Korean Aesthetics

Hannah Kim et al.

Korean students and English-speaking students

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Korean Philosophy

Intermediate

By exploring aesthetic elements found in Korean music, literature, and art, this course examines how Korean culture can be disseminated globally. We aim to respond to the interests of overseas researchers and learners by highlighting the unique aesthetics within Korean culture.

Students will be able to understand, from a philosophical perspective, the diverse modes of thinking and styles of expression found in Korean culture and arts.

Week 1

Intro to Aesthetics and Korean Aesthetics

1. Introduction to Aesthetics

2. Introduction to Korean Aesthetics

Week 2

Comparative Approaches to Korean Aesthetics

1. Challenges of Comparative Aesthetics

2. Methods of Comparative Aesthetics

3. Rewards of Comparative Aesthetics

Week 3

Natural Beauty peculiar to Korea: from Nature and Beauty of Neo-Kantianism

1. Introduction to natural beauty in Korean Aesthetics

2. Natural Beauty and Nature in Korean Tradition

3. Natural Beauty in the 20th century

Week 4

Korean painting

1. Eight Views of Xiaoxiang

2. The Nine-bend Stream of Mt. Wuyi

3. True View Scenery Painting

Week 5

Korean Narrative Tradition

1. The concept of Korean literature – The concept of fiction

2. The gap between Chinese fable tradition and Korean fable tradition and Buddhist influences on the development of the Korean fable tradition – Greek fable tradition and rhetoric

3. Korean fable tradition

Week 6

Korean Art and Social Change

1. An ancient idea that art would be relevant to moral improvement

2. About the Joseon Dynasty

3. In the 21st century, Korean artistic productions

Week 7

Korean Art and Morality

1. Philosophical Background of Korean Artistic Practices: Confucian Moral Self-cultivation

2. Double Desires for Self-enjoyment

3. The Pleasure of Self

Week 8

The Aesthetics of Fun: ‘Sinmyŏng’ (神明) in Korean Popular Culture

1. Releasing Han through Nori

2. Eliciting Hŭng through Nori

3. Showing the clip to the class

4. Hybridity and Creativity

Week 9

Group discussions by theme

1. Art as tool

2. Nature in Korean Art

Week 10

Q&A Interview

Interview with professors regarding the role of imperfection in Korean aesthetics

Korean Music: A philosophical Exploration

So-Jeong Park, Su-hyun Kim

College student interested in Korean music

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Humanities

intermediate

This course introduces Korean philosophy reflected in Korean music, especially K-pop, which has been attracting global attention. We verify that Korea’s unique philosophy serves as the foundation for maintaining originality while appealing universally, and examine the role of philosophy in the ongoing development and global dissemination of Korean music.

1. Students gain insight into various aspects of Korean music and its cultural significance.
2. They understand the differences between K-pop and traditional Korean music (Gugak) and what makes Korean music unique.
3. They learn about historical and cultural influences on Korean music and how it has evolved over time.
4. They explore the emotional and symbolic meanings of Korean songs and how they relate to Korean culture and identity.
5. They investigate the role of Korean music in ritual and Confucian settings, as well as how it expresses morality and cultural ideals.
6. Finally, they discover the importance of the Korean language and notation system in Korean music, as well as contemporary trends and tastes.

Week 1

Philosophizing through Korean Music

1. What is Korean Music? K-pop or Gugak?

2. What is “Korean” in Korean Music?

3. Korean Music as Living Tradition

Week 2

Evolving Identity of Korean Music

1. Korean Matrix and Cultural Boundaries

2. Origins of Korean Music: Loose Cultural Boundaries

3. Korean and Chinese Music: Within and Outside Cultural Boundaries

4. Globalization of Korean Music Towards Dissolved Borders

Week 3

Korean Music Viewed Through Cultural Boundaries

1. Acceptance of Foreign Music and Koreanization

2. Long-lived Korean Musical Instruments: Gayageum& Geomungo

3. Openness to the Foreign, Uninterrupted Creativity

Week 4

Korean Music and Emotions

1. Arirang, Songs of Korean Han

2. Ong-Heya, Cheerful Work Songs in Korea

3. Conflicting Emotions: Stirring Sadness, Sorrowful Joy, Cheerful Consolation

4. Music of Conflicting Emotions: Puri, Han and Heung

Week 5

Korean Music and Morality

1. Ritual Music for Confucian Shrine and Joseon Royal Shrine

2. Korean characteristics of Jongmyo Jeryeak

3. Confucian Musical Ideal and Chinese Ritual Music

4. Actualization of Confucian Ideals through Ritual Music

5. Musical Innovations in Korean Ritual Music

6. Morality and Musicality in Korean Ritual Music

Week 6

Korean Music and Language

1. Korean Tempo-Space Notation, Jeongganbo

2. Learning to read Jeongganbo

3. Jeongganbo for Composing and Recording Korean Songs

4. “Koreanness” of Korean Music and Language

5. Korean Folk Music Born from Korean Language

6. Korean Music Taste: Folk Music and K-pop

Deviation from the Orthodox: Artists in Pre-modern Korea

Soo-jin Kim

Domestic and international college students, general public

Park Ji-hyeon

Humanities (Humanistic Studies)

Intermediate

This course explores the lives and artistic worlds of artists in the late Joseon period. Before Late Joseon Period, Chinese-style painting was predominant. Over time, however, certain artists broke free from this style to focus on Korea’s own nature and society. By understanding these artists’ lives and artistic worlds, we aim to prompt students to question for themselves what is “Korean” and deepen their appreciation of Korean tradition.

1. Understand the lives and artistic worlds of late Joseon artists: Gyeomjae Jeong Seon, Jo Yeongseok, Yun Duseo, Shin Yunbok, Chae Yong-shin, and Kim Hongdo.

2. Increase one’s understanding of the social context in which late Joseon art developed.

3. Be able to describe the works produced by these late Joseon artists.

Week 1

Why Paint Chinese Scenic Wonders Unseen in One’s Life? Jeongseon’s Depiction of Familiar Scenes at Home

1. Prologue

2. He painted landscapes from his own yard and places he actually visited.

3. He led the era’s travel culture and set a trend in painting.

4. He forged new compositions never seen before.

5. He was at the center of literary culture of his time.

6. He lived a successful painter’s life with non-stop commissions.

7. He produced many disciples known as “Gyeomjae School” or “Jeongseon School.”

Week 2

Two Scholarly Painters Who Never Abandoned Their Artistic Calling: Yun Duseo and Jo Yeongseok

1. Intro

2. The artistic world of Yun Duseo

3. Training with Chinese painting manuals and personal adaptation

4. Drawing a depiction of the “half-self” and the artist himself

5. Replacing the dream of official success with painting

6. Even after his declaration of “no more painting,” he could not truly stop

7. Insight and realism shown in his Sajecheop (Sketchbook)

Week 3

A Painter with Mastery in All Genres: Kim Hongdo

1. Intro

2. He pioneered humorous depictions of commoner life in folk paintings

3. He served as the official court painter for King Jeongjo

4. He socialized with those who led various comprehensive arts of the era

5. He established a variety of genres in painting screens

6. He influenced royal painting style until the late Joseon

Week 4

Observer and Deep Thinker as a Voice of the Marginalized: Shin Yunbok

1. Intro

2. Coming from an elite painter lineage with mysterious records

3. Depicting romance, emotions, and love

4. Criticizing the hypocrisy and duality of the yangban

5. Representing weaker voices

6. Leaving ample room for varied interpretations

7. Opening a new genre through innovation and boldness

Week 5

The Last Portraitist Who Triumphed Over Photography: Chae Yong-shin

1. Intro

2. After retiring from official post, he pursued a second career as an artist

3. Using a “camera method” to outdo photography at portrait making

4. Leveraging newspapers, postal services, and railways for patronage

5. Creating an era where anyone could commission a portrait

6. Overcoming tradition, opening the era of female portraiture

7. Boosting production efficiency with workshop systems for partial finishing

8. Inheriting conservative values through technology

Contemporary Art and Korean Aesthetics

Jung Hee Kim, Sue Jin Kim

College student interested in Korean music

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Humanities

Intermediate

This course examines the foundational concepts of Korean traditional aesthetics and explores their resonance within contemporary art. By engaging with the works of leading artists, it highlights the intersections between the distinctiveness of Korean aesthetics and its universal dimensions. Covering a wide range of genres—from traditional painting and sculpture to media art—the course considers concepts such as mul-a ilche (the unity of self and object), giun saengdong (vital energy in motion), dao, and the “five-minute aesthetics,”situating them in dialogue with modern artistic practice.

Featured artists include Lee Lee-nam, Kang Hyung-koo, Suh Do-ho, Park Dae-sung, Yoon Kwang-cho, Lee Ufan, Shim Moon-seop, and Kim Soo-ja. Their works will be analyzed to uncover and interpret the aesthetic messages embedded within. Themes such as communion with nature, the beauty of emptiness (yeobaek), form and spirit, and the harmony of matter and mindserve as points of departure to articulate the unique characteristics of Korean aesthetics. These will be compared with Western traditions of realism and mimesis as well as East Asian traditions of linmo (imitative practice) and theories of form and spirit, thereby situating Korean modes of artistic expression within a global context.

The course also examines how technology and traditional aesthetics converge to generate new artistic languages through digital media, installation art, and public art projects. Concepts such as the “five-minute aesthetics” are used to emphasize how emotional immersion and active participation by the viewer become integral to the completion of the artwork. Case studies include the representation of specific sites and natural landscapes—such as Mount Geumgang, Damyang, and Seoul—revealing the intersections of locality and universality.

Ultimately, the course approaches art not merely as a visual object but as a medium of communication with society. It reflects on philosophical themes such as the visible and the invisible, the unity of the artist and the object, and the pursuit of Dao. Within this framework, art emerges as both a practice of communication with audiences and a reflection of its time, continually expanding through media and technology.

1. Examine how Korean aesthetics has developed through intersections between tradition and modernity, as well as between Eastern and Western aesthetic elements, and reflect on the unique aesthetic characteristics that emerge at cultural boundaries.

2. Analyze how artists across diverse visual art genres—such as painting, sculpture, and media art—incorporate traditional elements like the Korean view of nature, the unity of self and object (mul-a ilche), and locality into contemporary artistic practices.

3. Experience the characteristics of contemporary aesthetics in which viewers and artworks engage in mutual dialogue through elements such as empty space (yeobaek), light, and materiality, and cultivate a more active and open attitude toward art appreciation.

Week 1

Lee Lee Nam, Media Artist of the “Five-Minute Aesthetics"

1. Lee Lee Nam and the “Five-Minute Aesthetics”

2. Major Series of Works by Lee Lee-nam

3. Lee Lee-nam’s Artistic World and Korean Aesthetics

4. The Contemporary Significance of Lee Lee-nam’s Art

Week 2

Joseon Dynasty Portraiture and Kang Hyung-koo’s Contemporary Portraits

1. Realism in Western Art and the Tradition of Linmoin East Asian Art

2. Linmo (臨摹, the practice of copying and imitating earlier works) and Hyeong–sin (形神, the Concept of Form and Spirit) in Joseon Dynasty Portraiture

3. Traditional Consciousness and Contemporary Significance in the Portraits of Kang Hyung-koo

Week 3

Do Ho Suh, the Artist of the “Portable Home"

1. Do Ho Suh’s Life and the Theme of “Home"

2. Major Series of Works by Do Ho Suh

3. Do Ho Suh’s Artistic World and Korean Aesthetics

Week 4

The Modernization of Traditional Ink Painting and the Expression of Korean Aesthetics: Park Dae-sung

1. The Continuation of Traditional Paper, Brush, and Ink (Jipilmuk) and True-View Landscape Painting

2. Seeking the Archetypes of Korean Culture through Travel and Reflection

3. Discovering Aesthetic Archetypes in the Cultural Heritage of Gyeongju

Week 5

The Contemporary Inheritance of the Spirit of Buncheong Ware: Yoon Kwang-cho

1. The Korean Aesthetics of Joseon White Porcelain and Buncheong Ware

2. The Natural Beauty Embodied in the Contemporary Forms of Yoon Kwang-cho’s Buncheong Ceramics

Week 6

Lee Ufan, the Artist of Stone and Steel Plates

1. Lee Ufan’s Life and the Artists and Thinkers of His Time

2. Major Works of Lee Ufan

3. Lee Ufan’s Artistic World and Korean Aesthetics

Week 7

Korean Aesthetic Sensibility and Nature in the Abstract Sculpture of Shim Moon-seup

1. Relating to Objects: Sculpture as the Art of Materiality

2. From a Single Form to “Structure,” from Space to “Field”

3. Minimal Abstract Sculpture Reflecting Korean Sentiment and Locality

Week 8

Kim Soo-ja, the Artist of the “Bottari"

1. Kim Soo-ja’s Life and the “Bottari"

2. Major Series of Works by Kim Soo-ja

3. Kim Soo-ja’s Artistic World and Korean Aesthetics

Week 9

Modern Korean “Art” and Its Artists: Stories Yet Untold

1. Modern Korean “Art” and Artists

2. Chinese Aesthetics + Western Aesthetics = Korean Aesthetics?

3. Lee Lee Nam: The Unity of Self and Object (Mul-a Ilche)

4. Kang Hyung-koo: Fictional Realism

5. Do Ho Suh: Home – Space – Locality

6. Do Ho Suh: Home – Space – Locality

7. Yoon Kwang-cho: The Beauty of Open Forms

8. Lee Ufan: Phenomenological Expression

9. Shim Moon-seup: The Aesthetics of Relations

10. Kim Soo-ja: Naturalism

11. Closing