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| Pae
Un-sŏng (1900-1978) Pae, the first Korean artist to have studied in Europe, is known in North Korea as the father of (North) Korean print art. After studying Economics at Waseda University, Pae studied art in Berlin from 1923. (For a detailed account on the artist's life in Berlin, see my article in Wŏlgan misul, April 1991.) He earned several international awards and his works, mainly woodcuts, were reproduced in a number of leading European fashion and art journals. He also worked for the Japananese Embassy and the German-Japanese Society in Berlin, and was one of a handful of Asian artists to have been published in Nazi publications as late as 1937; he may have been the only Korean ever to have had the dubious honor of having a private audience with Hitler. He married a German woman of an aristocratic family (von Wrede) with whom he had a daughter. Eventually they emigrated to France, where he subsequently deserted his family to return to Korea in 1941. After Liberation, Pae became the first dean of the Art Department of what is now Hongik University. He remarried a young leftist Korean woman and withdrew to the North during the Korean War. From 1951 to 1956 Pae worked as a professor at the P'yŏngyang University of Fine Arts. He also worked at the Kaesŏng Fine Arts School, but around 1970 he was arrested for allegedly spying for the Americans. He was rehabilitated shortly thereafter, but was forced to move to Sinŭiju, where his family still lives today. In his later years, he was honored with the highest art prizes. His son Pae Kyŏng-un followed him in his profession; he is one of North Korea's best print artists today, and the head of the Sinŭiju Censorship Office. |
Pae Un-sŏng
Catalog (1996),
Mansudae Art Studio
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