Park Rehyun
박래현 (朴崍賢)
Born	(1920-04-13)April 13, 1920 Jinnampo, South Pyongan Province, Japanese Korea (now Nampo, South Pyongan Province, North Korea)
Died	January 2, 1976(1976-01-02) (aged 55) Seoul, South Korea
Nationality	South Korean
Alma mater	Tokyo Women's School of Fine Arts
Spouse	Kim Ki-chang
Family	4 children

Park Rehyun (Korean: 박래현; Hanja: 朴崍賢,1920–1976) was a Korean painter. She is regarded as a pioneer of modern Korean art during the late Japanese Colonial period and the following decades.^[1]

Biography

Park was born in the city of Jinnampo in South Korea's South Pyongan Province. Graduating from Gyeongseong high school in 1937, she entered the Tokyo Women's School of Fine Arts in 1941 during the Japanese occupation of Korea.^[2]

Park married a celebrated artist, Kim Ki-chang, with whom she presented exhibitions and private showcases, helped highlight her work though she was already beginning her journey by herself. Her works sought to use oriental materials to provide for western-style artwork. A pioneering woman painter, she rejected prejudices against women and completed her own paintings with passion.^[3]

Her youngest daughter, who is a nun in South Korea, said in an interview that she had spent her life as a good mother, as well as a committed painter and wife.^[4]

In 1976, Park died of liver cancer at her residence in Seongbuk District, Seoul.^[5]

Works

She made her debut by being accepted to the Chosen Art exhibition of the Governor-General of Korea in 1943. Later, she was awarded the first prize given by the President of the Republic of Korea and grand prize in the National Art exhibition of Korea, gaining her wider attention.

She participated in domestic art exhibitions until the early 1960s and then flew to São Paulo Biennale as an official South Korean delegate.^[6] After finishing her work, she visited several nations in Latin America, including Mexico, then studied tapestry and printmaking in New York City.^[7]

Briefly, her works can be separated into 4 time periods. The first (1940s) concentrated on Japanese paintings and figure paintings. The second (1950s) challenged her own work with traditional materials of oriental painting in a western-drawing manner; her pieces at this time produced half-abstract paintings by interpreting cubism and partition of the canvas in an analytic method. The third phase (1960s) began experimenting abstractionism, and the fourth period (1970s) made use of printmaking skills in creative drawing.^[8]

Notes

• 韓國現代作家十人(吳光洙, 悅話堂, 1977)
• 雨鄕 朴崍賢(庚美文化社, 1978)

References