Continuous creation and a space with transparent depth are among the basic elements that rule a painting. Only a small number of artists have shown such scrupulosity and tenacity as Suk Ran-hi in exploring their own world of art with such a strong sense of purpose. It is not consistency without change but one with change that reflects the Suk’s professionalism as an artist. Her works easily guide viewers to a lasting sense of creation which is beyond the achievement by conventional means. Her paintings seem to speak eloquently that they are not finished but in some stage where they are waiting for the artist to hold brushes to complete them.
Suk Ran Hi (b. 1939) graduated from the Department of Painting, College of Fine Arts at Hongik University in 1963 and studied printmaking at Ecole des Beaux-Arts in Paris from 1964 to 1969. Suk was the recipient of the Seok Ju Art Award in 1992, the Grand Prize at Manif d’art in 2002, and the 17th Lee Jung Seob Art Prize in 2005. Starting from her first solo exhibition as a college student in 1962, Suk held numerous solo exhibitions including the one at Whanki Museum in 2014.
Suk Ran Hi is an abstract artist who focuses on the theme of nature. She studied under Kim Whanki, a member of the first generation of Korean abstract artists. Just as Kim Whanki found his inspiration from nature during the Art Informel that emerged in the 1950s, Suk, who debuted during the second Informel phase, found her inspiration in nature. She uses a knife rather than a brush to express the tension and speed found in nature through an abstract and free touch reminiscent of looking at traces of the wind. Since the 1960s the titles of her monochrome paintings have been consistently named with words associated with nature, but her expressive techniques have shifted throughout her career. In the early days, her works were focused on dark browns which then shifted to a bluish or light purple hue. In addition to her paintings, her woodwork from the 1970s to 1990s formed another axis in her world of art, in which she expressed themes of nature as witnessed through countless carving and drawing of lines. Suk attempts to express both the beauty of nature, as well as how inconsequential she is compared tonature, through depicting its dynamic and lively energy.
