Art I like - Park Seo Bo

In the 1970s "the father of Korean abstraction" painted a series he called Ecriture, consisting of pencil through wet paint on canvas. Click on the image to see the variety of these pencil marks -Modern, abstract calligraphy -
His focus is on gesture - extending himself onto the canvas and becoming one with his work.

The book from which these come has several essays on Park's work. One says: "The artist achieves a meditative state through the repetitive gestures of making this work. [The life force invested in the process of making] will, in turn, be conferred on viewers who invest in extended, contemplative consideration."

Subsequently Park has made paintings using layers of soaked Korean paper, through which he creates furrows, squeezes these into ridges, and then applies a range of colours. "The act of creating allows Park to empty his mind of all distractions, ideas and images. Through his art he achieves catharsis from the 'stresses and pains' of the world, and reaches a state where he is 'mindful' and 'present'. As he notes: 'Art is no longer the task of filling something, but a task of emptying something, and thus must involve throwing yourself away ... I want to reduce and reduce - to create pure emptiness. That is an 'Asian' idea, an approach to nature. nature and humans can connect in this way.' "