What Paintings Do : On Lee Jung Eun’s 《Life Together》

Shinyoung Chung

Art Critic / Assistant Professor, Seoul Women’s University

The distinction between the West and the East seems no longer relevant, at least in the field of painting. The academic context of orthodox oriental painting still holds, where subtle differences in the tones of ink are the main mode of expression. Yet, a new generation of oriental paintings that implement a variety of colors and themes has emerged and been popular for a while now. The orthodox may feel regretful, but it is only natural that a form of art undergoes stages of stylistic change throughout the course of art history. In fact, this continuous development is the key to the longevity of a genre.

Within the framework of oriental painting, Lee Jung Eun’s still lifes embrace an ideal form of hybridity as they combine contemporary sentiments into the discipline. Because Lee uses Korean mulberry paper and oriental painting pigments as the medium and the support, the material relationship between the sensitive paper and the pigment is more intimate and closer than that of any canvas and oil or acrylic paint, conjuring a characteristic calm and transparent atmosphere. Even when the painting depicts a lush bouquet of flowers or complex patterns on the pots, due to the artist’s brushwork that fills in the ground stitch by stitch, with the integration of the support, pigment, and glue, Lee’s paintings feel serene and quiet, static as if time is frozen. The bold yet justified use of multiple colors, a characteristic previously unseen in the conventional oriental painting, appeals fresh. In terms of the painterly motifs, Lee adopts Western furniture, carpets, cats, and art books, as if variations on conventional Chaekgeori or flower-and-bird paintings; rather than insisting on the rules of the original genre, Lee’s familiar subjects welcome viewers into the picturesque scenes, born naturally from the artist’s mundane life.

Regardless of the Western or the Eastern style, what is obvious in Lee’s works is that they carefully fulfill many expectations that mankind has sought in paintings. The oldest role of a painting may be to be able to appreciate and to take possession of the beautiful; Lee’s paintings are the collectives of the beautiful. The flowers are the most apparent visualization of the natural allure, and we find them in most of the artist’s paintings. Like the pages in a flower encyclopedia, an array of flowers such as, sunflowers, hydrangea, carnations, forsythia, daffodils, tulips, hyacinths, and poppies take the center of the frame or sit in a shelf of Chaekgeori, attracting our vision. The flowers have been carriers of significant meanings in art history, from the moment they appeared in religious paintings, still lifes or ‘The Four Gentlemen’ paintings. White flowers stand for chastity, red ones for sacrifice, withered ones for death, full-bloom for vanity. Paradoxical to their natural beauty, often they stand for warnings or threats as memento mori, coded and conventionalized.

However, strangely enough, Lee’s flowers come through purely as visual phenomena and delivery, unaffected by the historical weight of the symbolism. The flowers are vibrant and lush with the right amount of tension due to extremely realistic depiction; they come across as a scene unfolding in front of us, rather than as an individual shapes of blossoms. Owing to Lee’s sincere  brushworks, the expression seems to be testifying to the pure contours and colors of flowers, meticulous and straightforward. In a close inspection of p.3 A Chorus of Blessings (2024), the countless red-brown spots on the cream orchid petals are represented, as well as plum stripes on the white petals of the tiniest flowers, each the size of a tenth of an orchid bloom. The calm and stable atmosphere of the painting lets us take in the scene and makes us want to keep coming back to see the painting, while bringing our minds composure and pleasure. Such characteristics of Lee’s works is an unparalleled asset. Although the time never stops for anyone, the painting can capture the climactic moment when the flower bud opens to a full bloom, savoring the privilege of the medium that records and freezes time. Seeing the abundant blossom of the peonies gives one feeling of ampleness and the full-blown sunflowers transmit a sense of courage.

There are more elements of beauty than flowers; the carpets on the floor, ceramics used as vase with the extraordinary paintings on them, and a black and a brown cats. The presence of the ceramics with bright colorations sometimes dominates the scene even more than the flowers and the cats do. In p.12 Consolation 1 (2024), a white square vase on the table is from the collection of a historical mansion now registered as national heritage in Seoul; the vase is covered with an intricate painting of flowerand-bird scene with peony blossoms against the white surface. Centered in the middle of the painterly frame, its simple and sophisticated design and colors are accentuated by the void in the background and simply absorbs our attention. It is a miniature painting within a painting. As if to relay the flower-and-bird design of the vase, two sets of Royal Albertian teacups are each decorated with a red and a yellow wildflower painting. Next to them there is a catalogue of Frida Kahlo, with one of her paintings, Self-portrait with Monkeys (1940), on the cover as she stares out to the viewers. They all constitute paintings within a painting.

In p.13 Consolation 2 (2024), the vase holding a bouquet of bright pastel-toned roses is a treasured piece handed down from the artist’s mother. Against the vivid blue background, it features another flower-and-bird painting composed of a pair of mandarin ducks, peonies, and white plum blossoms. In front of it is a Wedgwood-style mug adorned with patterns of wild raspberries and grapes, comparing the ceramic painting styles of the East and the West. However, the charming flowers, the vase, and even the cat sitting on the sofa somehow seem to have relinquished their main roles in this piece. Maybe due to the surrounding empty wall space or the striking color contrast, our eyes naturally gravitate toward the top section of the background, above the bookshelf, where a poster of Matisse’s The Goldfish (1912) is painted. It makes one wonder if it is the same artist who meticulously depicted the bouquet of roses and the delicate fur of the cat, as the bold brushstrokes and color contrasts, characteristic reminiscent of Matisse’s Fauvist period, are revived, bringing to the scene an effective contrast. Although in the opposing direction, it seems as if the cat is glaring at the goldfish, adding to the enjoyment of finding out the various counter-balanced relationships within.

Since the artist adopted two cats, ‘Solar’ and ‘Sido’, in 2019, the presence of cats has become another indispensable item of beauty in Lee’s work. Flowers and pets are perhaps the best examples of perfect forms of living structures different than humans in our closest proximity. The cat’s shining eyes, pink nose, and the abundant fur covering its entire body are all forms derived from purpose, yet the artist seems to look at them with wonder and overflowing love. In recent works where the original circular or rectangular shapes of carpets become the shapes of the painterly support, compositions become a direct bird’s-eye-view, as if the viewer is looking down at the floor from above; here the cats lift their heads to look up amidst the ornate carpet, alongside casually placed catalogues or polished, gleaming, luscious fruits. As we gaze into this treasure box of joyful pictorial subjects—exotic patterns, paintings within painting on catalogue covers, and the charming cats—we find ourselves granting our hearts and facing these elements as if from an omnipotent vantage point, like someone watching over us from above.

Beyond appreciation and collection of the beauty, paintings also serve as a repository of memories and well wishes. In Lee’s Chaekgeori paintings, a variety of cultural and religious symbols are represented, from Michelangelo’s Pietà to Playmobil representations of Noah’s Flood, Russian Matryoshkas, and Yayoi Kusama’s yellow pumpkins. Even from Joseon Dynasty, Chaekgeori paintings have included images of new cultural products from Qing China, in the hope to gain a broader perspective, adding to the usual images of books that wished for promotion, well-being and longevity through study and cultivation. Moreover, images of potted plants for celebrating new beginnings, bouquets for ancestral rituals, fruits for family health, and images of exotic carpets sent by friends travelling are the motifs and driving forces behind the artist’s will to paint, even when she barely has time to hold brush between her daily routine. Images painted to wish for the well-being and for memories will endure as records even long after the original flowers, fruits, and items have disappeared. This is a critical role of art, guaranteeing permanence. Just as the peonies and poppies painted by Lee’s artist mother, Changwon Rho Sook Ja, bloom again in Lee’s works, prayers for loved ones, wishes for comfort, shared memories, and gratitude will be preserved like a time capsule with the beauty of the artwork, continued even beyond the artist’s generation.

For the artist who has consistently been painting since youth, the space within a painting plays a paramount role, both as a pictorial space and as an actual physical surface where she continues her existential role as an artist. Lastly, but perhaps most importantly for the artist, this is another function of the painting. It serves not only as a representational space for beauty, memories, wishes, or gratitude, but also as a flat sheet of paper where the artist who is a mother, daughter, wife, and teacher, without being buried in daily life, can demonstrate her skills honed over forty years. Being endowed with many roles is something to be grateful for, but as an artist whose working hours or daily productivity is not guaranteed, it can also be challenging and distracting. Lee wastes no time taking her brushes to go back to painting once in her studio; her sincerity and diligence to support it, as well as a steadfast will to continue her forty years of career are the best proofs to Lee’s talent. This is why the pictorial planar is a space of artistic achievement as well as psychological release, more crucial for her than any architectural space. ‘A room of one’s own,’ that the artistic predecessor Virginia Woolf has insisted on having, may be for Lee this space of painting, where she works to support her career as an artist, repeating her ritual of preparing, sketching, coloring to represent the beautiful in life.