Park, Seung-Soon

May 10 - 24. 2002

Park Seung-soon - Pursuit of Certainty of the Senses

Crisis in Painting

In painting, modernism emphasizes the flatness of the medium, and formalism aspires toward the aesthetic beauty therein. Thus, the modernist painter, according to Greenberg, attempts to distill the pure conditions of painting, while experimenting with new practices, and through the experiments recreates the conditions into practices that are possible given the cultural and historical present. So harshly defined, modernism in painting is destined to face the end of painting that the empty canvas suggests. It is by now clear that new possibilities in fine art cannot be determined for formalistic solutions alone. In the modernistic debate, the resentment of illusion and falsehood has led to the full detachment from the work on the flat surface where conceptual transitions were always possible, or to the exclusion of the asesthetic aspiration in painting, and thus the end of painting. The emphasis of the flatness, as modernism prescribes, has also led to the production of works that attempt to transcend the flatness, or a search for the concrete in what is old and traditional. Accordingly, the flat surface, which had been the central locus of the production of the abstract, narratives, ideologies and other symbols, lost its role to other media, and painting has become little more than the work of turning out decorative panels. The painter, while bound to the tradition of modernism and unable to make a u-turn to the past, is flooded with images and challenged to find new ways of expression that distinguish his/her work from those of others who work with other media. The identity and independence of painting is threatened, and the boundaries in fine art have become blurred. The crisis of painting is reflected in its diminishing profile as the instrument of cultural symbolism, in both the private and public spheres of life.

Changes in Painting

Abstract painting has been a consistent quest for development and transformation, for novelty and brilliance. Underscored by the artistic perception of freedom of expression, it has been an endeavor dominated by a standardized view of history that was male-oriented, evolutionary and progressive. Uniformly directed toward a single destination, it demanded only a single answer of painting. Closely related to this tendency has been the appreciation of art only in terms of the author or originality. There must be a restoration and redemption of painting, beyond the simple dimensions of modernism and the theories of abstract art, and through the uninhibited dissolution of the existing and standardized framework of understanding and approaches, in much the same fashion in which historicism was dismantled in the west. To the extent art becomes liberated from logics, conditions and paradigms, to that extent aesthetic judgement and artistic creation become more difficult. Still, the theories behind the evolution of art must be transcended so that the many possibilities of painting as the tool for expressing the divisions and complexities of human nature may be revisited. Painting is cultures way of sensing and perceiving things in reality. Historically and fundamentally, it is the changes in human life that had led to changes in painting.

Park Seung-soon

On first impression, Park Seung-soon s paintings are abstract. However, they are unbound by the formalistic logic of modernism or the uniform demands of abstract painting. They are sufficiently rooted in classical and orthodox methods. They are closer to the works of the impressionists, of Bonnard, Matisse and Braque than to those of modernism. In other words, more prominent in her work is the intense interest in expression and sensitivity than in the standard conditions of paintings. She freely dissects and rearranges and refines. Abstract painting, long struggling with the self-perception that further progress was not possible, tried to find a way out of the impasse by going three-dimensional. Park, however, preserves the flatness of the medium, experiments on it, boldly tries out new elements, draws out the abundant colors and lights, and fills the space with playful and generous lines, forms, and characters. Hers are very much the product of diligent hands and working with colors and brushes. They are full of the self-sufficiency of pure art, but they are not confined to any particular logic or concept. They are crafty and balanced in design, and full of taste. They are precise and yet flexible. The harmony and descriptiveness of the abundant colors reflects the joy of life. Underlying the beauty and decorativeness of the work is the authors warm and gentle view of life.

Park accepts the flatness of the medium, and yet she constantly changes it and erases it. In the sweet harmony of the colors one sees the gentle lines of primitive animals and plants. Straightness and roundness are sensually entangled. Luxurious and yet restrained, the images are refined. Graffiti-like drawings upon a plane of astute colors, upon colors upon colors, geometric figures and leaves appear and taper off. They tell of trembling hands, of vibration, of scent. It seems as if the painter is putting on a display of colors upon the square plane. The arrangement of the colors and the constitution of the space produce tension and vibration. At the center is the black, surrounded by the harmony of other colors. The brush leaves its trace, but the product is a collage. There are concrete forms, but also abstract colors. And they breathe together within the shared space. At once thoroughly calculating, they produce visual pleasure. And the result is works of art that are tasteful and classy.

Parks paintings combine the decorativenss of Matisse, the structure of Cezanne, and the collage of Braque. She embraces them all and branches out. Thus fulfilled, she keeps to the territory of painting. Fresh and simple, the structure is solid, and the beauty of the works renews the question regarding the new possibilities of painting. One is reminded of what Braque noted: the sense cannot be emulated or reproduced, for it is the seedling and the painting is the flower. Parks motif is nature and life. Her surface is filled with forms that allude to the natural growth and changes of living beings. Nature, reproduced in simple colors, lines and planes, is the nature she perceives and feels. The desire to express, to offer what her physical being has experienced is abundantly on display. She is in a constant self-reflection between what is felt and what is thought. She is in pursuit of the certainty of the senses. Her painting thus continue to evolve.