Bamboo in Wind

The scholar Kim Gyu-jin was one of the most famous of Korean amateur painters active inthe late Joseon Dynasty (1392–1910) and at the beginning of the Colonial Period,when Japan governed Korea (1910–1945). Like other literatus painters, Kim painted for leisure and self-cultivation and not for sale in the art market. He excelled at several painting genres—including colorful figural and decorative court subjects, as well as calligraphy—but is especially known for his monochrome ink paintings of plants rendered in nuanced shades of black.

Kim Gyu-jin was famous foremost as a painter of orchids and of bamboo. This hanging scroll of a single thick stalk of bamboo with delicate leaves tossed in the wind—brushed in stark black ink and nuanced shades of gray—is an especially energetic example of his work in this genre. It well represents the traditional association in East Asian lore of bamboo with loyalty and endurance because of the plant’s ability to bend in adversity without yielding and breaking.This subject was one of personal significance for Kim, who witnessed the end of Korean royal rule with the onset of Japanese occupation of his homeland in 1910.