Ilrang (一浪) Lee Jong-sang, the painter who created the currency portraits of Shin Saimdang and Yulgok Yi I, has died. He was 88.
Born in 1938 in Yesan, South Chungcheong, he majored in Oriental painting in the Department of Painting at Seoul National University. While still in college in 1961, he submitted Smith (匠), a depiction of a blacksmith's scene, to the National Art Exhibition of the Republic of Korea and won a special prize, and after winning special prizes three years in a row, he became the youngest recommended artist. He studied Eastern philosophy at Dongguk University and earned a doctorate.
He regarded tradition not as a past style to be preserved but as a starting point to push forward anew. He experimented with materials and techniques such as jangji paper and oil-and-pigment painting, and interpreted Korea's nature and spirit in a modern plastic language. Through his Archetypal Image series, which explored the origins of humans, nature, and the universe, and through modern jingyeong that revived traditional landscapes with today's gaze, he broadened the realm of Korean painting. A lifelong theme was the "autochthony of Korean art," the idea that modernity should be found in Korea's own history and materials without trailing Western art.
For him, currency portraits were not mere designs. In a 2009 interview with The Chosun Ilbo, he said, "Currency is a national common asset and cultural value used for 30 to 50 years," adding, "The people's pride is embedded in currency." He also produced many standard portraits of historical figures, including Ureuk, King Gwanggaeto, the Buddhist monk Wonhyo, and Jang Bogo. Beginning in 1977, he visited Dokdo for decades, painting rocks, waves, and sunrises while carrying out the "Dokdo culture planting movement."
He served as a professor at Seoul National University and director of the Seoul National University Museum, and was elected to the National Academy of Arts in 2004.
The funeral hall is at the Korea University Anam Hospital funeral home, and the burial is at 8 a.m. on Sept. 11.