Minhwa is traditional Korean art that originated in Korea and has a unique style and appearance. There are different types of genres within Minhwa, and the paintings often have symbolic elements. By the end of this post, you will better understand what Minhwa is, where it comes from, and its various characteristics. Also, I will write a bit about the broader picture of Korean art.
Traditional arts and crafts in Korea
If you have ever been to South Korea, you must have noticed the traditional paintings. Especially in Seoul, the capital, there are traditional palaces and temples between the high and modern buildings. The pillars, ceilings, and beams under the roofs of these palaces and temples are all painted with colourful patterns, called 단청 (Dancheong). And when you peek through an open door, you often see large folding screens or scrolls hanging on the walls.
Not only at these historic sites but also in galleries, museums, and art fairs, you can admire traditional paintings and modern interpretations of the traditional art forms. Korea has a rich culture of painting and other crafts. Examples of other traditional Korean craftsmanship are embroidery 자수 (jasu) seen on clothes, wraps, et cetera, celadon ceramics 청자 (cheongja) which are the typical light blueish-green-coloured ceramics, and mother-in-pearl 자개 (jagae), which are jewellery boxes or other objects with laid-in patterns made of the inner part of shells
This post is meant as a short introduction to Minhwa, so I will explain things comprehensively to provide an overview. The next section starts with a short version of the history of Korean (and oriental) art. Then I will describe the visual characteristics and genres of traditional Korean paintings. In later posts, I will go into more detail on several topics mentioned in this blog post.
A short history
To understand what Minhwa is, and how to interpret it, it is good to know the general historical background of Korean and oriental art. In Korea, the period from 1392 to 1897 is called the Joseon Dynasty. The end of this period is when most of the traditional Minhwa paintings were made, so it was considered the ‘golden age’ for Minhwa.
Until the late 16th century, Korean traditional art was mainly painted by official painters of the royal court. Their style of painting was highly influenced by the style of the Chinese professional court painters, and they often represented Confucian ideologies.
Present-day, there are people who haven’t followed traditional art school and taught themselves artistic skills. They call themselves self-taught and aren’t necessarily amateurs. During the 16th century in Korea, there were also people like this. They were people from lower ranks, without formal art training. Unlike today, they didn’t have the luxury of widely available online instructions and books, but they started creating smaller-scale paintings following the style of Korean court paintings. They painted for fun and to decorate their houses, and therefore also didn't sign their artworks. Paintings painted by these anonymous painters were later called Minhwa. Since the common people were freer in their style and expression of personality compared to the artists of the royal court, Minhwa developed into a pure Korean style.
As with every art style, there are excellent painters representing the genre, who developed their personal style and had people following that style. Examples of these master painters in Korea during the Joseon Dynasty are An-Gyeon (안견), and Shin Yun-bok (신윤복).
The period from 1897 to 1910 is called the Korean Empire which was a period of modernization. This was also the period where the foundation for modern Korean art was laid. It was a challenge to Preserve artistic traditions while embracing foreign influences and modernity in art.
In 1910 Japan colonized Korea with the Japan–Korea Treaty. This was considered the end of folk painting because the Japanese invaders suppressed the creation of traditional Korean art. Court paintings were replaced by paintings selected by Japanese judges at the Joseon art exhibition. Also, Korean painting was more influenced by foreign countries.
During this period, the Japanese art critic Yanagi Muneyoshi coined the term ‘Minhwa’. The word 민화 (Minhwa), is composed of two Chinese characters: 民 (min) meaning people, and 畫 (huà) meaning painting. So the name Minhwa means “painting of the people” or “popular paintings”. This is what we call it now, but this term wasn’t used in the Joseon dynasty to describe these Korean paintings.
Recently (about the last 40 years) there has been more appreciation for Minhwa in Korea. In the Joseon dynasty it had the image of paintings made by lower class people, and therefore being considered of poor quality. But nowadays these paintings are admired, copied as a hobby and used as an inspiration by professional artists. This might be because Minhwa is a truly Korean style of painting, and especially after being occupied by other nations, Korean people wanted to find and show their own Korean identity.
Contemporary Minhwa - modernization of tradition
Now you might be thinking ‘Folk art, isn’t that something antique from the past?’. But I think for Korean folk art it is the opposite. These days current artists are creating new paintings inspired by the current society and the traditional style of Minhwa. They mix modern techniques and old concepts, for example, using materials like mixed media or digital illustration. I believe ‘Folk painting’ is a timeless concept that shows the identity of a group of people.
In an article about the influence of Minhwa on Korean contemporary art, Professor Park Young-Taek wrote that folk paintings of the Joseon Dynasty, are being reconstructed by young artists symbolising the lives and desires of modern people (Park Young-Taek, 2009 see link at the end of the post).
Since the term Minhwa mostly refers to the paintings made during the Joseon dynasty, it feels off to use it for paintings made these days. Therefore artists are searching for a new name for this genre. For example, the Korean artist Hana Seo started a project named ‘모던민화’ (Modern Minhwa), because she felt that her work representing the era we currently live in didn’t match the term ‘folk painting’. (from her book)
On the 민화뉴스 (Minhwa News) website, they mention ‘현대 민화’ (hyeon-dae Minhwa) meaning Modern or Contemporary Minhwa, and ‘창작민화’ (chang-jag Minhwa) meaning Creative Minhwa. The article describes ‘Creative Minhwa’ as a new genre that shows the personality of artists and the present-day values of society. It is based on the characteristics and techniques used in traditional folk painting (민화뉴스 - 문지혜, 2020).
In another article they write about a ‘민화붐’ Minhwa-boom (월간민화, 2024), describing that more and more people are painting Minhwa and that it is becoming more visible to the public. We are currently in a transitional period with rapid changes in this genre.
I mainly write about traditional Minhwa in this post, but in a later post I will also write more about ‘Contemporary Minhwa’.
Types of paintings
There are different ways to classify paintings, for example, based on the painting techniques, materials, style, or subject of the painting. In this section, I wrote an overview of different terms used to describe Korean painting and grouped them per type of categorization. You can use the (Korean) words below to find examples of the paintings in a search engine (naver.com works best for searching Korean things). The lists are not an extensive representation of the categories, because that would be too long. I made a selection of terms, to give you an example of what exists.
Categories based on the origin:
Oriental/ Eastern painting 동양화 (Dongyanghwa)
Traditional Painting 전통회화 (Jeontonghoehwa)
Korean painting (all types of Oriental painting made in Korea) 한국화 (Hangukhwa)
Korean Court painting 회화 (Hoehwa)
Korean folk painting 민화 (Minhwa)
literary painting (painting with a poem written in calligraphy) 문인화 (Muninhwa)
Buddhist painting 불화 (Bulhwa)
Categories based on the style, technique, and materials used:
Chaesaekhwa (채색화) or Jinchaehwa (진채화) - coloured painting
Sumeokdamchaehwa (수묵담채화) - light colour and ink painting
Sumeokhwa (수묵화) - ink painting
I would like to point out the difference between two of the above types, namely Minhwa (민화) and Hoehwa (회화). In general, the word Hoehwa, which literally means ‘painting’, is used to refer to the paintings painted by the court painters, who were professionally educated and earned their living by doing this. And minhwa was painted by the common people, more like a hobby.
Other differences are:
the difference in the quality of the materials that are used,
the usage of the paintings (where were they hung, and for which occasions), and
the freedom in creativity that the artist has (court painters were more restricted in what they could paint, and common people were independent and could freely express their creativity).
Lastly, the paintings can be categorised on the topic of the painting. This is the type of categorization that is used the most. Most of these types are also seen in other traditional art forms, for example, hwajo-do (flowers and birds) and sipjangsaeng-do (ten signs of longevity) are often seen in embroidery. Several researchers use different categorizations of the topics, I will not go in-depth on this, so the list below is not definite. I will go more in-depth on some of these types in later posts. You can see examples of most of these types in the images throughout this post.
Categories based on topic:
Peony paintings 모란도 (Moran-do),
Flower and bird paintings 화조도 (Hwajo-do),
character paintings 문자도 (munja-do),
Paintings with books and other things 책가도 (Chaekga-do)
tiger and magpie paintings 호작도 (hojak-do),
Ten symbols of longevity: Turtle, deer, crane, sea, mountain, water, cloud, stone, herb of eternal life, pine 십장생도 (Sipjangsaeng-do)
Many more …
Moral or religious messages
The Korean traditional folk paintings were not only made for decorative purposes, but they also represent people’s wishes and hopes in life. They illustrate Korean mythology and show ordinary people's daily life, religion, and mindset. This also plays a big part in the Korean identity of the paintings.
For example, one of the most famous genres in Korean painting is the Hwajo-do ‘flower and bird’ painting. These are often long vertical paintings with big flowers and branches. Sitting on or below the branches or flying, birds appear in couples of male and female birds. They could be a single painting, a set of 2, 4, or more paintings in an even amount. When a set includes 4 or more paintings, they are often made into a folding screen. Hwajo-do paintings symbolise a harmonious couple or family. That is also why these were mainly used as a folding screen in the room of a newlywed couple.
Another widely used theme in Korean painting and other traditional crafts is a painting with ‘ten symbols of longevity’ (십장생도 Sipjangsaeng-do). It would be a long story to explain why each of these symbolizes longevity, but to put it simply the reasons can be as follows. The sun, moon, and other natural elements existed for hundreds to millions of years. A turtle can become very old as well. The crane was a bird that immortals or gods sat on and flew with, and deer were seen as auspicious animals who could bring messages from gods. Therefore these animals were associated with immortals as well. Lastly, the herb of eternal life is a mythical object that looks like a red mushroom. When placing the herb on the face of a deceased person, they would revive from death, and when someone ate it, it would prolong the person's life.
Some paintings were made to hang at the front door of houses for protection from evil spirits and disasters or to bring happiness and luck, but this does not happen anymore. The depicted objects often represent a specific symbolic meaning, like wishes for longevity, wealth, honour, fertility, et cetera.
Unique style and appearance
The style and appearance of Korean paintings are for a large part defined by the materials that are used. The three main materials are the paper, paint and brushes:
Paper: Mostly the paintings are painted on rice paper made of the mulberry tree, or on silk.
Paint: There are many forms in which Korean Paint is available, from expensive high-quality 석채 (Seokchae), which is a natural pigment powder, to more affordable paint in tubes. The pigment powders are mixed with 아교 (Agyo), a binder made of collagen.
Brushes: Mainly three types of brushes are used: a long and thin brush for lines and details, a medium-sized brush for colouring, and a big chubby brush for creating gradients.
Now you might think ‘But how can I recognise a Korean folk painting?’ or ‘How is it unique and can it be differentiated from other paintings?’. Besides the themes and symbols described earlier, there are some visual characteristics of Minhwa paintings. These are as follows:
Firstly, the paintings are very colourful. The colours of real objects are often exaggerated as you can see in the Flower and bird painting 화조도 (Hwajo-do) shown in the previous chapter.
Perspective and proportions are not important in Minhwa paintings. This can be seen well in 책가도 (Chaekga-do) paintings, which are paintings including books, stationery, and other items that can be found in a room.
The paintings often show humour and the broad imagination of the people. For example the facial expression of tigers, where humour is used to make them look friendly and funny instead of scary.
The paintings have a symbolic meaning. A good example of this is 십장생도 (sipjangsaeng-do) paintings, which I described in the previous chapter.
Final words
Thank you for reading my blog. If you liked reading about it, and are curious about what else there is to explore about Minhwa, you can subscribe to the mailing list and follow me on Instagram or Facebook, where I will also announce new posts.
Did you get curious about traditional Korean painting? I would love to read in the comments what you are curious about and what you want to learn!
Notes
In the section about contemporary Minhwa, I mentioned a few articles. You can find them here:
English version (titles are translated):
Park, Young-Taek. “How is folk painting understood in Korean contemporary art?” www.sohoartgallery.net, November 15, 2009. http://www.sohoartgallery.net/type6/board/board_view.php?num=242&view_no=595&code=5&.
Seo, Hana. Modeon Minhwa Sueop. Seoul: Mijinsa, 2021.
“Modern folk painting trends and styles organized into 8 keywords. Part Ⅰ.” Minhwa news, May 9, 2020. https://www.minhwatown.co.kr/news/articleView.html?idxno=34155.
“Special feature commemorating the 10th anniversary of the publication, suggestions to the folk painting community 1. Education.” Minhwa news, April 4, 2024. https://www.minhwatown.co.kr/news/articleView.html?idxno=60179.
Korean version:
박영택. “한국 현대미술에서 민화는 어떻게 이해되고 있나?” www.sohoartgallery.net, 2009년 11월 15일. http://www.sohoartgallery.net/type6/board/board_view.php?num=242&view_no=595&code=5&.
서하나. 모던민화 수업. 서울: 미진사, 2021.
“8가지 키워드로 정리하는 현대 민화 경향과 스타일Ⅰ.” 민화뉴스, May 9, 2020. https://www.minhwatown.co.kr/news/articleView.html?idxno=34155.
“창간 10주년 기념 특집, 민화계에 보내는 제언 1. 교육 Education.” 민화뉴스, April 4, 2024. https://www.minhwatown.co.kr/news/articleView.html?idxno=60179.
Comments