A beautiful hand-coloured woodblock by Pae Un Song (1900-1978) from our Koryo Studio collection, signed but not dated.

He is regarded as one of the most significant Korean modern artists in history and the first to study abroad.

Pae Un Song was born in the south of Korea but during the Korean War, he defected to the north. 

Artwork Summary

Frank Hoffman is a specialist in the artist and his summary makes for fascinating reading.

“He earned several international awards and his works, mainly woodcuts, were reproduced in a number of leading European fashion and art journals. Also he worked for the Japanese Embassy and the German-Japanese Society in Berlin, and was one of a handful of Asian artists to have been published in Nazi publications as late as 1937; he may have been the only Korean ever to have had the dubious honour of having a private audience with Hitler.

Then, he married a German woman of an aristocratic family (von Wrede) with whom he had a daughter. Eventually, they emigrated to France, where he subsequently deserted his family to return to Korea in 1941. After Liberation, Pae became the first dean of the Art Department of what is now Hongik University in Seoul. He remarried a young leftist Korean woman and withdrew to the North during the Korean War.

From 1951 to 1956 Pae worked as a professor at the Pyŏngyang University of Fine Arts. He also worked at the Kaesŏng Fine Arts School, but around 1970 he was arrested for allegedly spying for the Americans. He was rehabilitated shortly thereafter but was forced to move to Sinŭiju, where his family still lives today. In his later years, he was honoured with the highest art prizes.”

Koryo Studio
North Korean Art