Starting from July 15^th to July 20^th of this year, the Danwon Art Festival (단원미술제) will take place in the city of Ansan (안산). Ansan is in the district of Danwon (단원구), which is located in Gyeonggi Province (경기도). The District of Danwon is named after the famed Korean painter Danwon, whose real name was Kim Hongdo (김홍도). Danwon was his pen name and he painted daily scenes from everyday life. This kind of painting where he portrayed regular people at work was unprecedented for the time.

His collection of paintings is called Danwon pungsokdo cheop (단원풍속도첩). These paintings are still valued by scholars, because they depict mundane activities that were carried out in Joseon Korea (1392-1897). These paintings are important because they serve to illustrate Korean culture and history. Thanks to Danwon’s work, we now have a record of the activities that took place in that era. I’m more appreciative of the era that I live in because looking at these paintings makes me realize how hard life was back then.

For example, this painting shows people plowing a rice field. It’s titled “논갈이”. If I want rice I can just go to the grocery store to get it, but back then I would probably have had to grow my own rice. As you can see in the picture, there is a man with his shirt off and his pants rolled up to his knee. It must have been terribly hot and difficult to do this kind of work. There is also a man using two oxen and an interesting looking plow.

One of the more well-known paintings from this collection is that of a Seodang (서당). A seodang was a type of school in Joseon Korea. The teacher or hoonjang (훈장) is in the center, with students on both sides of him. The man with the desk is the teacher because he has a distinctive hat on. This type of hat was reserved only for scholars and teachers. If you look closely there is a faint line representing a long stick. This kind of stick was used for corporal punishment.

Here is a picture of Ssireum (씨름), which is a form of wrestling that is still somewhat practiced today. You can see that the two men wrestling in the center have their shoes off. There is also a man with a box strapped to his shoulders. He is most likely selling snacks to the onlookers. Just think how similar it was back then to the sports events that we have today. Today we also have spectators and people trying to sell drinks and snacks to the spectators.

This is not an exhaustive list of all the paintings that Danwon painted. You can view copies of these paintings up close at the Danwon Art Festival, so be sure to go!