Park Su-geun
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Park Su-geun (; February 21, 1914 – May 6, 1965), name also transliterated as Park Soo-keun, was a South Korean painter known for his depictions of daily life in rural Korea. He was one of the very few Korean artists active during the colonial and
post-war A post-war or postwar period is the interval immediately following the end of a war. The term usually refers to a varying period of time after World War II, which ended in 1945. A post-war period can become an interwar period or interbellum, ...
period who had no official art education. As a self-taught artist, Park Su-geun formulated a unique painting style using textured surfaces, geometric shapes, bold lines, and muted colours.


Early life and career

Park Su-geun was born in Yanggu County, Kōgen-dō,
Korea, Empire of Japan From 1910 to 1945, Korea was ruled by the Empire of Japan under the name Chōsen (), the Japanese reading of "Joseon". Japan first took Korea into its sphere of influence during the late 1800s. Both Korea (Joseon) and Japan had been under polic ...
. Park graduated Yanggu Public School (), after which he had to learn to learn to paint without official training or further education due to financial difficulties. However, with the help of his teachers such as O Deuk-yeong (, 1904–1991) and Shimizu Kiyoshi (靑水靑), Ishiguro Yoshiyasu (石黑義保, 1890–1977), Hara Takeo (原竹男), he was able to continue to study painting. He is known to have been inspired to seek a career as an artist after he came across a coloured print of Jean François Millet’s "L’Angelus." In 1932, he made his debut in painting circles with his work titled "Spring Comes" () which was awarded a prize in the 11th annual Chōsen Art Exhibition. He moved to
Chuncheon Chuncheon (; ; literally ''spring river''), formerly romanized as Ch'unch'ŏn, is the capital of Gangwon Province, South Korea. The city lies in the north of the country, located in a basin formed by the Soyang River and Han River (Korea), Han R ...
in 1935 and received help from O Deuk-yeong and Miyoshi Iwakichi (三吉岩吉), and went on to win prizes in the Joseon Arts Exhibition eight times from 1936 to 1944. In 1939, Park Su-geun married Kim Bok-sun (김복순, 金福順, 1922–1979), who would later be the
model A model is an informative representation of an object, person, or system. The term originally denoted the plans of a building in late 16th-century English, and derived via French and Italian ultimately from Latin , . Models can be divided in ...
of many of his paintings of women.


Pyongyang Period

Park Su-geun moved to Pyongyang in 1940 to work as a clerk for the provincial government of
Heian'nan-dō , alternatively Heian'nan Province or South Heian Province, was a province of Korea under Japanese rule. Its capital was at Pyongyang, Heijō. The province consisted of modern-day South Pyongan, North Korea. Population Number of people by nat ...
, with the help of Miyoshi. He continued to paint while working in Pyongyang and became a member of artists’ group Johohoe () from 1940 to 1944 and participated in group exhibitions. During his stay in Pyongyang, he submitted key works of art such as "Woman Grinding Beans" (맷돌질하는 여인, 1940), "Woman
Washing Washing is a method of cleaning, usually with water and soap or detergent. Regularly washing and then rinsing both body and clothing is an essential part of good hygiene and health. Often people use soaps and detergents to assist in the emulsific ...
Clothes" (망질하는 여인, 1941), "Mother and Child" (모자, 母子, 1942), and "Woman Doing Needlework" (실을 뽑는 여인, 1943) to the Joseon Arts Exhibition Park’s wife became the model for these paintings of ordinary women at their daily chores. It is in the 1940s that Park Su-geun developed his unique use of stone-like
paint Paint is a material or mixture that, when applied to a solid material and allowed to dry, adds a film-like layer. As art, this is used to create an image or images known as a painting. Paint can be made in many colors and types. Most paints are ...
surfaces, of which he found inspiration from ancient Korean stone
pagoda A pagoda is a tiered tower with multiple eaves common to Thailand, Cambodia, Nepal, India, China, Japan, Korea, Myanmar, Vietnam, and other parts of Asia. Most pagodas were built to have a religious function, most often Buddhist, but some ...
s and
Buddha Siddhartha Gautama, most commonly referred to as the Buddha (),* * * was a wandering ascetic and religious teacher who lived in South Asia during the 6th or 5th century BCE and founded Buddhism. According to Buddhist legends, he was ...
sculptures Sculpture is the branch of the visual arts that operates in three dimensions. Sculpture is the three-dimensional art work which is physically presented in the dimensions of height, width and depth. It is one of the plastic arts. Durable sc ...
. Park Su-geun also experimented with print during his stay at Pyongyang and from his affiliation with Juhohoe.


Seoul Period

During the
Korean War The Korean War (25 June 1950 – 27 July 1953) was an armed conflict on the Korean Peninsula fought between North Korea (Democratic People's Republic of Korea; DPRK) and South Korea (Republic of Korea; ROK) and their allies. North Korea was s ...
, Park Su-geun moved from Pyongyang to Seoul alone in 1950 and was later joined by his family in 1952. Many of his earlier works from Chuncheon and Pyongyang, as well as those produced during fleeing throughout the Korean War were lost or destroyed when he defected to South Korea, leaving his paintings behind in North Korea. However, his artistic style of using geometric and flat shapes and simple lines in depicting familiar and realistic scenes of peasant life had already been established at this point, and Park Su-geun readdressed many of his prior works and further developed them after the war. Financial hardship continued in Seoul, but Park Su-geun was able to make a living by drawing portraits for American soldiers stationed in Seoul. In 1953, Park Su-geun won first prize in the 2nd annual with "House" (), after which he painted full-time as an artist. Park Su-geun became a member of Daehan Art Association (Daehan Misul Hyeophoe, 대한미술협회, 大韓美術協會) from 1955 and participated in their annual exhibitions until 1960. Park was also a founding member of Korea Woodblock Printing Association (Hanguk Panhwa Hyeophoe, 한국판화협회, 韓國版畵協會) in 1958, and submitted a woodblock print piece, "Old Man and Woman" () in the first annual group exhibition of the club. He also participated in a group exhibition in 1960 as a founding member of Hyeondae Panhwa Dong-in (), alongside Kim Whanki, Choi Yeong-rim (최영림, 崔榮林), Yu Gang-ryeol (유강렬, 劉康烈), and Jeong Gyu (정규, 鄭圭). In 1959, he got became a Recommended Artist of the National Art Exhibition and served on the judging committee in 1962.Park Su-geun, ''Park Soo Keun: The Most Beloved Painter in Korea'' (Paju: Maronie bukseu, 2010). Park Su-geun also submitted
oil painting Oil painting is a painting method involving the procedure of painting with pigments combined with a drying oil as the Binder (material), binder. It has been the most common technique for artistic painting on canvas, wood panel, or oil on coppe ...
s for group exhibitions abroad, including in
Hong Kong Hong Kong)., Legally Hong Kong, China in international treaties and organizations. is a special administrative region of China. With 7.5 million residents in a territory, Hong Kong is the fourth most densely populated region in the wor ...
and in San Francisco Museum in 1957, and in New York World House Gallery in 1958. He received help in selling his works and participating in exhibitions abroad from an American
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, Margaret G. Miller, to whom he left numerous letters regarding the
sales Sales are activities related to selling or the number of goods sold in a given targeted time period. The delivery of a service for a cost is also considered a sale. A period during which goods are sold for a reduced price may also be referred ...
of his paintings, financial situations, and his daily life. Despite the popularity and recognition of his paintings abroad, Park Su-geun’s paintings were often rejected in major Korean exhibitions, much to the artist’s disappointment. He refused to submit works to the Republic of Korea Art Exhibition after "Three Women" () failed to win a prize in the 1957 exhibition, but was soon appointed as Recommended Artist by the Gukjeon committee in 1959 and subsequently submitted works "Spring" (), "Woman Resting" (), "Old Man and Playing Children" ().


Artistic Style

Throughout his career, Park Su-geun retained his conviction to portray ordinary, humble people and to capture mundane yet truthful scenes of familial life, especially the lifestyle that he had personally experienced in rural, agricultural Korea.Gwang-su Oh, ‘The Timeless and Original Art of Park Soo Keun’, in ''Park Soo Keun: The Most Beloved Painter in Korea'' (Paju: Maronie bukseu, 2010). Park also liked to paint daily lives of women and trees.Yun Beom-mo, ''Geundae yuhwa gamsangbeop'' (Seoul: Daewonsa, 1997), 108. Some typical works including women and trees are "Woman Pounding Grain" (절구질하는 여인, 1952), "A Wash Place" (빨래터,1954), "Returning Home" (귀가, 1962), and "Old Tree and Woman" (고목과 여인, 1964). Many of his trees are shown bare, twisted, and brittle. The use of trees in his paintings are thought to be both reflections of contemporary social climate and hope and belief in the resilience of the tree in surviving hardship. Peasant women that most frequently appear were often modelled on his wife who often took on the task of making a living and taking care of daily chores From the lack of distinct facial features and humility in their dress and poses, it can be seen that Park Su-geun reflected his own romantic interpretations of strong and diligent women during times of national hardship and suffering. Park Su-geun predominantly used unique,
granite Granite ( ) is a coarse-grained (phanerite, phaneritic) intrusive rock, intrusive igneous rock composed mostly of quartz, alkali feldspar, and plagioclase. It forms from magma with a high content of silica and alkali metal oxides that slowly coo ...
-like surface textures and light gray or brown tones to depict simple Korean local scenes and daily lives of ordinary Korean people, using the "matière technique" ().Kyu-young Chung, ‘Artist of Ordinary People Park Su-geun’, ''Korea'', December 2015. The merging of his
Cubist Cubism is an early-20th-century avant-garde art movement which began in Paris. It revolutionized painting and the visual arts, and sparked artistic innovations in music, ballet, literature, and architecture. Cubist subjects are analyzed, broke ...
painting style with the "matière technique" that derived from
Art Informel Informalism or Art Informel () is a pictorial movement from the 1943–1950s, that includes all the abstract and gestural tendencies that developed in France and the rest of Europe during the World War II, similar to American abstract express ...
practices that emphasised matter and abstraction resulted in a unique image from the 1950s. He used both brushes and knives to handle oil paint that had been filtered to reduce the amount of oil and achieved a rough texture that resembled "carved
relief Relief is a sculpture, sculptural method in which the sculpted pieces remain attached to a solid background of the same material. The term ''wikt:relief, relief'' is from the Latin verb , to raise (). To create a sculpture in relief is to give ...
s." On this surface, he applied thick, bold lines to depict simple forms. His focus on subjects of naïveté and geometric, flattened, and simplified painting style was strengthened from the late 1950s, and his paintings reflected architectural inspirations as he experimented with the juxtaposition of flat, contrasting shapes and forms in formulating his spatial compositions. Most of his later works are devoid of realistic backgrounds and perspective. Park also produced prints, watercolors, drawings, and illustrations throughout his career. While Park Su-geun's themes and subjects of painting were of the common and ordinary, his artistic creativity and contribution to modern Korean art history is thought to be unique, especially as many other contemporary artists were experimenting with and even imitating Western subjects and styles of painting.


Later life and death

Despite his lifelong active production of artworks and relatively consistent sales toward the later period of his career, Park Su-geun neither owned his own studio nor was able to make a comfortable living from painting. In 1963, Park lost his sight in his left eye due to a
cataract A cataract is a cloudy area in the lens (anatomy), lens of the eye that leads to a visual impairment, decrease in vision of the eye. Cataracts often develop slowly and can affect one or both eyes. Symptoms may include faded colours, blurry or ...
, and died of
liver cirrhosis Cirrhosis, also known as liver cirrhosis or hepatic cirrhosis, chronic liver failure or chronic hepatic failure and end-stage liver disease, is a chronic condition of the liver in which the normal functioning tissue, or parenchyma, is replaced ...
at the age of 51 in 1965. For much of his life Park struggled with poverty and hardship, but in 1980, he was posthumously awarded Eun-gwan Jang (은관장, 銀冠章, Silver Medal) of Order of Culture Merit (). A memorial solo exhibition of Park Su-geun was held in October 1965 at the Korean Information Service Gallery () after his death. His work is housed in numerous institutions around the world, including the
University of Michigan Museum of Art The University of Michigan Museum of Art (UMMA) is one of the largest university art museums in the United States, located in Ann Arbor, Michigan, with . Built as a war memorial in 1909 for the university's fallen alumni from the Civil War, Alu ...
and the
USC Pacific Asia Museum USC Pacific Asia Museum is an Asian art museum located at 46 N. Los Robles Avenue, Pasadena, California, United States. The museum was founded in 1971 by the Pacificulture Foundation, which purchased "The Grace Nicholson Treasure House of Orient ...
. Park Su-geun Museum was established in 2002 at Park’s birthplace, Yanggu.Sung-ah Kwon, ‘Paintings of Park Soo-Keun, the Common People’s Artist, Come Home’, ''Koreana'' 19, no. 1 (Spring 2005): 56.


References


External links


Park Soo Keun Museum
{{DEFAULTSORT:Park, Su-geun 1914 births 1965 deaths Deaths from cirrhosis 20th-century South Korean painters 20th-century South Korean male artists People from Gangwon Province, South Korea People from Yanggu County, Gangwon Culture of Korea under Japanese rule