Park Seo-Bo | Artist Interview

December 19, 2021

Park Seo-Bo is a seminal figure in Korean contemporary art. He is one of the founding members of the Dansaekhwa movement, which emerged in the early 1970s post-war Korea and has since gained international recognition. In the late 1960s, Park began the ‘Ecriture’ series by repeating pencil lines over wet monochromatic painted surface. Later, he expanded the language through the introduction of hanji (traditional Korean paper) and color. The work is brought into being through the process of repetitive actions of pasting, scraping, scratching, and rubbing. It delicately balances drawing and painting in a quest for emptiness through reduction.

Park’s work has been exhibited internationally, including: Langen Foundation, Neuss; Museum of Fine Art, Boston; the Venice Biennale; Samsung Museum of Art, Seoul; Portland Museum of Art, Oregon; Singapore Art Museum; Kunsthalle Wien, Vienna; Tate Liverpool, UK; Brooklyn Museum, New York; and Expo 67, Montreal. Park’s work is included in the collections of the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Washington; Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York; M+, Hong Kong; Guggenheim Abu Dhabi, UAE; The National Museum of Contemporary Art, Seoul; and the K20, Kunstsammlung Nordrhein-Westfalen, Duesseldorf.