early 2000s
(Korean, 1929–2020)
Ink on mulberry paper
Paper: 130.5 x 139 cm (51 3/8 x 54 3/4 in.); Framed: 146.3 x 155.5 x 6 cm (57 5/8 x 61 1/4 x 2 3/8 in.)
John L. Severance Fund 2021.102
© the Estate of Suh Se Ok. Courtesy Lehmann Maupin, New York, Hong Kong, and London
The artist's son, Do Ho Suh (서도호, b. 1962), is also an artist, who reinterprets Korea’s traditional house or hanok, exploring the concept of home and space.
Starting in the 1960s, Suh Se Ok focused on dismantling the boundary between the abstract and the figurative, and calligraphy and drawing, as a way to reshape the Korean ink painting tradition and its conventional expressions. To articulate the strong gestural movement delivered by a massive amount of ink, the artist dashed a large brush over a sheet of thick and fibrous Korean mulberry paper. Here, he transformed the ink into a colossal abstract symbol, which evokes two classical Chinese characters: big (大) and person (人).
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