Book excerpt: In recent years the increase in interest in Asian art has led to a number of books being published about Japanese and Chinese artists. However, the exciting Korean scene is still largely undocumented. Now Kim YoungNa reveals Korean modern and contemporary artists to the West. Twentieth-Century Korean Art provides a comprehensive, engaging survey that places emphasis on art historical narratives. It draws on primary sources and historical artefacts as well as on new interpretations of issues such as the identity of Korean art and the cultural ramifications of Japanese colonialism. Covering over one hundred year from the late 19th century through to the 1990s, the essays in this book examine how both external influences and wills-to-change within Korean society itself generated an artistic vitality against a shifting political, social, and cultural backdrop and how this necessarily involved East Asia at large and the West.