Daesung Park

Park Dae Sung (b. 1945) is an artist (pen name: Sosan) who has established independent territory in the Korean art scene by cultivating a unique painting style while succeeding the Korean ink painting traditions. He reinterprets traditional Korean sumuk (water and ink) painting in a contemporary way yet still follows the pedigree of Shillong (actual-view) landscape painting. In the 2000s, becoming interested in calligraphy, the artist began studying the formative aspects of characters, and he attempted to express the feelings of tension and vital energy found in the rapid, single strokes of traditional calligraphy through the use of powerful brush strokes in his picture-planes. The natural landscapes and objects portrayed in strong brush strokes were embodied in rough, restrained forms rather than detailed depictions. Moreover, Park has utilized multiple perspectives to complete diverse and dynamic spaces. He has, in other words, experimented with semi-abstract contemporary Korean painting through a restrained depiction using the lines of calligraphy and distorted representation of space. Park’s unique formative characteristics, beginning from the origin of Eastern traditional formative art called calligraphy, enabled him to create diverse variations at the tip of his brush, and his spaces of altered perspectives have added a contemporary feeling to his sumuk painting. This “way of the brush” discovered by Park Dae Sung is clearly the solution he has found for Korean painting.