Park Dae Sung: Virtuous Ink, Contemporary Brush

(Los Angeles, CA—May 4, 2022) The Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA) presents Park Dae Sung: Virtuous Ink and Contemporary Brush, an exhibition spotlighting the artist’s large-scale ink paintings that portray contemporary subjects with calligraphic lines, effortlessly fusing the aesthetics of East and West.

Park Dae Sung (박대성 朴大成), born in 1945, during the waning days of Korea’s colonization by Japan, is one of the most prolific calligraphers and ink painters in South Korea today. Self-taught from the early age of five, Park is respected for his consummate command of the styles of legendary Chinese and Korean ink masters from centuries ago. Park has spent time in China and walked the Silk Road, searching for the meaning of hanja (Chinese characters), the aesthetic foundation of his calligraphy and paintings. The artist’s practice has matured into one that is refreshingly his own, unapologetic, open-minded, and free from conceptual boundaries, and his visual evolution has defied the polarity of categories like “traditional” and “contemporary.”

This exhibition is curated by Virginia Moon, Associate Curator, Korean Art at LACMA.