Retrospective Witnessing: Paintings of Grievous Deaths in the Korean War

This article examines visual arts that represent the mass killings of unarmed civilians by the state before and during the Korean War (1950-1953). It analyses three South Korean artists, Kang Yo-bae, Suh Yongsun and Jeon Seung-il, who produced paintings that made direct reference to the grievous and unjust civilian deaths, a taboo subject that is still controversial in a society bound by the unfinished war. This article seeks to contribute to the critical inquiry into the long-delayed yet urgent issue of historical injustice from the perspective of visual representation. It draws attention to the following questions: how the artists establish relations with the violent past, vicariously and retrospectively; how they represent the grievous deaths in critical, imaginative and affective modes of visual expression; and how their paintings participate in a socially engaged act of ethical witnessing. The article further considers how their works are in dialogue with and simultaneously depart from the official investigative attempts in approaching the notion of truth. It argues that the paintings enact a communicative practice of mourning that mediates the living and the dead, without anticipating premature reconciliation.