“Art history is so easy and fun!”
(_Recommended by Art Messenger and art educator Lee So-young)

50 million cumulative views, selected by 300,000 subscribers
The hot topic on YouTube [Grandma Art] is finally in a book!

Art is good, but still difficult
For all of us
The art-loving grandmother's famous painting class begins.

“Grandma is here~” People who had difficulty with art say that the moment they met ‘Grandma’ on YouTube, they nodded and burst out laughing.
This 'suspicious grandmother's' famous painting class, which begins with a lively and hearty first greeting, conveys art history that is easy to hear like news from a nearby neighborhood, and has recorded 300,000 subscribers and 50 million cumulative views.

《Grandma Went to the Art Museum》 is an art education book that puts that delightful lesson into book form.
From the Renaissance to modern art, the knowledge of art history spanning the ages is presented through the warm and profound perspective of a grandmother who loves art.


“Now that the concept of light and shade is taken for granted, who was the greatest genius in human history to first incorporate ‘shadow’ into a painting?”
“What secrets were hidden in the color ‘green’ that Van Gogh immersed himself in throughout his life?”
“There is an artist who paints only with 1mm dots for fear of the colors becoming muddy?”
“Why was Manet, one of the greatest artists in the history of art, so spectacularly eliminated from the greatest art competition of the 19th century?”

As you turn each page, as if you were reading a mystery novel uncovering hidden truths, the complex history of art will soon become knowledge that you will remember for a lifetime.


As one reader confessed, "It was a manuscript that made me laugh but then suddenly touched my heart," this book tells the story of the not-so-smooth lives hidden behind the bright names of Monet, Degas, Renoir, and Frida Kahlo.
Their paintings, rather, helped us endure that life, and with that power, they continue to comfort us even today.
Grandma greets these painters with “thank you” and speaks affectionately to us, the readers, with “it’s okay.”
Like our maternal grandmother, paternal grandmother, Cinderella's fairy godmother, and Harry Potter's Professor McGonagall, the image of a grandmother we remember fondly lives on in this book.
Sometimes strict, sometimes warm.
Above all, he makes people laugh by calling them “our puppies” in a very affectionate tone.

"Grandma Went to the Art Museum" is a work that combines self-understanding commentary and impressive stories that illuminate life.
Let's encounter the profound knowledge we need right now, conveyed through beautiful pictures, in this book.

Grandma said there was one thing she regretted in life.
I wish I had had something like a cell phone when I was young.
Long, long ago, before there were even cameras, let alone cell phones, group portraits were popular in 17th-century Netherlands.
When there was an important meeting or event, a painter was called in to capture the scene in a painting.
The cost of commissioning a single portrait was so exorbitant that it easily exceeded the price of an ordinary house, so people would pool their money together to have a commemorative photo of themselves together.
So, many group portraits painted during that time remain, and the most famous of them is “Night Watch.”
--- p.25

“What do people think I am? A worthless being, a weirdo, or an unpleasant person.
In short, an existence below the lowest level.
okay.
Even if that's true, I hope to one day show through my work what's inside the minds of such eccentrics, such insignificant beings."

As Van Gogh wrote in his letters, the cypress tree was something that no one particularly recognized for its aesthetic value, to the point that it had never been properly featured in a painting.
But in fact, it had amazing beauty within it.

--- p.53

Sargent, who was able to draw Madame Gotro, whom he had longed for so much, poured all his energy into creating the masterpiece of his life.
The process was so arduous that Sargent confided to a friend, “Madame Gotreaux is so terribly lazy that I can’t fully capture her beauty.”

After two years of hard work, they finally found a pose that was both elegant and sensual.
Both he and Madame Gautreau, who submitted the painting to the Paris Salon in 1884, had no doubt that it would be applauded.
However, contrary to expectations, this work was met with fierce criticism as soon as it was displayed at the Salon.
The problem was the shoulder straps of the dress in the picture.

--- p.123

Le Brun had an intuition that public opinion was not good.
It is said that he abandoned his position as a royal painter and his luxurious mansion in Paris, and ran away from France holding his young daughter's hand.
Considering that most of those who remained lost their lives on the revolutionary guillotine, Le Brun's decision at this time was a frighteningly wise choice.
Even though she wandered as a foreigner, she never put down her brush for a single moment.


My grandmother said that when she was young, she had a hard time mustering up the courage to take on exciting challenges.
That's why I think Le Brun, who chose and pioneered his own life, is truly amazing.

--- p.151