Pon-ung Ku

Ku Ponung (; 1906 – 1953) was a Korean modernist painter associated with Fauvism.

Early life and education Ku Ponung was born in 1906 to a wealthy family. He attended Gyeongsin High School and Goryeo Art school. During this period, he studied under Ko Hui Dong, the first Korean Western style oil painter, and Na Hye-Sok, a korean feminist poet and artist. He then moved to Japan to continue his education in the Art Department of Nihon University and the Pacific Art school, located in Tokyo. Nihon University had a less strictly academic approach to art education than other institutions. it provided a broader liberal arts education and attracted a more stylistically and ideologically diverse student body.

Career After completing his studies in Japan, Ku Ponung moved back to Korea. He was part of an emerging social scene of artists dissatisfied with the strict academic style mandated by the Joseon Art Exhibition, the major Korean Exhinition, sponsored by the colonial Japanese government. The forum for this emergent culture were the coffee houses in Seoul which sought to emulate Parisian coffee houses and salons. These establishments played western Jazz and classical music and hosted art exhibitions. They were a central meeting place for artists are writers to exchange ideas and support each other's work.

Ku Ponung had a publishing house called Changmunsa, established in 1923. Through Changmunsa he published Yi Sang's writing.

Legacy and death Ku Ponung has been remembered as significant figure in the history of Korean contemporary art. MMCA exhibited Portrait of a Friend in 2021 in an exhibition entitled "Encounters Between Korean Art and Literature in the Modern Age”. Ku Ponung died in 1953 during the Korean War. Most of his paintings were lost or destroyed.