[Anchor] This week on Jeju: A to Z, Todd Thacker takes a brief look at Jeju artist Byun Shi-ji: his life, his painting, and his contributions to contemporary art.


[Report]
In 2013, Jeju lost one of its most revered artists. Byun Shi-ji, a painter who showed the world scenes of Jeju’s grassland, ponies, wind and sea, was 87 years old.

[Slug CG]
Byun Shi-ji (1926-2013)

Born in Seogwipo in 1926 and educated at the Osaka University of Arts, Byun’s time in Japan was formative. But it was there that he concluded Korea, and Jeju in particular, was his home.

He returned to Seoul in 1957 and spent the next 18 years painting landscapes, working on his Biwon, or Secret Garden, series at Changdeok Palace, and teaching art students.

[Slug CG]
Lived and worked in Japan, Seoul, and Jeju

He moved back to Jeju for good in 1975, taking a job as professor in the department of Fine Arts Education at Jeju National University.
Here he realized that Jeju’s rich light and the liveliness of nature filled him with a new kind of aesthetic inspiration, and he changed his painting style accordingly.

[Slug CG]
Jeju’s light and nature inspired a new style in his art

His later work is dominated by light yellows, sea and sky blues, and black lines reminiscent of Jeju basalt rock. Humans and nature are always one in his work.

Even though in the 1980’s he traveled and painted extensively in Europe, he still used this Jeju style in his work there. He is one of only two Korean artists on display at the Smithsonian.

[Slug CG]
Todd Thacker

Some of Byun’s artistic contributions are on permanent display at the Gidang Art Museum in Seogwipo. This is an excellent chance for viewers to see just how Jeju and its beauty was truly the muse of this great artist.
Todd Thacker KCTV