Park Seo-bo (; 15 November 1931 – 14 October 2023) was a South Korean painter known for his "Écriture" series (1967 onwards), involvement in the Korean Art Informel movement, and particular formal concerns around painting that have led critics and art historians to identify him as a leading Dansaekhwa artist.
Park was part of the first generation of artists to begin building their careers in the wake of the Korean War after growing up under Japanese colonial rule, having their study interrupted by the outbreak of the Korean War, and surviving the conflict. Much of Park's early work emerged in response to his own experiences at the time.
After graduating from Hongik University, Park was very much on the social and art world periphery as both a draft dodger hiding under a new name (changed from Park Jae-hong), and ardent critic of the National Art Exhibition (Kukjeon for short). Park joined the Contemporary Artists Association (Hyeondae Misul Hyeohoe) in 1957, and became one of the main figures in the Korean Art Informel movement along with others in the association. Park sought to conceptually and materially challenge assumptions around painting at the time through his abstract paintings that experimented with texture, color, material, line, and shape. The main focus of his practice for over his last half century was exploring the formal possibilities for painting through an emphasis on process, and deemphasis on artistic intention in his "Écriture" series.
Increasing opportunities to write about foreign artists and travel abroad also compelled Park to take an active role advocating for the promotion of Korean contemporary art on a local and global scale. Park's mentorship of students at Hongik, curation of shows featuring emerging avant-garde artists, and work at the Korean Fine Arts Association (KFFA) played a crucial role in supporting generations of contemporary Korean artists. His work at the KFFA in particular was central to the development of Dansaekhwa.
After founding the Seo-bo Art and Cultural Foundation in 1994, Park passed on leadership to his son in 2014. He had his most recent retrospective at the National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Korea (MMCA) in 2019, and there are now two museums dedicated to his work. Park worked and lived in Yeonhui-dong, Seoul.
Early life Park was born in Yecheon County, Keishōhoku-dō (North Gyeongsang Province), Korea, Empire of Japan on November 15, 1931. He was the third of eight children to father Park Jaehun and mother Nam Kimae. He was originally named Park Jae-hong, but began using the name Park Seo-bo in 1955 to avoid military conscription. In 1934, his family moved from Yecheon to Anseong in Gyeonggi Province. It was there that his father started to work as a local solicitor out of their house.
As a child, Park loved drawing. He spent much of his time copying paintings by Korean artists like Kim Eun-ho. Although his father wanted him to study law, Park insisted on continuing to pursue art in school.Park Seo-Bo: The Untiring Endeavorer, exh. cat. (Seoul: National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, 2019).
Education
Hongik University (1950–1955) In spite of his father's opposition, Park enrolled at the College of Fine Arts at Hongik University to study Korean Painting under the tutelage of Yi Eungro. However, his freshman year was interrupted by the outbreak of the Korean War. He narrowly survived the war, dealing with the abrupt passing of his father, drafts both by North Korean and South Korean forces, and a long winter spent evacuating from his hometown Anseong to Masan on foot.
Due to the war, Hongik temporarily moved to Busan, thus making it possible for Park to return to school in 1952. In order to support himself, Park sold portraits to US soldiers on the street and in restaurants, but did not make enough to feed and house himself. He often slept in empty classrooms, and had to rely on others to buy him meals. He scavenged materials from garbage bins and stole soy sauce packets from Chinese restaurants to paint with.Park Seo-bo, interview on "The World" (WGBH/BBC Radio, Boston), May 29, 2008.
As a second-year student, he changed his major to Western Painting because none of his professors from the department of Korean Painting remained. He studied under Kim Whanki before graduating in 1955. However, Park never attended the graduation ceremony. In order to avoid the military draft, he changed his name to Park Seo-bo. He was on the run until he won his case against the military on 16 May 1961.
Lee Bongsang Painting Institute (1957) Park joined the institute in Anguk-dong, Seoul. Artists like Bang Geuntaek, Kim Tschang-Yeul, and Ha In-doo frequented the institute, collectively becoming known as the "Anguk school."
Career Contemporary Artists Association (Hyeondae Misul Hyeohoe) (1957–1958) Park joined the Contemporary Artists Association in 1957, which included artists like Kim Tschang-yeul, Jang Seong-sun, Ha In-doo, and Kim Seo-bong. Art historian Kim Youngna identifies the group as the second generation of the Korean avant-garde, preceded by artists like Kim Whanki and Mun Haksu whose work was largely informed by artistic trends in Japan. In contrast, the younger generation of artists looked towards the European and American art worlds.Kim Youngna, 20th Century Korean Art (London: Lawrence King, 2005). Many of them were also part of the first generation of artists to graduate from art schools established after Liberation.
Korean Art Informel Movement In spite of the limited information on Art Informel in Europe and Abstract Expressionism in the US that was available in Korea, the artists in the Contemporary Artists Association spearheaded the Korean Art Informel movement. Park rejected the linkage between the Korean Art Informel movement and its overseas counterpart,"1950 nyeondae ui han'guk misul (Korean Art of the 1950s)," Han'guk hyeondai misul jeonjip (Korean Modern Art Series), vol. 20 (Seoul Han'guk Ilbosa, 1979), 90. but Kim Youngna argues that formal similarities warrant the connection that art historians and critics have made between the two.
Park's Painting No. 1 (1957) shown at the Third Contemporary Exhibition in 1958 is now considered the first piece of Korean Informel art.Park Youngran, "Park Seo-Bo: The Untiring Endeavorer," in Park Seo-Bo: The Untiring Endeavorer, exh. cat. (Seoul: National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, 2019), 25-28.
Exhibitions The Association became one of the leading forces challenging the institutional control that the Ministry of Culture and Public Information-organized National Art Exhibition (Daehan minguk misul chollamhoe—known as Gukjeon for short) had over the Korean art world. Park won prizes at the 1954 and 1955 iterations of the salon. However, Park claimed that by 1956 he had identified elements of "corrupt anti-modernity" and "feudalism" at the salon.Park Seo-bo, "Cheheomjeok han'guk jeonwi misul (Experiential Korean Avant'Garde Art)," Space (November 1966), 84-85. As a result, he and artists Kim Chung-seon, Mun Wu-sik, and Kim Young-hwan hung a poster with a manifesto condemning the salon at the entrance of their exhibition held in a gallery at the Dongbang Munhwa Building in May 1956. Park asserts that this marked the beginning of the collective stand avant-garde artist took against the national exhibition.Park Seo-bo, cited in 20th Century Korean Art (London: Laurence King, 2005), 228.
Park also turned away from the Kujeon by choosing to participate in the Association's exhibitions—titled the Contemporary Exhibition (Hyeondae-jeon)—upon joining the group.
Park submitted seven paintings to the Third Contemporary Exhibition held at Hwashin Gallery from May 15–23, 1958. Serially titled as Painting No. 1, etc., the first of the seven is now the only surviving work from the exhibition. Kim Youngna identifies the series painted in 1957 as a marker of a major shift in Park's style away from representation.
Photographs of Park painting a large canvas for the fourth exhibition held in the museum in Deoksugung from November 28 to December 8, 1958 appeared in newspapers like the Hanguk Ilbo, and The Korean Republic. Afterwards however, some members of the association critiqued Park, and voted to expel him from the group.
For the 6th iteration, Park suggested that the association push the government to support Korean artists who want to exhibit abroad, and raise funds for a Korean Pavilion at the Venice Biennale. Park continued to advocate for the expansion of the Korean art world beyond its national borders when he was able to travel abroad himself.
Global exposure (1960s)
Arts criticism Park began writing for the Dong-A Ilbo in August 1960, introducing Korean readers to major avant-garde artists in Europe and America like Jackson Pollock, Jean Dubuffet, Roberto Crippa, Hans Hartung, and Georges Mathieu.
Travel abroad Park traveled to Paris in January 1961 as the Korean representative of the UNESCO International Young Painters Exhibition, and stayed for a year.
While he was there, he critically examined the Parisian art world, and reported on exhibitions. Park described for Korean readers the dominance of Informel in Paris at the time:At the moment, the Parisian art scene is saturated with the ''Art Informel'' that was initiated by Michel Tapié. This change is viewed by some artists as the signalling of a re-emergence of figuration, and others even say that the reversion to the figurative art is a due course set in the history of art. I think that they are ridiculing its value. It was a lazy way of acknowledging its value. Yes, it is true that ''Art Informel'' has pervaded the art scenery. Supposing that you look at it as a crisis, then this "crisis" stems from the contradiction within the abstractive art, and not from the reappearance of the figurative art. And another indirect reason for the current symptom in the art scene is that many people indiscriminately picked up abstraction.Park Seo-bo, Kyung-hyang Shinmun (December 3, 1961).Park became particularly interested in the work of Spanish artists like Antoni Tàpies and Manolo Millares.Their influence is present in the piece Péché Originel No. 8 (Original Sin No. 8) that he produced for the joint exhibition "Jeunes Peintres du Monde à Paris."
Eager to showcase the abilities of Korean artists to Parisian audiences, Park persuaded president of the Association of Korean Students in France Shin Youngchul, Lee Il, and Korean Embassy consul Roh Youngchan to meet with the organizers of the Paris Biennale and urge them to allow Korean artists to participate. They were successful in their efforts, and made it possible for Korea to participate in its first international exhibition.
As a result, Park went to Paris again in 1963 as part of the group representing Korea at the 3rd Paris Biennale. He was also one of the Korean representatives for the 8th São Paulo Biennial two years later.
Dansaekhwa (early 1970s)
Connection to Korean Art Informel A number of Dansaekhwa artists were active in the late 1950s – mid-1960s Art Informel movement in Korea, and Park Seo-bo traced the tendency to use a limited color palette in Dansaekhwa back to the movement."On Color in Contemporary Painting: A Roundtable Discussion with Park Seobo, Shim Moon-seup, Takamatsu Jirō, Suga Kishio, Hikosaka Naoyoshi, and Lee Ufan (moderator)," in From All Sides: Tansaekhwa on Abstraction, exh. cat. (Los Angeles: Blum & Poe, 2014), 118-127, originally published as excerpts from Hikosaka Naoyoshi, Lee Ufan, Park Seobo, Shim Moon-seup, Suga Kishio, and Takamatsu Jirō, "Gendai kaiga no shikisai o megutte," Bijutsu techō 29, no. 425, October 1977, 168-74, 183-89.
Exhibitions