CHO YONG-IK (KOREA, B. 1934)

The rows of systematic marks that populate Cho Yong-Ik's paintings are identical yet individual, their creation motivated by the artist's deep interest in acts of meditation and repetition. Beginning in the 1940s, Cho began to create a series of paintings that involved applying a thin layer of paint onto canvas, and marking it with a scraper or finger to create marks in the wet pigment. Arranged in an orderly grid that conforms to the dimensions of the canvas, each mark is evidence of a single motion, forming a visual declaration of the artist's repeated movements.