천경자 千鏡子
Painter known for flowers and women; professor at Hongik University; member of the National Academy of Arts
| Life | 1924 ~ 2015 |
| Era | 대한민국 |
| Clan | 영양 천씨 |
Life & career
Chun Kyung-ja (千鏡子, 1924-2015) was a Korean painter whose birth name was Cheon Ok-ja (千玉子), changed to Gyeong-ja during her study in Tokyo. Wikipedia's classification and clan introductions list her under the Yeongyang Cheon. She was born on 11 November 1924 in Goheung, South Jeolla, and died in New York on 6 August 2015 at 90; her death was announced in October 2015.
She graduated from Goheung public school and Gwangju girls' high school, studied art at the Tokyo Women's Art School, and completed a course at the Académie Goetz in Paris. Works that were accepted at exhibitions include Grandfather (1942) and Old Man (1943), and she painted Ecology (1953), Circle (1962), Sister Gilye (1973), Page 22 of My Sad Legend (1977), Prairie II (1978), Rain of Gold (1982) and The Curtain Falls (1989). Prairie II sold for 1.2 billion won in 2009, a record.
She taught at Hongik University's college of fine arts from 1954 to 1973, joined the Vietnam War as a war artist in 1972, and from her late forties to early seventies made twelve overseas sketching trips, pioneering the "Chun Kyung-ja genre painting". She was a National Academy of Arts member from 1978, won its award in 1979 and the Silver Crown Order of Cultural Merit in 1983, donated 93 works to the Seoul Museum of Art in 1998, and in 2007 the Chun Kyung-ja Exhibition Hall opened in her hometown Goheung.
Chun Kyung-ja Genre Painting
Chun Kyung-ja built a distinctive style from the scenery and customs gathered on her overseas sketching trips. Symbols such as flowers, women and snakes are introduced as recognizable features of her paintings.
The Beauty Painting Dispute
In 1991 the authenticity of Beautiful Woman in the National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art was disputed. Chun insisted it was not hers, but the Korea Art Dealers Association's appraisal committee judged it genuine in 1991 and the museum kept that position. She then resigned from the Academy and left for America. A forger's claim in 1999 and a French expert team's 2016 forgery report followed, but the museum rebutted them. Opinion remains divided, so no conclusion is drawn.
Remembered in Her Hometown
The Chun Kyung-ja Exhibition Hall opened in her hometown Goheung in 2007, and Goheung County held a special exhibition for her centennial in 2024.