(Man 1) I can say he’s the greatest painter in the world, because he painted what is uniquely Korean.
(Woman 1) He painted his own home, his own village, and his own well. His painting style was different from that of today. He lived in a difficult time, the hardship of which was conveyed through his painting. His colors are not bright, which expressed the difficulties of the time.
(Man 2) He is an iconic artist who expressed Korean sentiments and aesthetic senses. His contribution to the Korean art scene shattered the preconception that art is hard to understand and his work brought art closer to ordinary people.



Park Soo-keun is one of the most beloved artists in Korea. He communicated his love for the Korean people by portraying the desperate times of the past with warmth and nostalgia.

Born during the Japanese colonial period and having experienced Korea’s liberation and the Korean War, Park Soo-keun’s paintings were characterized by the simple hues and modest sentiments of ordinary people. He is regarded as the most unique Korean artist in Korea’s contemporary art history. The year 2014 marks the centennial of his birth and Gana Insa Art Center in Jongno-gu, Seoul has been hosting a special exhibition since January 17 to mark that milestone.

Gana Insa Art Center’s exhibition features 90 oil paintings and 30 watercolor and drawing pieces. There have been several Park Soo-keun exhibitions, but this is the first time a show of this scale has been devoted to the famed artist. Here’s Gana Insa Art Center’s curator Kim Na-jeong김나정.

There have been exhibitions to commemorate his career on the anniversaries of his birth every decade. But the latest one with 120 pieces of his work is the largest ever. It won’t be easy to replicate this exhibition in the future, because the art pieces were all borrowed from individual collectors. Some collectors even had several pieces of Park’s painting in their collections.

Park Soo-keun’s paintings are so highly valued that the combined prices of all the displayed pieces would amount to millions of dollars. These treasured artworks which are on loan from individual collectors have been displayed by subject matter over the gallery’s four floors. Here’s Gana Insa Art Center’s curator Kim Na-jeong김나정 to tell us more.

Park Soo-keun’s paintings are categorized into several themes. They are displayed on four floors. The first floor features mostly watercolor landscapes and the second floor has the paintings of market people, one of his favorite subject matters. On the third floor are the paintings of ordinary people and the fourth floor has artworks of trees.



Some 120 different pieces of Park’s art usually depict the lives of ordinary people, such as market people, women doing laundry or pounding on grains, oil merchants, and girls carrying babies on their backs. And the colors he favored were not flashy, but subtle, almost subdued, to create an effect that we are looking at old, discolored photographs. He used the frottage method, in which oil paints were applied in thick layers to create a rough surface, rendering the paintings of ordinary people more unassuming. Here’s art critic Seo Seong-rok서성록 to tell us more about Park Soo-keun’s works.

We consider Park Soo-keun as an artist who best expressed Korean people’s unique aesthetic feelings. The people featured in his paintings are humble and familiar, mostly wearing traditional Korean dresses. When we look at the surface of his painting closely, we can see that it’s very rough and matted, which is similar to the old stone sculptures in Korea. Such similar characteristics that run throughout the artworks of Park Soo-keun and ancient Korean artists demonstrate that Park had shown Koreans’ aesthetic sense and common sentiments in the best way possible.

The rough texture lends an unrefined yet natural feel to Park’s paintings. The unpretentiousness of his paintings was perhaps the reflection of his simple life. Except for the fact that he was a much-admired painter, he was like any ordinary Korean man, a loving husband who helped with his wife’s chores and caring father who played often with his children. Here’s Park Soo-keun’s son, artist Park Sung-nam박성남, to tell us more about the artist as a family man.

My father was no different from any other fathers in our neighborhood. He used to wear a white sleeveless shirt and a pair of white rubber shoes. In the morning he would fold the bedding, clean the room, sweep the yard, and even fold the laundry. All the while my mother would sing Christian hymns in the kitchen. Father would have his breakfast around nine and go to his studio to paint at about 10 and work until four in the afternoon. After that he would visit friends or go to art shows or do some sketching. That was his daily life. When he came back home, which was just one big room, he would whisper to my mother what he did and whom he met during the day, which we all overheard. He was such a family man.

Park Soo-keun’s love for his family can be seen in watercolor paintings displayed on the first floor. A pair of his wife’s white rubber shoes, a red book bag used by his teenage daughter, and his favorite side dish, which probably made it to the family’s dinner table almost every day – all these items were featured in his paintings. Here’s art critic Seo Seong-rok again.

His love for his family shined through his works. Even his landscape paintings were actually about his family. There were some paintings of his children, but his wife was definitely his favorite subject. His paintings, such as “Grinding Woman” and “Washerwomen by the Stream,” were all for his wife. When Park proposed to his wife, he supposedly told her that although he was a poor painter, he would make her happy with his paintings. I believe he kept that promise throughout his life.

The people depicted in his paintings never had clear facial features. But despite the absence of the eyes, noses, and mouths, the figures in the paintings all seem warm-hearted and endearing. This may be because Park had his own unique viewpoint on the world. Here’s art critic Seo Seong-rok again.

People in Park Soo-keun’s paintings have no concrete facial features or expressions, which renders them anonymous. The absence of concreteness does not hinder us from feeling friendly toward the figures in the paintings. That’s because he places those figures in a certain setting, such as a laundry spot along the stream or a marketplace or a field. Seeing people in those settings reminds us of what we used to do and still do in those situations. Those paintings portrayed who we are. Such familiarity played a big part in building affinity with his works.

There is even a portrait of his son, Park Sung-nam at age five. Unlike his other paintings, the portrait of his young son shows all his facial features clearly. The son tells us there is a heartbreaking story behind the portrait. Here’s Park Soo-keun’s son, Park Sung-nam.

During the Korean War, my father evacuated to the south first and the family was reunited at my uncle’s house later on. Then my family moved out of that place and went to live in a small room located on the outskirts of the city. That portrait was the first painting of me done by my father, in 1952. It took him about five hours to complete it. My friends were calling me out to play, but my father kept staring at me. I still cannot forget his eyes when he did that. I thought about why he would look at me that way and then realized that he didn’t want to lose me again in the war. If we got separated again, we might never see each other again. So he would draw me exactly as I looked lest he should forget what I looked like. He drew my portrait, but it was actually a portrait of the time.

Park Soo-keun was born in 1914 in Gangwon Province as the son of a mine operator. He was barely able to finish elementary school, because his father went bankrupt when he was only seven. But the lack of education could not extinguish his passion for art. Here’s art critic Seo Seong-rok again.

An artist is usually an art school graduate, who received artistic training and gained experience and skills over a long period of time. But Park Soo-keun was a self-taught artist with his own unique style. That’s why he’s such a great self-made man. It’s not easy to shape one’s own artistic world without formal education or training. He overcame a number of obstacles to build a world of his own. He is the pride of Korean art.



His painting “Spring Is Come” was awarded at the 1932 Seonjeon Painting Contest. He was only 18 at the time, but the award helped launch his career as an artist. Even so, his life continued to be one financial struggle after another. What he saw everyday was simple and mundane – narrow alleyways and marketplaces, a resting spot under the tree in his village, and friendly neighbors who would keep him company. Despite his poverty, he realized that everyday life was the most wholesome, human, and sincere subject matter for his paintings. Here’s art critic Seo Seong-rok again.

Park Soo-keun’s paintings contain the hardship of the times and the hard-strapped lives of common people. He did not seek something noble, but reached down low to embrace the ordinary. He sought out discomfort rather than comfort. It is said that a person doesn’t know what life is really like unless he’s suffered some hardship. Well, Park Soo-keun had his share of suffering and he knew what being poor was like. This is why he could relate to other people so well. Looking at something uncomfortable but finding something noble about it is a very valuable asset for an artist. That viewpoint was Park’s legacy for Korean artists who came after him.

His views on fellow men can be appreciated on the second and third floor of the anniversary exhibition.

A lot of Park Soo-keun’s paintings focus on women and girls. He admired them for their strength in the face of hardship. Park himself had four boys and two girls, and the eldest daughter would take care of her little siblings. The painting “A Girl Caring for a Baby” was inspired by his own daughter. His paintings contain the scenes from the hard lives of common people, but never feel depressing or dark. Rather, they feel friendly and cheerful. This is how Park Sung-nam sees his father’s works.

He would often say, “Everything’s alright, everything is OK.” My uncle was rather mean and he would steal rice from us. My mother would apologize for her brother’s nasty behavior and my father would say, “It’s okay. He’s still young.” When somebody just took his painting, he would not go looking for it, but just say, “It’s an honor to have someone recognize the value of my painting.” He looked at the positive side of everything.

Park Soo-keun’s optimism did not wane even after a cataract took away his eyesight in one eye. Here’s his son Park Sung-nam again.

He had eye surgery twice in 1963. The operations did not go well and the doctors had to sever his optical nerves in one eye and put in a glass eye. One winter day we were sitting in a warm room and he said he was happy, because he could still paint in a warm room while others had to work in the cold.

Park Soo-keun was also a romantic. His first love was his wife, Kim Bok-sun김복순. He had met her first at a washing place near the river, which is why Park liked to draw women washing clothes by the river. The current exhibition features two pieces of washing paintings. One of his washing place paintings fetched a record 4.52 billion won, over 4.2 million U.S. dollars in an online auction in May 2007. People seem to stay the longest in front of this painting, not only because this is the highest priced Korean painting, but also because of its romantic history.

Park Soo-keun firmly believed that the best subject matter for art was human sincerity and goodness. His portrayal of human resilience and warm-heartedness in the most difficult times of Korean history, in addition to his artistic mastery and unique style, is what draws art lovers to see his works even 100 years after his birth and place him at the top of the most revered Korean artists of all time.