“People” (1996) is part of the series on people by Suh Se-ok. Simplified human figures putting their arms around each other’s shoulders are repeatedly presented in this work. Irregularity in the concentration of ink conveys the deep essence of ink, adding vitality to the potentially tedious scene. In an interview, Suh said, “I think people are originally connected to each other with an invisible link.” This comment means that in the beginning, we are connected to our mother by the umbilical cord, and then we share the world and the era with our brothers and sisters, family, society, nation, and further with humanity, as part of humankind. These views are expressed in the form of humans getting along through Suh’s succinct yet profound brushstrokes.
Suh Se-ok (b. 1929), also known under the penname Sanjung, and who belongs to the 1st generation of artists in postliberation Korea, graduated from the Department of Painting I, currently the Department of Oriental Painting, Seoul National University’s College of Art at as the first alumnus in 1950 and later received his master’s degrees at his alma mater. Suh was the recipient of the Prime Minister’s Prize in 1949 during his college days as well as the Ministry of Culture and Education Prize in 1954 at the National Art Exhibition of the Republic of Korea. He also won the Seoul Culture Award in 1994 and the Silver Crown Order of Cultural Merit in 2012. Suh served on the faculty at the College of Art at Seoul National University from 1955 to 1995, and currently serves as a professor emeritus. He was elected as a member of the National Academy of Arts of the Republic of Korea.
As his penname Sanjung, “a ranger who looks after the mountain of art,” suggests, Suh Se-ok is one of the artists who led Korean art circles towards a new direction during the post-liberation period. While seeking what is authentically Korean, Suh has developed styles suited for a new era, and his works were based on a philosophical exploration on human nature, refusing simple regression to the existing bonds of tradition. In this vein, he took the lead in founding the Korean artists’association Forest of Ink Society in 1960 in a bid to find a new, modern aesthetic vocabulary apart from existing tradition. Korean tradition and the pursuit of a new formative style merged into his works, eventually developing into a unique painting style. Suh’s works are intuitive and meditative in that they follow in the tradition of literati paintings while resembling abstraction in the presentation of abstract lines and dots not found in traditional literati paintings. Created based on a Korean spirit and Eastern philosophy, Suh’s work appeals its Korean charm in contrast to Western abstract paintings to viewers.
