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Park Seo-Bo
2025 Frieze Masters - 
        
Park Seo-Bo
Born in 1931, Gyeong-Buk, South Korea. Lived and worked in Seoul, South Korea. Died in 2023, South Korea.Park Seo-Bo was a seminal figure in Korean contemporary art. He was 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 surfaces. 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: Museum of Fine Art, Boston, United States; the Venice Biennale, Italy; Samsung Museum of Art, Seoul, South Korea; Singapore Art Museum, Singapore; Kunsthalle Wien, Vienna, Austria; Tate Liverpool, United Kingdom; Brooklyn Museum, New York, United States; and Expo 67, Montreal, Canada. Park's work is included in the collections of the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, United States; M+, Hong Kong, China; Guggenheim Abu Dhabi, UAE; The National Museum of Contemporary Art, Seoul, South Korea; and the K20, Kunstsammlung Nordrhein-Westfalen, Düsseldorf, Germany. - 
        
2025 Frieze Masters Presentation
At the 2025 Frieze Masters, Johyun Gallery presents an extensive overview of the artistic legacy of Park Seo-Bo, a leading figure in Korean art history and a seminal master of Dansaekhwa, encompassing works from his early Primordialis series through to the Ecriture series of the 1990s. This presentation begins with Primordialis No.4-63 (1963), which confronted the despair and existential turmoil of postwar Korean society, and moves through the straight-line Ecriture works that explored harmony with nature through repetitive gestures, the unique materiality of hanji paper, and restrained color palettes, culminating in the later Ecriture paintings of the 1990s. It highlights the trajectory of Park's practice from intense existential inquiry to a meditative and transcendent mode, inviting audience to engage with the shifts in his artistic language and the formal breakthroughs that defined his work. Ultimately, this presentation offers an opportunity to experience how Park Seo-Bo's work-shaped by the complex trajectory of modern Korean history-illuminates the distinctive aesthetics that Korean contemporary art has established within the discourse of global art history.
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                            Park Seo Bo
Primordialis No. 4-63, 1963
Oil on canvas
162 x 130 cm
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                            Park Seo Bo
Ecriture No.990407, 1999
Mixed media with Korean hanji paper on canvas
195 x 130 cm
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                            Park Seo Bo
Ecriture No.990301, 1999
Mixed media with Korean hanji paper on canvas
195 x 130 cm
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                            Park Seo Bo
Ecriture No.990307, 1999
Mixed media with Korean hanji paper on canvas
195 x 130 cm
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                            Park Seo Bo
Ecriture No.990422, 1999
Mixed media with Korean hanji paper on canvas
130 x 195 cm
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                            Park Seo Bo
Ecriture No.990407, 1999
Litho crayon, pencil and whiteout on paper
50.2 x 35.6 cm
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                            Park Seo Bo
Ecriture No.990301, 1999
Litho crayon, pencil and whiteout on paper
50.2 x 35.6 cm
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                            Park Seo Bo
Ecriture No.990307, 1999
Litho crayon, pencil and whiteout on paper
50.2 x 35.6 cm
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                            Park Seo Bo
Ecriture No.990422, 1999
Litho crayon, pencil and whiteout on paper
35.6 x 50.2 cm
 
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[2025 Frieze Masters] Park Seo-Bo
                    Past viewing_room