Park Soo-keun

Park Soo-keun ( Korean 박수근 ) (born February 21, 1914 in Yanggu-gun County, Gangwon-do Province in Chōsen ; † May 6, 1965 in South Korea ) was a South Korean painter.

Live and act

Park Soo-keun was born on February 21, 1914 in the district of Yanggu-gun ( 양구군 ) in the province of Gangwon-do ( 강원도 ) in Korea , which was then still united and under Japanese rule as Chosen . As a primary school student, he showed a skill in drawing everyday village scenes in his home village. Fascinated by the work of the French painter Jean-François Millet “Angelus”which contained a peasant scene made him want to ever paint as faithfully as the French master. But the family circumstances did not give him the opportunity to get an artistic education. Park taught himself the techniques of painting through diligent practice as an autodidact.

In 1932 he was recognized for the first time by a nationally recognized exhibition on which one of his works could be seen. But Park remained a "lone fighter", without a sound education, without belonging to an art direction or art scene, which meant a lack of contacts for him, but also a freedom to be able to paint what he wanted, regardless of the mainstream . This changed a little from the 1940s onwards, when he was able to establish contacts with recognized painters such as Chang Lee-suok ( 장이 석 ), Choi Young-lim ( 최영림 ) and Hwang Yu-yop ( 황유엽 ).

Unable to make a living from his painting, he found a job in the early 1940s in the office of the social affairs department of the provincial government of Pyeongannam-do , now part of North Korea. He married, had a son, and was just able to support the family on his meager income. After the turmoil of the Korean War , he joined the American military in 1953, where he worked in the law enforcement agency and later as a portrait painter at the US military base in Seoul. It was there that Park met the wife of the U.S. embassy attaché , Margaret Miller. As an art lover and dealer, she became Parks' sponsor. In 1958 he exhibited some of his work at the East and West Exhibition in San Francisco , followed by an exhibition of contemporary Korean painting at the World House Gallery in New York City . Now recognized by art connoisseurs in South Korea, further exhibitions followed in his country, although he still had to struggle with the "flaw" of not being an educated artist.

Weakened by a number of illnesses, Park died on May 6, 1965.

Honor

In his honor, the Park Soo Keum Museum was built in Yanggu-eup ( 양구읍 ), Yanggu-gun ( 양구군 ), Gangwon-do ( 강원도 ).

Retrospective

• 2014 - at the Gana Insa Art Center in Insa-dong, Jongno, Seoul

literature

• Choi Youl: Park Soo-keun . The “national painter” who transcended the sadness of the time into the lyrical. In: Koreana . Volume 10, No. 1. The Korea Foundation , 2015, ISSN  1975-0617 , p. 22-25 (German-language edition).

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b c} Choi: Park Soo-keun . In: Koreana . 2015, p. 22 .
2. ↑ ^{a b} Choi: Park Soo-keun . In: Koreana . 2015, p. 24 .
3. ↑ Choi: Park Soo-keun . In: Koreana . 2015, p. 23 .
4. ↑ Park Soo Keun Museum ( 박수근 미술관 ). In: Visit Korea . Korea Tourism Organization , accessed November 21, 2017 .  
5. ↑ Lee Woo-young : Park Soo-keun retrospective seeks to revive interest in the artist . In: The Korea Herald . January 8, 2014, accessed November 21, 2017 .  

Note: This article places the family name before the person's first name. This is the usual order in Korean. Park is the family name here, Soo-keun is the first name.