House of Go Hui-Dong
Editor by Youvin Choi
When he was 14 years old, he entered Hansung Law School and learned French, so he got a job at the palace in 1904 and translated French and documents within the palace.
And it was the start of his career as a painter that he began to come and go under the teachings of Ahn Jung-sik and Jo Seok-jin, who were known as masters of the time. However, at that time, the flower bed only faithfully copied Chinese pictorials.
Disillusioned with this, he began to be interested in Western painting. In 1909, he moved to Japan and entered the Department of Western Painting at the Tokyo Art School, and began full-fledged Western painting classes. It became the first Korean to make a Western painting.
When he returned to Korea in 1915 after five years of class, he decided to launch a new art movement. In 1918, he formed the Society of Painting, the first group of Korean painters and an art organization in a modern sense, encouraging senior figures and masters in the painter gruop.
The most central activity of the Painter Association was the exhibition of members' works, and the first exhibition was held in the auditorium of the Central High School in 1921. This was the first modern exhibition for the public.
Along with the membership exhibition, Korea's first art magazine was founded as an enlightenment project. After the 15th exhibition in 1936, he devoted his energy to the unity of artists in the national camp as general secretary or chairman until the Painting Association was no longer held. Upon liberation, he was elected chairman of the Joseon Art Construction Headquarters a collective group of right-wing artists, was founded.
He deserves high praise as Korea's first Western painter, an art educator who taught younger generations how to form new forms, and an art administrator who formed and led a group of painters.
In addition, 10 years after returning from Japan, he turned from Western painting to Oriental painting, pioneering a style that added Western painting techniques. However, he did not achieve his independence in style, so he could not leave any significant works as an independent painter.
