Suh Seok, Group Dance

1991, ink on paper, 191 x 260cm

Born in 1961. B.A. in Eastern Art, College of Art, Seoul National University. Awarded the Prime Minister Prize in the 1st National Art Exhibition, 1949. A former professor of Eastern Art, College of Arts, Seoul National University.

Suh Seok's unprecedented abstract ink drawings of dots and lines made a splash in the ' 50s. Suh tried to free himself from traditional ways and to establish abstraction and simplicity in Eastern painting from the early days of his career. With versatile handling of ink and brushes, he has been seeking new expression in the literati style of Eastern painting. The sophisticated and flowing brush strokes, the various shades of ink and water, the beauty of simplicity, and the exquisite balance of the figures and a spacious background are all based on Eastern aesthetics and the spirit of literati art.

From the ' 80s Suh has indulged in shaping figures of people. He does not pursue their thoughts, but tries to embody people who live as part of nature. His diverse attempts at formative works sometimes express a moment in ordinary life, but more often he is eager to capture the essence of human beings.

His serial ink and water drawings themed on people are full of resources of lines, matiere, shades, strong accentuated parts and weak parts, and fast and slow strokes. People are sometimes entangled like barbed wire and sometimes piled up like pagodas. Through upside down figures and shouting figures, the artist hints at unstable and absurd phenomena and seem to raise his voice for absolute freedom.