Yi Eungro

His works also gained opportunities to open art exhibition in Pyeongyang and he could eventually reunite his son. In 1989, his first exhibition in Seoul was held, whereas South Korean authorities rejected his visit in the end. Unfortunately, he died of heart attack at the opening day of this exhibition not to visit his motherland ever after.

The political scandal crippled his relationship with Korean artists later on, limiting his works to be initiated in France, Switzerland, Japan, United States and Belgium. Although he managed to hold his private art exhibition in 1975, he never came back to Korea since another political scandal ruined his stay in South Korea, which resulted in gaining French citizenship in 1983.

He went back and forth from East Germany to meet his son who fell apart during Korean War, which involved him in a political scandal in 1967 which caught up tens of Koreans living in Europe under the suspicion that they spied for North Korean authorities. After two and a half years, French government supported him to be released and he headed to France after this incident.

Oriental art institute was established in Musée Cernuschi as of 1964 by himself to instruct Four gentlemen and Asian calligraphy to Europeans. After coming back from jail in South Korea, he focused on abstract paintings making use of letters. Since calligraphy is totally different from western art, he tried to maximize artistic viewpoints based on Asian philosophy.

After leaving for France in 1958, he was influenced by Art Informel and European abstractionism. This enabled him to gain a reputation for modern painting skills using Korean traditional materials. He signed a contract with Galerie Facchetti in Paris and held an exhibition on collage. 1965 São Paulo international biennale gave him a bigger reputation as a painter in France.

He organized a group of artists named Dangu to sweep away the remnants of colonial rules from Japan and pursue a creative style of Korean arts. In 1948, he was seated as a dean of Hongik University in Seoul.

He learned how to paint and become concentrated on art work under Kim gyujin who was a famed calligrapher in Hanyang, current Seoul. Kim taught Yi about Four Gentlemen, Ink wash painting. Next year, he was accepted to the art exhibition of Chosun, under the title of Mukjuk(inkwashing bamboo) and then graduated from Gawabata Art school which was shut down during Pacific War. He went to study in Japan under 松林桂月, a Japanese painter, expanding knowledge about western paintings and skills. In 1938, he continued to be accepted in several art exhibitions in Japan and Shenzhen, China.

Yi Eungro (in Hangul:이응로, in Hanja:李應魯, or Ung-no Lee; January 12, 1904 – January 10, 1989) was a Korean-born French painter whose works were chiefly focused on Eastern art, Korean paintings and printmaker. He was born in Hongseong County, Chungcheongnam-do and spent his childhood in Yesan county.