softer.
Flat planes of color in the 1950s
In the 1950s, they write, a change of technique stands out first. In Village Landscape (1953), each form, or the curves inside a form, is treated as a flat plane of color, and the borders between forms, or the outlines, are drawn in a dark color. It is a kind of stylization, they say.
The same tendency shows more clearly in a cactus picture titled Yanginjang — the characters they give mean a palm turned upward — from the 1950s, in Flower (1956), and in Water Lilies (1957).
Autumn Light, a spring in Northern Europe, and a manifesto
From the 1960s the pictures change once more. The bright, orderly surface disappears. In its place, the form of color, contrast, and rhythm are stressed, and rough strokes and the feel of the material come to the front. In Autumn Light (1960), apart from a few simplified branches, the maple leaves, the grass around them, and the path have all become masses of color, with a feeling close to abstraction.
Color is stressed over form — the form of color, and color’s power to speak — and through paint and stroke the work tries to give matter a life of its own. That tendency, they write, runs consistently through to a recent work, Spring in Northern Europe (1977). Oh Chi-ho’s world of painting, as he sets it out in a Manifesto of Figurative Painting, is an expression of excitement at nature, and a turning of that excitement, through deformation of the subject, into a new excitement at nature.
The same Korean report, at fuller length, is on CampusDown.
Sources
- This reading, a student account of Oh Chi-ho’s work after 15 August: a move from Impressionism into his own world, Heuksando (1949), Village Landscape (1953), Yanginjang, Flower (1956), Water Lilies (1957), Autumn Light (1960), Spring in Northern Europe (1977), and a Manifesto of Figurative Painting.
Last updated: 15 November 2026
Frequently asked questions
Where do this reading begins, and how do they read Heuksando of 1949?
They begin after 15 August, with liberation. From Impressionism, they write, Oh Chi-ho went on to firm and deepen a world of his own. The first work they name as showing that change is Heuksando, painted in 1949. Two islands lie far out in the sea. The parts that take the sunlight are yellow; the shadowed parts are a deep brown or blue, so that light and dark stand against each other. The water far off is a deep blue, the water close by a yellowish green, giving both perspective and rhythm. The strokes that stand for waves and for the glitter of the water have grown softer.
What change do they find in the 1950s, and which works carry it?
In the 1950s, they write, a change of technique stands out first. In Village Landscape (1953), each form, or the curves inside a form, is treated as a flat plane of color, and the borders between forms, or the outlines, are drawn in a dark color — a kind of stylization, they say. The same tendency shows more clearly in a cactus picture titled Yanginjang (the characters they give mean a palm turned upward), from the 1950s, in Flower (1956), and in Water Lilies (1957).
How does the work change again in the 1960s, and what does the manifesto say?
From the 1960s the pictures change once more. The bright, orderly surface disappears. In its place, the form of color, contrast, and rhythm are stressed, and rough strokes and the feel of the material come to the front. In Autumn Light (1960), apart from a few simplified branches, the maple leaves, the grass around them, and the path have all become masses of color, with a feeling close to abstraction. Color is stressed over form — the form of color, and color’s power to speak — and through paint and stroke the work tries to give matter a life of its own. That tendency, they write, runs consistently through to a recent work, Spring in Northern Europe (1977). Oh Chi-ho’s world of painting, as he sets it out in a Manifesto of Figurative Painting, is an expression of excitement at nature, and a turning of that excitement, through deformation of the subject, into a new excitement at nature.
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