Artist: Park Seo-Bo
Title: Ecriture No. 070628
Year: 2007
Dimension: 181 x 300 cms
Technique: Mixes Media with Korean Hanji paper on canvas
Price: TBC
About the Artist
Park Seo-bo (also known as Korean: 박서보, Park Seo-Bo or Seo-Bo Park) is a Korean painter, part of the first generation of modern artists in South Korea. He has been a prolific painter well known for his ‘French: Ecriture‘ paintings, and has been one of the most influential figures in modern Korean art history. He is now widely considered the godfather of Dansaekhwa originated in South Korea in 1970s
Text taken from https://www.wikipedia.org
What does this work say (to me)?
It has been a while since my last post on “art in interiors” due to the pandemic and the conditions I established for presenting art to you: I have to see it in real and it needs to be available at the moment I saw it.
Galleries and artists are responding in different ways to the challenging situation all the planet has been through: Anger, frustration, empathy, reflection, meditation, appreciation, serenity are some of the chosen ways to express those different views and feelings.
This artwork by Park-Seo Bo is part of a series of work presented together that embodies a meditative state through minimalism, repetition, colour and contrast.
Being in appearance very “simple” having colour and composition as the primary elements to be seen once one get closer one discovers other layers that bring the work to another dimension:
Those “vertical lines” are not unidimensional lines; they are tridimensional, rough and aggressive and what seems to be a rhythmic repetition becomes a field of struggle and isolation where colour and materiality merge creating a tone of subtle beauty expressing life in all its splendour.
Life is beautiful and precious; there is no point denying it but is spiced with obstacles and challenges which make it rich and full of meaning but intrinsically simple and transparent in its complexity… one has the freedom to choose the beauty of its simplicity and logic or we can go deeper and deeper and just focus in one of the peaks and rocks that creates those perfect lines which we cannot see when we decide to follow this path of observation.
The choice is always ours.
Maybe one needs both so one can always appreciate the real value of life and its transcendence.
In what Room to place it?
Due to its “serene beauty”, this is a piece that would sit comfortably in a living room, corridor or dining room. Its use of colour and chromatic composition makes it powerful enough to fill a room.
Displaying it
My first suggestion would be it has to be placed on a white wall so there is no distraction, noise when we are experiencing it.
My second suggestion is not having artwork nearby, due to its apparent simplicity a more expressive work nearby could affect the right appreciation of it.
My final suggestion is the lighting. Due to its materiality the light should come from different directions so all the richness of his making can be seen and appreciated if one wants to.
