Re-Hyun Park Art for Sale at Auction

b. 1920 - d. 1976

Park Re-hyun (1920-1976) is one of the first modern artists in Korea, having studied at the Women's Academy of Fine Arts in Tokyo in the early 1940s and holding her first solo exhibition in 1946. However, her second solo exhibition was about 30 years later in 1974, when she presented her works with her husband Kim Ki-chang.

A retrospective on Park on the occasion of the 100th anniversary of her birth at the National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art (MMCA), Deoksugung, sheds light on the pioneer of modern art who experimented with Korean-style printmaking and tapestry.

The exhibit's title "Park Rehyun Retrospective: Triple Interpreter" comes from her wearing many hats ? an artist, wife and artistic partner of the hearing-impaired artist Kim.

Park studied art in Tokyo during the Japanese occupation of Korea, but pursued modern and abstract painting and print combining Korean traditional elements. Despite her artistic achievements, Park is more remembered as a devoted wife of Kim, who is known for interpreting the life of Jesus Christ in Korean style.

The event presents a comprehensive retrospective, from Park's early award-winning works to her shift to abstract art as well as her printmaking experiments combining Korean traditional ink-and-wash painting in her latter years, before her life was cut short by liver cancer.

MMCA director Youn Bum-mo expressed gratitude to the collectors who held onto Park's works for decades and cooperated for this exhibit, bringing them to light.

"This exhibition will be an opportunity to reevaluate artist Park Re-hyun, a pioneer who left a prominent mark as a female artist in the male-centered Korean art scene," Youn said.

While studying in Japan, Park won the Governor's Award for her painting "Make-up" in the 1943 Joseon Art Exhibition. The painting is in Japanese style, depicting a woman wearing in front of a mirror. It mirrors many of Park's characteristics, including empty background, correct body proportion and dignified female figure.

Park first met Kim when she temporarily returned to Korea to receive the award. They married three years later and her marriage with Kim was a hot issue in the art community back then as Kim was hearing-impaired and only completed elementary school, while Park was a modern woman who studied abroad in Japan.

After marrying Kim, Park tried to balance her domestic life with her artistic career. Instead of holding a solo exhibition, Park held exhibitions with her husband and tried to find inspiration from daily life while raising her four children.