Classification of Korean Paintings in Korean Folk Paintings

Generally speaking, Korean paintings include jujube pure paintings and "practical" paintings. Although there is no truly pure, academic painting, and there is no completely "practical" painting, it is often divided in the minds of artists, art historians, connoisseurs and art dealers. Confucian scholars have always despised colorful popular paintings based on folk activities, which is the fundamental reason why unsigned "practical" paintings are regarded as low-level art forms.

In this case, the meaning of "practicality" is very broad. "Practical" paintings include paintings drawn for various special festivals throughout the year according to ancient Korean customs, such as the first day of the first lunar month, beginning of spring, and the fifth day of May. From these ancient recorded and preserved paintings, we can see that most of them contain symbols of longevity, symbols of luck and various guardian images to ward off evil spirits. In this sense, these paintings have useful and even magical practicability.

In the past, scholars who advocated Confucianism in South Korea almost classified calligraphy made by the literati bachelor class to show their talents as folk paintings, which did not belong to the upper class, nor to the scholar style or Zen paintings. However, many of these paintings are not folk paintings in other parts of the world at all. Folk paintings in other parts of the world refer to paintings drawn by amateur painters in a simple form, not to mention the laws of any art school.