Popular Art from Early Modern Korea

In the 1960s, practitioners of Pop Art looked toward everyday commodities and commercial images for inspiration. Such an artistic spirit that challenged the rigid concept between high- and lowbrow arts in fact had long existed in Korean art, flourishing in the late 1800s and early 1900s. Rendered in dazzling colors, Korean still-life paintings called chaekgeori (pronounced check-oh-ree), for example, are replete with mass-produced utilitarian items and trendy luxuries. Polychrome folding screens, such as chaekgeori, often complemented familial festivities and reunions, beyond simply furnishing the living space of middle-class households. Blue-and-white porcelain, which features the abundant use of expensive cobalt blue and floral decor, is another artistic expression drawn from the emerging consumerism in early modern Korea. By the late 1800s, Korean art was becoming more inclusive and diverse, no longer exclusively for the elites.