SON Jangsup

Nature in Son Jang Sup’s works is closely connected with the history of the people. In Son’s recent works from the 2000s, nature shifts from a background for the people’s lives and becomes the people themselves. For that reason, the elements that signify or are directly related to the lives of the people disappear in his works. In short, Son’s understanding of the people is reflected in his works through his observation and representation of nature.
With this idea in mind, what is the meaning of the people depicted as trees and landscapes? The people are not depicted as oppressed or suffering, nor as resisting and antagonistic, as they were in Son’s historical paintings from the 1980s. Instead, the people are depicted as silent as the trees and mountains in his later work. However, this silence does not imply incapacity or passivity. In fact, it signifies just the opposite. The silence represents the most powerful resistance and the most determined and energetic force of the people. The calm and non-boisterous tree that exists and protects itself in one place for over 500 years is the very image of the essential force of history and life: Minjung (the people). Son Jang Sup grasps the vitality and strength of the people and symbolically equates it to nature’s force and strength, a force evident in his trees and landscapes. His work captures this essential power as silent and tranquil, yet always as dynamic, embodying the spiritual sublimity of this force in his work.
Excerpt from Yoo Hyejong’s Painting as Tangible Vestige of History: SON Jang Sup’s Paintings from the 2000s

 

 

 

SON Jangsup
Born in 1941, Wando, Korea

EDUCATION
1961-63    BFA painting, Hongik University, Seoul, Korea

SELECTED SOLO EXHIBITION
2017    SON Jang Sup: Painting as Tangible Vestige of History, Hakgojae Gallery, Seoul, Korea
2012    Kwanhoon Gallery, Seoul, Korea
2009    Son Jang Sup’s Life and Hills and Fields, Gyeomjae Jeongseon Art Museum, Seoul, Korea
2005    Posco Gallery, Pohang, Korea
2003    Kumho Museum of Art, Seoul, Korea
1999    10th Lee Joong Sup Award Exhibition, Chosunilbo Art Museum, Seoul, Korea
1998    Kumho Museum of Art, Seoul, Korea
1995    A Big Tree, Ilmin Art Hall, Seoul; Space Wellside, Seoul, Korea
1981    Grorich Gallery, Seoul; Namkyung Gallery, Gwangju, Korea
1978    Korea Press Center, Seoul, Korea

SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITION
2016    Art in Society – Land of Happiness, Seoul Museum of Art, Seoul, Korea
2013    In Search of Lost Time, OCI Museum of Art, Seoul, Koera
2011    Korean Rhapsody: A Montage of History and Memory, Samsung Museum of Art Leeum, Seoul, Korea
2004    Korean Modern Art, Kumho Museum of Art, Seoul, Korea
2004    Declaration of Peace 2004 – 100 International Artists, National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Gwacheon, Korea
2002    History and Consciousness, Real View of the Dokdo, Seoul National University Museum, Seoul, Korea
1999    Korean Art 99 – Human, Nature, Object, National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Gwacheon, Korea
1996    Korean Representative Poets, Hakgojae Gallery, Seoul, Korea
1994    15 years of Minjung Art: 1980-1994, National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Gwacheon, Korea
1992    An Aspect of Korean Art from the ‘90s, Hakgojae Gallery, Seoul; Hyun Gallery, Seoul; Gallery Sang Moon Dang, Seoul; Garam Gallery, Seoul, Korea