(Featured Artist) Next Dansaekhwa Star: Cultural Phenomenon of Park Daa Won Focusing on Calligraphic Art as Performance

HanKyung  Daily  NEWS

(Featured Artist) Next Dansaekhwa Star: Cultural Phenomenon of Park Daa Won 

Focusing on Calligraphic Art as Performance

Art of Dansaekhwa /Now here -Becoming 2015

PARK DAA WON 

Pioneering as Korea’s first generation of Post-Dansaekhwa movement, Park Daa Won show-cases 20 pieces of her well-known “Now Here” series at Joeun Gallery located at Hannam-dong. Exhibition continues until 29 September, 2016.  

Working in New York and Seoul, Park Daa Won’s works have already begun to receive attention from the public and art critics. Her canvas surfaces embody Eastern philosophies, declaring life into individual dots, brushstrokes, and space. Recent buzz on Park was on Samsung Group designating her “Now Here-In Blue” series as an iconic emblem to represent the company’s New Year’s greetings.

Works occupying the exhibition space are dots, elegant strokes, and tranquil margins laid out randomly on blue and brown backgrounds, displaying rhythmic movement and teeming with life. Visitors leave the gallery in the state of peace, having adopted a new and salubrious concept of time and space.

Beneath the randomly arranged dots and lines, the deep colors of the under paintings represent a vacuum in space, void of matter. Providence of the universe revealed through the canvas frames act as windows to mother-nature’s therapeutic rays of sunlight and endless horizons of sky and sea. Park’s visual references of the mysterious universe is apparent in her deep colors that convey richness and depth. Her works carry hidden energy and impart a sense of freedom. 

                                     

                    Now here-Becoming 2015  PARK DAA WON

Park Daa Won’s works start with drawing a line with a brush dipped in single-color paint onto the under painted canvas. Park’s abstract paintings cannot be but understood by intuition as the works embody the artist’s thoughts and meditation on her relationship with the universe, nature, others and self. Park Daa Won’s bold and decisive strokes have no reservation, leaving little room for compromise. Although it varies - swift or delayed, firm or fluid – the basis in fundamental energy is implied from the tips of her powerful brushstrokes.

Park’s works are not necessarily planned a priori or intended for some formative configuration; rather, her coincidental brush touches aim at some unique forms enabled by some sort of spirituality. Coexistence of contingency and certainty is combined with synchronicity of freedom and control; and these series of events breathe life onto the flat surface, thereby escalating tension throughout the canvas. These are evidence of the artist’s intense efforts to control and manage a given framework.

                             
                        Art oh Dansaekhwa / Now here in Blue 2016 / PARK DAA WON

Inspired by Park Daa won’s body of works, the art community is preparing to spring-off on a new monochrome movement stemming from Dansaekhwa. In 2012, major Korean monochrome artists Lee Ufan, Park Seobo, Ha Chong-Hyun to name a few, participated in a show titled ‘Dansaekhwa: Korean Monochrome Painting (National Museum of Contemporary Art)’ curated by art critic Yoon Jin Sub. In his recent essay for Park Daa Won, Yoon commented, "Through the course of inhaling and exhaling, and by biding with one’s time, Park shows her unique body of works with spontaneous and intuitive lines by summoning all her energy and spirits – an artistic performance and cultural phenomenon worth noting. Park Daa Won’s monochromatic paintings are both the Book of Life and the ultimate medium that reaches for the primitive universal phenomenon. It is clear then, that Park’s “Now Here” series are products of seasoned calligraphic skills stemming from ancient philosophy. What is the trajectory of her brush stroke? Where is the end of its journey? We are left wondering about the next chapter of Park Daa Won’s artistic career."

  Art of Dansaekhwa / Now here  / PARK DAA WON

(Featured Artist) Next Dansaekhwa Star: Cultural Phenomenon of Park Daa Won Focusing on Calligraphic Art as Performance

HanKyung  Daily  NEWS

(Featured Artist) Next Dansaekhwa Star: Cultural Phenomenon of Park Daa Won 

Focusing on Calligraphic Art as Performance

Art of Dansaekhwa /Now here -Becoming 2015

PARK DAA WON 

Pioneering as Korea’s first generation of Post-Dansaekhwa movement, Park Daa Won show-cases 20 pieces of her well-known “Now Here” series at Joeun Gallery located at Hannam-dong. Exhibition continues until 29 September, 2016.  

Working in New York and Seoul, Park Daa Won’s works have already begun to receive attention from the public and art critics. Her canvas surfaces embody Eastern philosophies, declaring life into individual dots, brushstrokes, and space. Recent buzz on Park was on Samsung Group designating her “Now Here-In Blue” series as an iconic emblem to represent the company’s New Year’s greetings.

Works occupying the exhibition space are dots, elegant strokes, and tranquil margins laid out randomly on blue and brown backgrounds, displaying rhythmic movement and teeming with life. Visitors leave the gallery in the state of peace, having adopted a new and salubrious concept of time and space.

Beneath the randomly arranged dots and lines, the deep colors of the under paintings represent a vacuum in space, void of matter. Providence of the universe revealed through the canvas frames act as windows to mother-nature’s therapeutic rays of sunlight and endless horizons of sky and sea. Park’s visual references of the mysterious universe is apparent in her deep colors that convey richness and depth. Her works carry hidden energy and impart a sense of freedom. 

                                     

                    Now here-Becoming 2015  PARK DAA WON

Park Daa Won’s works start with drawing a line with a brush dipped in single-color paint onto the under painted canvas. Park’s abstract paintings cannot be but understood by intuition as the works embody the artist’s thoughts and meditation on her relationship with the universe, nature, others and self. Park Daa Won’s bold and decisive strokes have no reservation, leaving little room for compromise. Although it varies - swift or delayed, firm or fluid – the basis in fundamental energy is implied from the tips of her powerful brushstrokes.

Park’s works are not necessarily planned a priori or intended for some formative configuration; rather, her coincidental brush touches aim at some unique forms enabled by some sort of spirituality. Coexistence of contingency and certainty is combined with synchronicity of freedom and control; and these series of events breathe life onto the flat surface, thereby escalating tension throughout the canvas. These are evidence of the artist’s intense efforts to control and manage a given framework.

                             
                        Art oh Dansaekhwa / Now here in Blue 2016 / PARK DAA WON

Inspired by Park Daa won’s body of works, the art community is preparing to spring-off on a new monochrome movement stemming from Dansaekhwa. In 2012, major Korean monochrome artists Lee Ufan, Park Seobo, Ha Chong-Hyun to name a few, participated in a show titled ‘Dansaekhwa: Korean Monochrome Painting (National Museum of Contemporary Art)’ curated by art critic Yoon Jin Sub. In his recent essay for Park Daa Won, Yoon commented, "Through the course of inhaling and exhaling, and by biding with one’s time, Park shows her unique body of works with spontaneous and intuitive lines by summoning all her energy and spirits – an artistic performance and cultural phenomenon worth noting. Park Daa Won’s monochromatic paintings are both the Book of Life and the ultimate medium that reaches for the primitive universal phenomenon. It is clear then, that Park’s “Now Here” series are products of seasoned calligraphic skills stemming from ancient philosophy. What is the trajectory of her brush stroke? Where is the end of its journey? We are left wondering about the next chapter of Park Daa Won’s artistic career."

  Art of Dansaekhwa / Now here  / PARK DAA WON

(Featured Artist) Next Dansaekhwa Star: Cultural Phenomenon of Park Daa Won Focusing on Calligraphic Art as Performance

HanKyung  Daily  NEWS

(Featured Artist) Next Dansaekhwa Star: Cultural Phenomenon of Park Daa Won 

Focusing on Calligraphic Art as Performance

Art of Dansaekhwa /Now here -Becoming 2015

PARK DAA WON 

Pioneering as Korea’s first generation of Post-Dansaekhwa movement, Park Daa Won show-cases 20 pieces of her well-known “Now Here” series at Joeun Gallery located at Hannam-dong. Exhibition continues until 29 September, 2016.  

Working in New York and Seoul, Park Daa Won’s works have already begun to receive attention from the public and art critics. Her canvas surfaces embody Eastern philosophies, declaring life into individual dots, brushstrokes, and space. Recent buzz on Park was on Samsung Group designating her “Now Here-In Blue” series as an iconic emblem to represent the company’s New Year’s greetings.

Works occupying the exhibition space are dots, elegant strokes, and tranquil margins laid out randomly on blue and brown backgrounds, displaying rhythmic movement and teeming with life. Visitors leave the gallery in the state of peace, having adopted a new and salubrious concept of time and space.

Beneath the randomly arranged dots and lines, the deep colors of the under paintings represent a vacuum in space, void of matter. Providence of the universe revealed through the canvas frames act as windows to mother-nature’s therapeutic rays of sunlight and endless horizons of sky and sea. Park’s visual references of the mysterious universe is apparent in her deep colors that convey richness and depth. Her works carry hidden energy and impart a sense of freedom. 

                                     

                    Now here-Becoming 2015  PARK DAA WON

Park Daa Won’s works start with drawing a line with a brush dipped in single-color paint onto the under painted canvas. Park’s abstract paintings cannot be but understood by intuition as the works embody the artist’s thoughts and meditation on her relationship with the universe, nature, others and self. Park Daa Won’s bold and decisive strokes have no reservation, leaving little room for compromise. Although it varies - swift or delayed, firm or fluid – the basis in fundamental energy is implied from the tips of her powerful brushstrokes.

Park’s works are not necessarily planned a priori or intended for some formative configuration; rather, her coincidental brush touches aim at some unique forms enabled by some sort of spirituality. Coexistence of contingency and certainty is combined with synchronicity of freedom and control; and these series of events breathe life onto the flat surface, thereby escalating tension throughout the canvas. These are evidence of the artist’s intense efforts to control and manage a given framework.

                             
                        Art oh Dansaekhwa / Now here in Blue 2016 / PARK DAA WON

Inspired by Park Daa won’s body of works, the art community is preparing to spring-off on a new monochrome movement stemming from Dansaekhwa. In 2012, major Korean monochrome artists Lee Ufan, Park Seobo, Ha Chong-Hyun to name a few, participated in a show titled ‘Dansaekhwa: Korean Monochrome Painting (National Museum of Contemporary Art)’ curated by art critic Yoon Jin Sub. In his recent essay for Park Daa Won, Yoon commented, "Through the course of inhaling and exhaling, and by biding with one’s time, Park shows her unique body of works with spontaneous and intuitive lines by summoning all her energy and spirits – an artistic performance and cultural phenomenon worth noting. Park Daa Won’s monochromatic paintings are both the Book of Life and the ultimate medium that reaches for the primitive universal phenomenon. It is clear then, that Park’s “Now Here” series are products of seasoned calligraphic skills stemming from ancient philosophy. What is the trajectory of her brush stroke? Where is the end of its journey? We are left wondering about the next chapter of Park Daa Won’s artistic career."

  Art of Dansaekhwa / Now here  / PARK DAA WON

Art of Tansaekhwa 
Park Daa Won 

 Art of Tansaekhwa
Now Here In Blue  /PARK DAAWON


PARK DAA  WON  was born in Daegu in 1957  and studied painting at the College of Design and Art, Yeungnam University.  Park is a petite woman with a gorgeous girly smile.  In contrast to her feminine physical appearance, her work is intriguingly masculine.  The masculinity of her recent body of work such as Now Here In Blue” and “Now Here-Becoming” series is manifested in the boldness, dynamics, vigour and energy which are expressed by her confident brushwork, as well as the carefully staged tensions between the painted image and empty spaces and the mobile and static.  This masculinity is perhaps derived from her aesthetic foundation largely shaped through her early childhood exposure to the Korean literati painting (‘Muninhwa’ in Korean and ‘Wenrenzhihua’ in Chinese), which was traditionally predominately practiced by men, especially scholar-gentlemen during the Joseon Dynasty (1392-1910). 

 Art of Tansaekhwa
Now Here  /PARK DAAWON

 Art of Tansaekhwa  
 Now Here- Becoming / PARK DAA WON

 Art of Tansaekhwa  
 Now Here- Becoming / PARK DAA WON

 Art of Tansaekhwa  
 Now Here- Becoming / PARK DAA WON

 Art of Tansaekhwa  
 Now Here- / PARK DAA WON

Growing up with a mother who ran a gallery, Park was extremely fortunate to see the original works of the last eminent Joseon literati masters like Byeong O Seo (1862-1935) at very early age.  In her first year at university, she had also a rare chance to see the original painting of “A Wintry Scene” (Sehando) is held in a private collection.  Wintry Scene is one of the best known works by by Jeong Hui Kim (1786-1857), who was a powerful scholar-official, an influential art critic and connoisseur, an acclaimed calligrapher and importantly, the most prominent literati painter of the late Joseon period.  Kim painted this piece during his exile (1840-1848) on Cheju Island.  The deliberately sketchy wintry scene, thereby creating an austere atmosphere, is designed to express the artist’s lonely inner self and his integrity.  Park’s “Now Here In Blue” and “Now Here-Becoming” series, despite of their contemporary medium and idioms, are connected to the essence of the Korean literati tradition exemplified by Kim.

 Art of Tansaekhwa  
 Now Here   / PARK DAA WON

 Art of Tansaekhwa  
 Now Here / PARK DAA WON

 Art of Tansaekhwa  
 Now Here- Becoming / PARK DAA WON

Park is,of course, not the only contemporary Korean artist who rediscovered the contemporary relevance of the calligraphy and brush-and-ink painting originated in ancient China and practiced widely in East Asia.  Not only Korean artists but also other Asian artists like Zao Wou-Ki (1920 –2013), as well as Western artists such as the French Art Informel painter Georges Mathieu (1921 –2012) and the American Abstract Expressionist Franz Kline (1910–1962), found inspiration in the tradition of East Asian calligraphy and ink painting in their search for an authentic way to express their emotions, inner world, psychological sates and spirituality.  According to the East Asian literati painting theory, first formulated in the 11^th century by Su Shih (1036-1101), a Northern Sung painter and calligrapher, the distinctive use of an individual artist’s brushwork could and should reveal chi, the spirit of Nature or the spirit of the artist herself or himself.  Park’s “Now Here In Blue” and “Now Here-Becoming” series are a contemporary reinterpretation of this theory.  Each piece of these series captures the arrested momentum of the varied breath, rhythmic energy flow, emotion, spiritual strength and psychological force of the artist, which is meant to animate or be re-produced in the mind of the viewer. 

 Art of Tansaekhwa  
 Now Here in Blue / PARK DAA WON

Art of Tansaekhwa  
 Now Here in Blue / PARK DAA WON

Art of Tansaekhwa  
 Now Here in Blue / PARK DAA WON

To arrive at this state, Park has refined necessary skills and techniques.  Her seemingly spontaneous and ‘natural’ brushwork is in fact a result of numerous rehearsals of swiftly making an image without drawing over the same line twice.  Before the performance of painting she meditates, and thus she has a clear vision of the images she is about to create.  Through this diligent practise regime, she has achieved a fine balance between the opposition of control and freedom or dynamism opposition of control and freedom or dynamism in  the  “Now Here In Blue” and “Now Here-Becoming” series. 

Art of Tansaekhwa /The Energy of Meditational Thought ----PARK DAA WON

Art of Tansaekhwa /PARK DAA WON

Now here 

The Energy of Meditational Thought

Park Daa Won  has expressed an interest in the universe, nature and the physical sciences for a significant amount of time.

Within that context, she believes that there is nothing absolute in what one sees.   

That which we see within this world is only part of the bigger picture.  The universe is not yet realized.  It is only observed in a general stage of latent dormancy.    

Moreover, any part of the universe may be representative of the entire. 

The basic formulation of anything is established from the interaction of light and energy.   

 Park  Daa Won    pours the wave onto the canvass as an attempt to illustrate and communicate the possibility of expanding the origin of the universe

 Park Daa Won’s work note…

Art of Tansaekhwa  /PARK DAA WON

We can suppose that fine art is the art of an expression of reproducing the things seen through artist's naked eye adding his esthetic sense, while abstract art is the art of expression based on his outlook on life, outlook on the world, creed.

 Seers are required a sincere attitude before an experimental philosophy developed from the experiences of an artist's imagery for it melted into the space as the lines, shapes, and colours generating its own wave

Art of Tansaekhwa  /PARK DAA WON

Now here -becoming

In the works of Park Daa Won, her deep introspection and time of pain endurance are put in.

Space time, lines and her identity are merged into the brush stroke expressed by quick, precise movement.

A stroke of her reveals the nature, a great deal of strokes can create and clear spirit of space time energy.

Artist Park  Daa Won express mental energy consistently by Zen oriented meditation and work of expressing thought.

Her drawing pass through the universe and touch the seers

It's so rare to have such wonderful experience that blood flows shuddering to the heart

                            Art of Tansaekhwa  /PARK DAA WON  / Now here 

She draws pictures alive, in other word, very difficult drawings.

She belongs to no school, and reveals unique individuality and characteristics in formalities and concept.

She was born in Daegu and spent her growth period with everything she wanted have.

Her home was filled with he works by Suk Je Byung Oh Suh, a great master in literary artist´s style painting in Yeongnam area, and painting books by the great artiests in Eastern, Western thanks to her parents who love art, and she remembers the saying of Seo Dong Kyun she heard when she was a girl that lines should be drawn by the spirit.

                  Art of Tansaekhwa  /PARK DAA WON  / Now here 

She leant calligraphy from childhood and she makes her brush stroke as if it breaths which influences greatly on her current art activity

The fact she started from fine art and then shifted into abstract and even showed video installation work which is very helpful to understand her painting style.

Her work career and identity continued to pile up and melted into her drawings naturally while she is being an artist as a good nutritious element

Art of Tansaekhwa  /PARK DAA WON

Now here 

About the glory of wave- now here

The art that making much of mentality should attempt to be delivered from a confinement of a certain image

It requires a long hours of discipling one´s mind through meditation to draw an 

 essentially rather than just to draw a certain subject and then the skill of a quick and strong brush stroke will be obtained.

Wave-Becoming is the expression of energy cleaning the dregs within the human being by communicating with the universe with a stroke of line and dot to purify us and the world and her spirit communicating interchanging through time space within the creation of the universe.

Her art world is filled with Zen oriented meditation, with the work seeking for the value in the silence, wave seeking for the preciousness of pure sensitivity and symbolic elements, and then developed into a shivering

Art of Tansaekhwa  /PARK DAA WON

Now here -becoming

The spirit of the universe is on the wave and poured onto the canvas

She related the theme of the work also to the 'Wave'

The Wave here means the 'movement' of the breath, the 'movement' of the wind or the 'movement' of the water.

She looks the fundamental spirit of life squarely and draws the essentiality of everything in the universe.

Art of Tansaekhwa  /PARK DAA WON

Now here in Blue

Art of Tansaekhwa  /PARK DAA WON

Now here in Blue

And roaming about the world meditating and thinking the essentiality and origin.

Interpreted the 'wave' as a 'roam'

She is roaming on the canvas and the world to find the origin, true nature of life and spirit

Her works, possessing mental energy from meditation and thought, and the spirit of the universe, are occupied by the simplified forms without superfluousness 

Her paintings are alive and present the watchers catharsis

Art of Tansaekhwa  /PARK DAA WON

Daa Won Park put herself in the middle of mixed lines and dots

Her art work is trembling in our lives

Her brushstroke is made precisely emptying and filling the canvas for the completion of the work which can't be done again

She would continue to do her best until her mind and body feel the utmost fulfillment

for such temperate work.

 

Art of Tansaekhwa  /PARK DAA WON

Now here 

Western abstract art developed into different form from the Western after it had landed in Korea in1960s

The modern abstract painting of Korea achieved an internationalization of Korean art

through combination of the autograph of oriental painting that Korean hold intuitively, the technique of calligraphy and the minimalism, the property of which reinforced by itself, and DaaWon Park is at the top of the context seems to be similar but completely different in Oriental spirit and western formative method.

In the flow of the changing and complicated modern art she is looking for her unique origin. I am looking forward to her movement calm and forcible brush stroke.

- Extracted from a critique and arranged.

Art of Tansaekhwa  /PARK DAA WON

Now here -becoming

Art of Dansaekhwa / Artist PARK DAA WON's STUDIO in KOREA

PARK DAA WON's STUDIO