Paintings on Korean culture and landscape painted by Japanese painter

An exhibition is taking place to showcase paintings on Korean culture and landscape painted by a Japanese painter, who loved Korea during Japan’s colonial rule of Korea.

The Soorim Culture Foundation is holding “New Journey to Eight Provinces by Shorin Kato: Collector Kim Yong-gwon Exhibition” through Friday at the Kim Hee-soo Memorial Soorim Arts Center located in Seoul’s Dongdaemun district.

Japanese artist Shorin Kato came to Korea in 1918 and lived here until 1945, while drawing landscape paintings, picture books of travel essays, and drawings on living and life of working-class Korean people. He painted beautiful scenery of Joseon while traveling across the country, and reportedly played an important role when Korean modern art was fledging.

Even after returning to Japan, he would only draw paintings on Korea, and was the first Japanese painter to visit Korea at the invitation of the Korean government in 1963, when Korea had yet to exchange the 1965 Korea-Japan Basic Treaty for normalizing diplomatic ties.

The exhibition will present 64 paintings of the Japanese painter, which were collected by a Korean-Japanese art collector in Japan. The exhibition, which is free of charge, is open from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. on weekdays, and closed on weekend.


Jong-Yeob JO jjj@donga.com