이 논문은 이응노(1904~1989)의 전주시기(1926~1936)를 '생계를 위한 간판쟁이 시절'로 규정해온 선행연구에 의문을 제기하고, 개척사(開拓社)가 상공업 예술화론의 실천 기지였을 가능성을 탐색한다. 1929년 『조선일보』 「전주발전기념호」는 이응노를 '예술의 실재화'를 몸소 실천하는 인물로 조명했다. 이 논문은 이를 김복진의 「상공업과 예술의 융화점」(1923), 심영섭의 「상공업과 미술」(1932), 김찬영의 「개척생활」(1921)로 이어지는 당대 예술론의 맥락에서 독해한다. 개척사 시기에 수신한 엽서에 따르면, 개척사는 간판 제작을 넘어 작품 위탁 판매, 화보 유통, 박람회 공간 조성, 간판업자 양성이라는 복합적 기능을 수행했다. 이 논문은 개척사를 둘러싼 물질적 흔적들을 새롭게 독해함으로써, 이응노의 전주시기를 예술과 노동, 상업과 사회운동이 교차한 독자적인 실천의 시간으로 복원하고자 한다.

This paper questions the prevailing view that Lee Ungno’s(1904~1989) Jeonju period(1926~1936) amounted to little more than sign painting for subsistence, and explores the possibility that Gaecheoksa (開拓社) functioned as a practical base for the commercialization of art in the 1920s and 1930s. The 1929 special edition of the Chosun Ilbo commemorating Jeonju’s development portrayed Lee Ungno as an artist who embodied the “realization of art” through paint-covered labor. This paper reads that characterization not as a human-interest anecdote but as the language of a contemporary socialist art theory uniting labor and artistic practice. Kim Bokjin’s “The Fusion Point of Commerce and Art” (1923) and Shim Yeong-seop’s “Commerce and Art” (1932) provided the theoretical framework for artists to intervene directly in commercial life, while Kim Chan-young’s “Pioneering Life” (Gaebyeok, 1921) demonstrates that gaecheok (開拓) functioned not merely as a commercial label but as an ideological language defining the artist’s social practice. According to postcards received during the Gaecheoksa period, the establishment performed multiple functions beyond sign production: consignment of artworks, brokerage of antique paintings, distribution of art publications, construction of exhibition spaces, and training of sign painters. By re-reading the material traces surrounding Gaecheoksa—postcards, advertisements, and newspaper articles—this paper seeks to restore Lee Ungno’s Jeonju period not as a time of preparation or dormancy, but as a distinctive site of practice at the intersection of art, labor, commerce, and social movement.