top of page

Jiho Oh

吳之湖 오지호
Information

  Something that is consistently noticed in Jiho Oh’s works is that his endeavor to place himself as a true impressionist by utilizing the impressionist technique and trying even further beyond to assimilate that technique within Korean nature. Kyu Jeong (鄭圭) once critiqued Oh’s artworks as the one and only impressionist, which stems from the fact that the landscape paintings of other Korean painters do not transgress the limits of being a simple representation or falls into a bedizened sentimentality. Oh’s works, on the other hand, according to Jeong, “have finally set the Korean nature as an object of formation”. Jeong continues to praise Oh, saying his consistency is another reason that Oh could thrive as an impressionist. This becomes clear if we compare the early and late works of Jiho Oh. His works are unbelievably consistent: he begins an impressionist and ends an impressionist.

  Lots of painters have drawn with a motif of Korean nature. But Jeong’s content that they have merely depicted the nature with western techniques without perceiving the nature as an object of formation. This is to say that the techniques they learned were not good enough a catalyst to enable the artists to perceive and cognize the nature. This is why their nature was merely a motif, not a clairvoyance of formative object. A formative object here signifies an object that has been chosen as a methodology of formation; an object as a datum that corresponds the most to the formative methodology. In the case of Jiho Oh, the methodology is unsurprisingly an impressionist technique, and he was the first artist to realize that an object that corresponds the most is our nature.

  오지호의 작품들에 일관되고 있는 것은, 다른 인상파 기법을 도입하고 있는 작가들에 비해 단순히 기법으로 끝나지 않고 그것을 우리의 자연으로 소화하려는 부단한 노력에 의해 비로소 인상파다운 인상파 화가로서 자신을 세우고 있는 모습이다. 일찍이 鄭圭는 오지호의 예술을 두고 유일한 인상파라고 평가한 바 있는데, 그것은 다른 화가들에 의한 우리나라 풍경이 단순한 위재의 한계에서 벗어나지 못했거나 안이한 감상으로 빠지고 있음에 비해, 그는 "비로소 우리나라의 자연을 조형의 대상으로 삼은" 화가이기 때문이라고 하였다. 또, 그가 유일한 인상파 화가로서 남아날 수 있는 요인으로 "일관성"을 들고 있다. 오지호의 후기와 조기 작품을 비교해 보면, 가히 다른 어떤 작가에서도 그 유례를 볼 수 없을 정도로 일관돼 있다. 그는 인상파화가로서 출발하여 거기에서 한발자국도 벗어나지 않은 유일한 작가이다. 


  이미 많은 화가들이 우리나라의 자연을 모티브로 한 그림을 그렸었다. 그러나 그들은 단순히 익힌 새로운 서양화의 기법으로 그것을 묘사했을 뿐이지 조형의 대상으로서의 자각에까지는 이르지 못했다는 것이다. 말하자면 그들이 익힌 인상파의 기법으로 우리의 자연이 인식되고 지각되지는 못했다는 이야기이다. 따라서 그들이 그리는 자연은 조형의 대상으로서 투시된 것이 아니라 단순한 모티브로서의 자연에 지나지 않았다. 여기서의 조형의 대상이란 조형의 방법으로서의 선택된 대상이다. 즉 조형의 방법에 가장 상응되는 소여로서의 대상인 것이다. 오지호의 경우 이 방법은 다름 아닌 인상파의 방법이며, 이 방법에 가장 상응되는 것이 바로 우리의 자연이란 사실을 가장 먼저 깨달았다는 것이다. 이를 바꾸어서 말하면 우리의 자연에 가장 적절한 조형의 방법이 다름 아닌 인상파란 것을 오지호에 이르러 비로소 자각하게 되었다는 것이다.

Profile

1905 12월24일 전남 화순 출생
1931 일본 동경 미술학교 서양화과 졸업

개인전
2000  개인전 노화랑 
1996  회고전 예화랑 
1995  회고전 원화랑 
1994  회고전 데미화랑 
1994  회고전 광주 금호문화회관 
1990  회고전 송원화랑 
1988  회고전 광주 남봉미술관 
1985  회고전 국립현대미술관 
1973  개인전 현대화랑 

단체전
2006  예화랑 개관 28주년 특별기획전  예화랑
2001  조선화랑개관30주년 "70년대회화정신"전 조선화랑 
1998  아름다운성찬 국립현대미술관 
1997  한국근대미술:유화-근대를보는눈 국립현대미술관 
1997  반향 아트선재센터 
1992  국립현대미술관소장작가작품전 대구,강릉 
1992  한국근대미술명품전 호암갤러리 
1991  한국현대미술의한국성모색1부전 한원갤러리 
1987  한국인물화전 호암갤러리 
1986  한국현대미술의어제와오늘전 국립현대미술관 
1985  현대미술40년전 국립현대미술관 
1985  한국양화70년전 호암갤러리 
1982  3인전:오지호,김기창,변종하 예화랑 
1973  한국현역작가100인전 국립현대미술관 
1965  전남도전창설  
1954  불화제작 광주 원효사 
1946  3인전 :오지호,이인성,남관 신세계화랑 
1931  제2회 녹향회공모전 천주교기념관 
1930  제9회 조선미전 경복궁미술관 
1929  제1회 미협전  
1928  녹향회창립전  
1928  제7회 조선미전 경복궁미술관 

수상
1973 제8회 대한민국문화훈장모란상 정부 
1977 제22회 대한민국예술원상 예술원 
2002 문화훈장 금관장 문화관광부

bottom of page