Bamboos in Wind

Kim Jin-woo (Korean, 1883–1950)

1934

Medium
Ten-panel folding screen; ink on paper
Classification
Painting
Dimensions
Each panel: 128.9 x 33 cm (50 3/4 x 13 in.); Each panel framed: 194.3 x 47.6 cm (76 1/2 x 18 3/4 in.)
Culture
Korea, Japanese colonial period (1910−1945)
Museum
Cleveland Museum of Art, Korean Art
Credit line
Severance and Greta Millikin Purchase Fund
Rights
Public domain (CC0), as the museum states it.
Who can see it
Teens profiles and older: its museum says too little about what it shows to place it for younger viewers. How works are placed

View at the Cleveland Museum of Art

About this work

Active during the Japanese colonial period in Korea (1910–45), the artist Jin-woo Kim earned his artistic reputation for his expressive renditions of bamboo swaying in a strong wind. His piercing bamboo shoots are often compared to an iron spear, and their sharp leaves to a knife. It is believed that he deliberately emphasized sharpness in his brushstrokes to express his strong resistance against Japanese colonial oppression.