Obituary | Park Seo-bo, Korean abstract artist, remembered, from his impact on South Korea’s contemporary art scene to his work with Louis Vuitton
- A pioneer of Korean abstract art, Park Seo-bo was known for works that feature repeated meditative strokes on canvas, done as a way of ‘emptying oneself out’
- His ‘Ecriture’ paintings were collected by, among others, New York’s MoMA and the M+ museum in Hong Kong, and featured on Louis Vuitton bags
Park Seo-bo, widely regarded as a seminal figure in the Korean modern abstract art scene, died on October 14 after a battle with lung cancer. He was 91.
As one of the founding members of the dansaekhwa (monochrome painting) movement that emerged in the early 1970s, Park emphasised the meditative aspects of art production derived from purposeless and endless repetition – to the point of “emptying oneself out”.
“Without reaching that spiritual realm, the painting becomes something that’s merely pretending to be dansaekhwa,” he once said.
In February, the veteran artist revealed his diagnosis of stage 3 lung cancer. Choosing not to pursue treatment, Park continued to paint while in a wheelchair, driven by his desire to “draw at least one more line on canvas”.
Park was born in Yecheon, in North Gyeongsang province, in 1931, during the Japanese occupation of Korea (1910-1945). In 1950, he enrolled at the College of Fine Arts at Hongik University, studying there throughout the Korean war (1950-1953).