Geuriun Geumgangsan*

Jeong Seon created landscape paintings using his own realistic or ‘true-view’ style. The Geumgangjeondo (Complete Landscape of Geumgang Mountains) depicts all 12,000 peaks of the mountain by condensing the landscape of the inner area of the range into a circular composition using the bird’s eye view technique.

I heard about Geumgang Mountain many times from my father and grandmother who were from Pyeongyang. I found Geumgangjeondo by Jeong Seon in the catalogue of the Kansong Art Museum, by its director Wan Choi, while looking for materials in preparation for an exhibition in 2010.

I reexamined the meaning of his ‘true-view’ landscape, and contemplated the sincerity of the master who honestly expressed his feelings, disregarding the traditional conventions of the literati, the style of the aristocracy