Landscape,

early 20th century

Baik Yoon Moon was one of the pioneers of modern Korean art, well known for his landscape paintings and portraits. He was active in the 1920s and 1930s, during which period he drew Landscape, and he was invited to participate eight times in the annual National Art Exhibition of Korea. In 1935 he was accused by the occupying forces of the Japanese imperial government of painting a seditious image and was taken to Japan, where he was imprisoned and tortured. He only started painting, drawing, and exhibiting again in 1978, one year before his death. In this painting, Baik presents a scene filled with brushwork reminiscent of Chinese literati painting. Yet his emphasis on Mi dots, or splashed ink in the style of the Chinese artist Mi Fu—meant to impart a light texture on the image—gives the work a sense of experimental individuality.