Historians have claimed that when social stability returned to Korea after devastating invasions by the Japanese and Manchus around the turn of the seventeenth century, the late Choson dynasty was a period of unprecedented economic and cultural renaissance, in which prosperity manifested itself in new programs and styles of visual art. A New Middle Kingdom questions this belief, claiming instead that true-view landscape and genre paintings were likely adopted to propagandize social harmony under Choson rule and to justify the status, wealth, and land grabs of the ruling class. This book also documents the popularity of art books from China and their misunderstanding by Koreans and, most controversially, Korean enthusiasm for artistic programs from Edo Japan, thus challenging academic stereotypes and nationalistic tendencies in the scholarship about the Choson period. As the first truly interdisciplinary study of Korean art, A New Middle Kingdom points to realities of late Choson society that its visual art seemed to hide and deny.

A William Sangki and Nanhee Min Hahn Book

About the Author

J. P. Park is associate professor in the history of art at the University of Oxford, UK. He is the author of Art by the Book: Painting Manuals and the Leisure Life in Late Ming China and Keeping It Real: Korean Artists in the Age of Multi-Media Representation.

Reviews

"Offers penetrating analyses of the paintings of the period by foregrounding sociological and cultural aspects of the time. . . . Including appropriate illustrations, notes, and a glossary, this is a good source for specialists interested in this relatively brief historical era."

* Choice *

"Richly detailed, comprehensively resourced, and meticulously researched . . . call[s] into question existing narratives on Choson painting by reading artworks in consideration of their collective agency and their roles in negotiating values, taste, and status at a critical historical juncture. [A New Middle Kingdom] will hence contribute significantly to the literature and ultimately enrich scholarly discussion of early modernity in East Asia."

* Journal of Asian Studies *

"Questioning standard paradigms in the field and investigating unexplored issues, Park discusses in detail the roles of societal transformation, political ideology, and historical conflict in the making of paintings and the formation of visual culture...The wealth of material and the comprehensive coverage make this an absorbing book...a highly articulate, impressive study."

* The Art Bulletin *


Awards
Winner of Charles Rufus Morey Book Award 2020 (United States).



Book Information
ISBN 9780295743257
Author J. P. Park
Format Hardback
Page Count 296
Imprint University of Washington Press
Publisher University of Washington Press
Weight(grams) 1134g