RHEE SEUNDJA (KOREA, 1918-2009)

Born in 1918, Rhee Seundja is one of the pioneers of Korean modern abstract painting. Rhee studied painting in Paris in the 1950s where she explored the diverse abstract art movements taking place in Europe at that time, and began to create pure abstract art in 1956. Rhee Seundja's art is magnificently beautiful and exquisite, with traditional Korean images often incorporated and reinterpreted. Simple composition arranged with several geometric shapes, unique colour application, and repeated brushstrokes consisting of dots and lines of multiple layers have come to form Rhee's distinctive style. The repeated gesture was considered by the artist as an alternative form of implanting and cultivating. Combining Eastern philosophy with Western medium, the influence that Rhee Seundja had in Dansaekhwa and Korean abstract painting was immensely profound.