Lee Qoede Beyond Eurocentrism: Mexican Muralist Parallels and Korean National Art

Volume 23, March 2026
by Jinyoung Anna Jin


Article Description

This essay by Jinyoung Anna Jin restores Lee Qoede to global modernism, as his artwork was marginalized and erased from official narratives after the Korean War. It argues that his vision of national art was shaped not by European models but by Mexican muralism, especially Diego Rivera and mediated through Kitagawa Tamiji. Through monumental scale, social realism, and collective narratives, Lee transformed Korean postcolonial experience into a transnational language of anti-imperialist solidarity across Mexico and East Asia.


Related Keywords

Jinyoung Anna Jin, Lee Qoede, Korean War, Korean art, Mexican art, Mexican moralism, Diego Rivera, Kitagawa Tamiji, social realism, postcolonialism, transnational language, leftist artistic solidarity, postwar reconstruction, Korean Buddhist gamno taenghwa scrolls, the 2025 symposium Art, War, and Revolution: Lee Qoede and the Global Currents of Muralism in Asia