Artist Park Seo-Bo leads Hallyu in the art market / 100 million won annual Art Award / Selecting the world’s most prominent artists / ‘Thank you for all the kindness shown to me’… 2018 Art Award

Park Seo-Bo (86), one of Korea’s most eminent abstract artists, has donated KRW 4 billion to The Seo-Bo Art and Cultural Foundation that he founded in order to fund the tentatively named “Park Seo-Bo Art Award,” a yearly award that will bestow KRW 100 million to an outstanding artist selected from a list of nominees generated through consultations with big-name international galleries, including London’s White Cube and Galerie Perrotin in France. Additionally, opinions from Korean art museums and galleries will be considered. One of the most important selection criteria for this award will be how relevant the artist is to current art world trends.

About this award, Park said on May 22, “Over the years, I have received a great deal of kindness from all over the world. I believe that encouraging the creativity of the next generation of artists can only benefit the world, and this is my way of paying it forward.” He added, “I hope this award can act as a small lever to help artists out of a tight spot when they are faced with adversity.”

When asked what would happen when the funds are exhausted, Park replied, “I think we can give it at least 40 years. … After that, perhaps there will be others like me willing to finance this award.”

Park has recently been designing decorative sculptures—milky white stones etched with the character for emptiness(空)—that he would like to surround his burying place after his death. Much of his work has centered on this character, which has also come to represent the spirit of monochrome painting, or “dansaekhwa,” an art style that has become synonymous with modern and contemporary Korean art.

“The time has come for me to empty my life of me,” Park said. “I now have the chance to look back on my work and to understand what ‘life’s dansaekhwa’ is for me.”

Park is widely credited with having brought Korean monochrome art to the world’s attention and for globalizing Korean art. His own works have increased 500 times in value from 30 years ago. His most celebrated pencil painting “Ecriture No. 100” had been priced at KRW 3 million in 1982; today, it is worth over KRW 1.5 billion. In one infamous moment, the artist once proclaimed that he had no space to house his canvas size no. 1000 (5.3x2.9m) artwork after an exhibition, “and so had no other option but to burn it,” stunning the art world. If plans go smoothly, the Park Seo-Bo Art Award could be introduced as early as next year.

 

 

 

Pyun Wan Sik / Arts Reporter, Segye Daily