Art is something of a universal language, as it exists all over the world and manages to portray themes that are both universal and specific to a particular space at the same time. All people deal with things such as love, loss, fear, joy, disappointment, and hope, but there are also things that are unique to a specific cultural space or ethnic group. Military conflicts, regime changes, revolutions, world’s fairs, and social concerns are some of the specifics that can impact communities for several generations and for better or for worse.
If you’re a passionate collector, you are much more likely to want to do your research into the different types of art out there and how the artist’s culture and background are likely to inform their opinions of what art should look like. When you’re looking through an extensive collection of paintings for sale, you’ll likely come across watercolors, oil, and acrylic works from a multitude of artists. If you want to go more in-depth and would like your art collection to be more diverse, you can be proactive about it and look into the works of artists from all over the world.
South Korea
South Korea is one of the world’s cultural powerhouses, with its most famous exports, K-pop and dramas, being increasingly popular among fans from all over the world. One of the lesser-known things about the country is that it is also a growing art hub. The traditional ink wash paintings typically found in East Asia are well-recognized for their artistic merits, but the country’s artistic developments and innovations have definitely not stopped there. Suki Seokyeong Kang is one of the best-known contemporary artists in South Korea, known for her work, which combines painting with sculptures, performances, and installations. Her work explores themes such as individuality and freedom and draws inspiration from classical Korean literary works and dances.
Park Seo-bo was a leading Dansaekhwa artist, an art movement focused on the basic constituent elements that make up a painting, as well as the space between them. His Écriture series, which lasted between 1967 and 2023, features canvases layered with gesso and lines going from top to bottom. The artist spent decades experimenting with the method, and the first time he chose to display some of the works was in 1973. Recently, his artworks served as the inspiration for a luxury fashion collection released by French house Louis Vuitton.
Artist Hyun-Sook Song lives and works in Hamburg, and regards painting as both a creative and meditative act that requires a particular state of mind from the painter. The deliberate lines of her paintings allude to classic Korean calligraphy, and the use of egg tempera is another nod to the ancient past of painting.
—Alexa Wang
