Culture Minister Yoon In-chon Pays Condolences at the Funeral of 'Monochrome Master' Painter Park Seo-bo

Memorial Service on the 16th, Funeral on the 17th

‘Monochrome Master’ Park Seo-bo (real name Park Jae-hong), the renowned painter, passed away peacefully at the age of 92 on the 14th, and condolences from cultural figures continue to pour in.

Master of 'Dansaekhwa', artist Park Seo-bo, passed away on the 14th at the age of 92. Earlier this year in February, Park announced on social media that he had been diagnosed with stage 3 lung cancer. The photo shows Park's funeral hall set up at Seoul National University Hospital in Jongno-gu, Seoul on the day.
[Image source=Yonhap News]

At the funeral hall set up at Seoul National University Hospital in Jongno-gu, Seoul, President Yoon Suk-yeol, Minister of Culture, Sports and Tourism Yoo In-chon, and Chairman of the Korea Arts Council Jeong Byeong-guk sent floral tributes to express their condolences.

Minister Yoo In-chon visited the funeral hall on the afternoon of the 15th, offered flowers and prayers, and conveyed his sympathies to the bereaved family.

After revealing his diagnosis of stage 3 lung cancer in February, Park continued his active work, so many figures from the art world and other fields could not hide their sorrow at the sudden news of his passing.

Born in 1931 in Yecheon, Gyeongbuk, he graduated from the Department of Painting at Hongik University. In 1956, together with Kim Young-hwan, Kim Chung-sun, and Moon Woo-sik, he announced the Anti-National Exhibition Declaration through the ‘Four-Person Exhibition,’ rising as a star of the art world as a pioneer of Informel.

Introducing abstract art to Korea, which was culturally barren in the 1950s, he participated in the World Youth Artists Paris Festival in 1961 and developed the ‘Protoplasm’ series based on the aesthetics of Abstract Expressionism. From the mid-1960s, he presented more advanced Abstract Expressionism through the ‘Genetic Matter’ and ‘Illusion’ series. From the 1970s, he attempted a new transition through ‘Ecriture.’

His representative work, ‘Ecriture (묘법·描法),’ which he called ‘The Journey of the Hand,’ marked the pinnacle of Park’s painting career and brought him international fame.

He served as a professor (1962-1997) and dean (1986-1990) at Hongik University College of Fine Arts. In 2000, he was appointed honorary professor and was active as chairman (1977-1980) and advisor (1980) of the Korea Fine Arts Association. He was awarded the Order of Civil Merit, Pomegranate Medal in 1984, the Order of Cultural Merit, Ok-gwan in 1994, the Order of Cultural Merit, Silver Crown in 2011, and the Order of Cultural Merit, Gold Crown in 2021.

Minister of Culture, Sports and Tourism Yoo In-chon is paying his respects at the funeral hall of the late master of Dansaekhwa, painter Park Seo-bo, set up at Seoul National University Hospital on the afternoon of the 15th.
[Image source=Yonhap News]

The memorial service will be held on the 16th. The ceremony will be led by artist Joo Tae-seok, and eulogies will be read by Bae Soon-hoon, chairman of the Park Seo-bo Scholarship Foundation, artist Seo Seung-won, Tabata Yukihito, representative of Tokyo Gallery + BTAP, and Professor Ki Hye-kyung of Hongik University, mourning the deceased.

The funeral procession will take place at 7 a.m. on the 17th, and the burial site is Bundang Memorial Park in Seongnam, Gyeonggi Province.

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