In the late decade of 1930, under the Japanese Imperialism, the Korean abstract art which was formed with affection by Japan and Europe. They say the early Korean abstract art is colonized, from a point that it derives from exterior impact. And they say also it is colonized not to be related to the representation of their own life world. On the other hand, the early Korean abstract art in 1930s is told as the prehistory of ‘Korean Modernism in Art’, which flourished in 1970s followed ‘Informal Art Movement’ in the late 1950s. Because the status of abstract art in 1930s was not more than a germ of ‘Korean Modernism in Art’, while they understand until 1950s as a period dominated by representational art based on Chosun Exhibition or Korean National Exhibition, the period until 1970s as a period ruled by abstract art which was accepted as ‘Korean Modernism in Art’, and the period after 1980s as a period by Min-jung Art and Post-Modernism Art. However, the historical value of Korean Abstract Art in 1930s cannot be passed over, if not trying to understand the development of ‘Korean Modernism in Art’ especially focusing on not their own history but the impact of Western and Japanese art. In the late colonial period, the Korean early abstract art was the strongest utterance of the time paradoxically, even if not related much to optical representation of the Korean subjectivity. Therefore the existing viewpoints about the early Korean abstract art should be changed.

1. 들어가며  
2. 추상미술의 기원에 관한 스케치  
3. 재현ㆍ추상, 발언ㆍ침묵  
4. 추상과 '침묵'의 담론적 가치  
5. 맺으며  
참고문헌  
Abstract

• 이인범(한예종 한국예술연구소 수석연구원) | Ihn-bum Lee