Humanity and life,
returned to the canvas
Amid the turbulence of the 1980s, he led one strand of figurative art.Art that spoke of the era, of reality, of people — through painting.
Figurative art —
bringing the human back into the frame
Jang Kyungho is an installation artist who has been at the forefront of figurative art — one pillar of Korean art that addressed the crisis of the era by tackling issues of humanity and life during the democratization movement of the early 1980s.
Figurative art (hyeongsang misul) grew out of the “new figuration” that emerged in the mid-1970s, and through the 1980s it settled into one of the major currents of the Korean art world. It was the tendency that, after the formalism of pure abstraction, called inner emotion and the problems of human life back onto the canvas.
Keeping its distance from both the formalism of pure abstraction and from traditional representational painting, figurative art spoke — in the midst of the turbulent, democratizing 1980s — of people, reality, and the era through the language of painting itself.
Since his tenure as director of the Gwanhun Gallery, Jang Kyungho has consistently organized exhibitions of Korean contemporary figurative painting, working to present the substance of figurative art to the public. Through these efforts he sought to discover genuine figurative artists who use painting to challenge a flawed world and to reflect upon themselves.
Less a single style than a stance, his practice has carried the conviction that a painting can refuse a wrong world. As both maker and organizer, he has been a figure who held open a place for the human within Korean contemporary art.
Major themes
- 1
The return of the figure
After the formalism of pure abstraction, inner emotion and the human are called back onto the canvas — neither pure abstraction nor traditional representation.
- 2
Speaking of the era
Amid the democratization of the early 1980s, painting becomes a way to confront the crisis of the era and the problems of human life.
- 3
Maker and organizer
Through the Korean contemporary figurative painting exhibitions, he sought to discover genuine figurative artists and to present the substance of the movement to the public.
On figurative art
- Origin: grew out of the “new figuration” of the mid-1970s, settling into a major current of the Korean art world through the 1980s.
- Position: distinct from both the formalism of pure abstraction and from traditional representational painting.
- Content: inner emotion, the human, and the problems of life, called back onto the canvas after abstraction.
- Jang Kyungho's role: a leader of this current, and an organizer who, from his time as Gwanhun Gallery director, has continued to present figurative painting to the public.
Two essays —
on figurative art and its time
1After abstraction — the return of the figure
By the mid-1970s, Korean painting was largely governed by abstraction and its formal concerns. Against this backdrop a counter-tendency began to gather: the “new figuration” that, rather than dissolving the image, insisted on bringing the human figure and lived feeling back to the surface of the canvas.
Through the 1980s this tendency settled into one of the major currents of the Korean art world under the name of figurative art. It was neither a return to academic, traditional representation nor a continuation of pure abstraction — it occupied a third place, where inner emotion, the human, and the problems of life could be spoken again in paint.
Jang Kyungho stands within this current as one of its leaders. His work carries the period's central conviction: that after abstraction had emptied the canvas of the human, the figure had to be brought back — not as decoration, but as a way of facing the era.
2The maker and the gatherer — figurative art made public
A movement does not survive on individual canvases alone; it needs places where the work can be seen together, named, and argued over. Jang Kyungho understood this. From his time as director of the Gwanhun Gallery, he consistently organized exhibitions of Korean contemporary figurative painting, gathering the scattered practice of figurative art into a visible whole.
The aim was not merely to display works but to present the substance of figurative art to the public — to show that this was a coherent stance, not an accident of style. Through these exhibitions he sought out genuine figurative artists: those who used painting to refuse a wrong world and to reflect upon themselves.
In this double role — maker and organizer — Jang Kyungho held open a place for the human inside Korean contemporary art. To lead figurative art was, for him, both to paint and to make room for others to paint.
From the “new figuration” of the 1970s to the figurative painting exhibitions he has continued to organize, Jang Kyungho's practice has pursued a single question: how can a painting hold the human, and the era, at once? He joins this campaign not as a subject of its cause but as a fellow artist in solidarity — so that those who come after might paint with a place held open for them.
Selected Works
1 works are featured here.
Jang Kyungho joined this campaign in solidarity with fellow artists. Every work sold flows directly into the artists' mutual-aid loan fund— a purchase becomes the next month's lifeline for an artist navigating financial exclusion today.
