[Gallery Walk] The City and Self-Portrait Captured in Red... Seoyongseon 'My Name is Red'

Seoyongseon Solo Exhibition 'My Name is Red'
At Sogyeok-dong Art Sonje Center Until October 22
Highlighting a 50-Year Painting Journey Connected by 'Material, Environment, Myth'

A man with red eyes gazes at the audience. Although he appears like a monstrous human, viewers soon find themselves locking eyes and staring back. Artist Seo Yongseon described red as an infinitely transparent color. 'Self-Portrait with Red Eyes' captures the artist’s own transparent view of the world. His works possess a powerful allure that draws the audience’s gaze and empathy as strongly as their rough expressions.

Self-Portrait with Red Eyes, 2009, Acrylic on canvas, 259×194cm. Collection of Golfzon Newdin Holdings.
[Photo by Art Sonje Center]

A research and survey exhibition on Seo Yongseon titled Seo Yongseon: My Name is Red is being held at the Art Sonje Center in Sogyeok-dong, Jongno-gu, Seoul, until October 22.

Since the late 1970s, the artist has continuously explored the broad theme of ‘people-city-history’ in relation to Korea’s modernization, connecting it to ‘material-environment (nature)-myth.’ He has sought his own path within the lineage of Expressionism and New Figuration painting. Seo Yongseon’s painting journey spanning over 50 years can be summarized as an ‘essential inquiry into the medium of painting,’ ‘a contemporary awareness of the history that shapes us,’ and ‘a reflection on the origin of the world as a time and place of coexistence.’

The exhibition is divided into three parts. Part 1, ‘Gold,’ deals with the city, an important space in Seo Yongseon’s paintings. Part 2, ‘Black,’ explores the meanings of people, politics, history, and life. Part 3, ‘Butterfly,’ reveals the artist’s will toward a universal world and his attitude seeking new possibilities in art and life. The third part of the exhibition begins on September 15.

The exhibition’s theme is drawn from Orhan Pamuk’s novel Benim Adım Kırmızı (My Name is Red), set in the Ottoman Empire in 1591, where conflicts between tradition and the West unfold around painting and painters.

Seoyongseon, 'Sookdae Entrance 07:00?09:00' 1991, acrylic and vinyl technique on canvas, 180x230cm
Photo by Art Sonje Center

Seo Yongseon emphasized that “the city and people are at the center of my work.” His exploration of groups of figures during urbanization is evident in works set against the city backdrop with titles like In the City and People on the Street, as well as in portraits titled One Person, Two People, Three People, or Man, Woman, and in figure paintings named with words like Conflict and History.

The artist’s experience of the city began in Seoul, which was in ruins after the Korean War. As a child, he observed the city being rebuilt and the people living there. The period when he deliberately began painting the city was the 1980s and 1990s, when the new Seoul, Gangnam, started to take shape and economic development became visible, marking the start of rapid growth and expansion. He focused on the city’s changes, the moving people, and the urban landscape seen through transportation.

Rather than depicting the city itself, the artist concentrated on reinterpreting Seoul’s meaning as a place where past and present are condensed. Seoul is for him both a starting point and foundation for exploring the present. He expanded his research on cities and urban people from Seoul to New York, Berlin in Germany, Beijing in China, and Melbourne in Australia.

‘Gyeongja Rock’ (2014). [Photo provided by Art Sonje Center]

As captivating as his intense self-portraits is the work ‘Gyeong’ Character Rock (2014), which leads us to the era of Prince Suyang (Sejo). Sejo exiled Prince Geumseong, who supported King Danjong, to Sunheung. When Geumseong conspired to restore Danjong, Sejo ordered his execution and massacred the people of Sunheung, branding the area as a rebel village and closing it off. The blood of those who died in Jukgyecheon near Sosu Seowon spread to a village 10 ri away, which was named ‘Pikkeut Village,’ giving rise to the event called the ‘Jeongchuk Incident.’ The ‘Gyeong’ character rock is said to be the rock on which the magistrate of Punggi, Joo Sebung, carved the character ‘Gyeong’ and held rituals, as the restless spirits of those who died during the Jeongchuk Incident cried out every night. Seo Yongseon re-paints the red character ‘Gyeong’ as a reminder of awareness and practice for healing, reconciliation, and coexistence.

In this way, the artist’s exploration of historical events such as the Gyeyujeongnan coup, Japanese colonial rule, and the Korean War serves as material revealing how politics, detached from universal human life, creates catastrophic presents.

The 1996 work Donam-dong·Crosswalk, featured on the cover of writer Choi Inhun’s Bridge in the Sky/Duman River, is known for its dominant use of black. Black is as important to the artist as red, but it rarely appears prominently on the painting’s surface.

Politician, 1984, 1986, oil on canvas, 90×100cm. [Photo courtesy of Art Sonje Center]

The artist said, “In the 1990s, I think I looked at the city in a tense state. So the works from the 1990s have a meticulous aspect. But now, when I look at the city, I have the leisure to try to even sense its smell in some parts.”

He added, “Seeing this difference between the works of the 1990s and the 2000s could be one way to view this exhibition.”

Kim Jang-eon, director of the Art Sonje Center, said, “Through this exhibition, we aim to reconstruct Seo Yongseon’s painting world not confined to narrative and figurative frameworks but as a ‘pictorial space’?a figurative and sensory world?and to revisit the radical nature of Seo Yongseon’s paintings.”

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.