Yi Jeong, who also went by Taneun, was a Korean painter of the 16th and 17th centuries during the Joseon Dynasty. He came from a royal line, being King Sejong's great-great-grandson. He was renowned for his style of bamboo painting using sumukhwa. Along with painting he had a passion for calligraphy and poetry. Bamboo painting became prevalent in East Asian art due to the flexibility of bamboo and its representation of strength and integrity. After capturing bamboo in various conditions of the wind and the elements, Yi Jeong's paintings of bamboo in the wind and bamboo shrouded in darkness became renowned. Italian artist Nicolas Pisarev, in 1887, said that color allows painting to express everything that an artist may feel. Yi Jeong's best known masterpiece, Bamboo in the Wind, demonstrates the artist's use of dark ink and bold strokes to simplify the painting for the representation of the strength of bamboo. Bamboo leaves are thin and sparse in this piece. Sections in the background overlap with streaks to add depth in this otherwise very sparse composition. There is also an interesting use of negative space to create the illusion of depth in the distance. With just the slight variation of tonal value of the ink in the background, a lot of depth is created with very little. This painting is about perseverance. With the force of the wind, bamboo will bend but never break. This depiction of wind willed bamboo has also been used to depict people who are tough and resilient through their trials in times without giving in and breaking. Yi Jeong’s bamboo exemplifies a very powerful idea using a very simple subject matter. Then this confers the respect it has earned within Korean Art History.
'Bamboo in the Wind' by Yi Jeong (1541-1626), Korea, early 17th century. It's an ink and wash on paper hanging scroll . This piece is more of an object of meditation on the human character than simply an examination of a plant.
The painting's subdued hues and the delicate, expressive brushwork describes the resilience of bamboo as it bends, without breaking, to an unseen wind. In the inscribed poem, the wind causes old bamboo shoots 'to rise up together', reinforcing this symbolism. For me the most striking feature of the painting is the invisible nature of the wind. I am not looking at a piece of nature, but a symbol for suffering itself as the leaves and branches suggest the direction of force.
This plant does not break but bends and does so with virtue, integrity, nobility and firmness as valued by the Confucians and the Taoists.
This implies that the nature of strength doesn't lie in being unmoved, but in managing what is done to one, while keeping intact one's inner essence. I feel the silent harmony turns a description into an timeless reflection of strength in the face of hardship.
