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Lot Essay
In this small picture, Park compresses several vignettes, a woman walking holding the hand of a child, three men seated in conversation and two women selling vegetables in wide baskets––ordinary people going about ordinary life in the somber decades of the 1950s and 60s, following the Korean War (1950–53). Park was part of this life and deeply appreciated the quiet dignity of those he encountered, like the two women here required to work outside the home. The artist’s son commented that his father would buy one vegetable from one vendor before moving onto the next so none would be disappointed.
During the Korean War, Park made a living painting portraits of GIs at an American army base near Seoul. Though his work was counter to his contemporaries working in Western avant-garde styles, he was accepted in regular art competitions, winning the Grand Prize at the Korean Second National Exhibition in 1953. This did not ensure an easy life for the artist and his family; his fame as the quintessential painter of postwar Korea would not come until after his death of cirrhosis of the liver in 1964.
Although Park did not receive a formal art education, he dedicated himself to a painstaking technique of layering and scraping oil paint. The restricted grey, white and subtle color of his palette suits the simplicity and honesty he revered in his subjects. The gritty texture of his surfaces honors the granite tombs of the Goguryeo period (37BCE–668CE) that he encountered in northern Korea around 1940 and that fascinated him throughout his career. The direct, abstracted figuration and unadorned paint handling of his work convey the essence of human decency that motivated Park Sookeun and continues to resonate a century after his birth.
During the Korean War, Park made a living painting portraits of GIs at an American army base near Seoul. Though his work was counter to his contemporaries working in Western avant-garde styles, he was accepted in regular art competitions, winning the Grand Prize at the Korean Second National Exhibition in 1953. This did not ensure an easy life for the artist and his family; his fame as the quintessential painter of postwar Korea would not come until after his death of cirrhosis of the liver in 1964.
Although Park did not receive a formal art education, he dedicated himself to a painstaking technique of layering and scraping oil paint. The restricted grey, white and subtle color of his palette suits the simplicity and honesty he revered in his subjects. The gritty texture of his surfaces honors the granite tombs of the Goguryeo period (37BCE–668CE) that he encountered in northern Korea around 1940 and that fascinated him throughout his career. The direct, abstracted figuration and unadorned paint handling of his work convey the essence of human decency that motivated Park Sookeun and continues to resonate a century after his birth.