Fig. 37. Lee Yootae (이유태 李惟台, 1916–1999). A Pair of Figures—Composing a Verse in Response (인물일대 [人物一對]— 화운 [和韻]), 1944. Ink and color on paper, 825/8 × 581/2 in. (210 × 148.5 cm). National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Korea Commonly referred to as Seonjeon, this annual national These two paintings complicate the categories in salon was the most important art show in Korea at the which women and art were placed. As art historian Joan time. A Pair of Figures—Composing a Verse in Response Kee aptly states, “the deliberate presentation of the seems to be the antithesis of A Pair of Figures—Inquiry. works as a diptych made palpable what the poet and A woman in a hanbok is seated in a stately interior with essayist Mo Yun- suk described as the price of being a Asian- and Western-inspir ed furniture, a grand piano, and ‘modern woman’: ‘we have to carry out the duties of the lush peonies. Her hair is parted at the side and neatly housewife as well as work as professionals in the public swept behind her ears. She rests her chin on the back of realm.’”�� Is this the beginning of the superwoman type, intertwined hands and appears lost in thought. From the when multiple roles are a requirement and the perfor- title, she is likely thinking about her hwaun, a verse mance of those roles determines a woman’s legitimacy composed in response to a poem. On the surface, this and worth? seems to be a painting of a “traditional” woman. Yet as in The colonization of Korea by Japan had an indelible A Pair of Figures—Inquiry, there are subtle nods to the impact on art, not only on production but also on the present moment of change. The eclectic assortment of manner in which it was viewed, interpreted, and catego- furniture is a coexistence of old and new. The piano, rized.�� A昀琀er liberation in 1945, the Korean peninsula undoubtedly an emblem of wealth, is a Western instru- became a site of Cold War geopolitics, and the subse- ment that signals new forms of learning and even quent Korean War caused destruction to a degree that Christianity, since many churches had pianos. had never before been experienced. 35