[Gallery Walk] The Last Three Unsigned Paintings... Why Did the Park Seo-Bo Art Museum Open with Another Artist?

Park Seo-Bo Art Museum Opens Beside His Yeonhui-dong Home and Studio, Spanning 2,000 Square Meters
Public Opening on the 21st; Debut Show Features 25 Works by Park Seo-Bo and 17 by Huong Do Dinh
From Park Seo-Bo’s Final White Myobeop to His Work

On the third floor of the Park Seo-Bo Museum are three paintings that Seobo Park (1931–2023) was unable to sign. These works, 'Myobeop No.230127,' 'Myobeop No.230128,' and 'Myobeop No.230129,' were all created in 2023, the year of his passing. Three white canvases, each standing 3.3 meters high and 1.92 meters wide, are displayed side by side in a gallery with an eight-meter ceiling. While alive, Park Seo-Bo reportedly wished to display these pieces together once the museum was built. The museum is now finished, but he never saw it—and the canvases remain unsigned.

Seobo Park's 'Myobeop No.230127', 'Myobeop No.230128', 'Myobeop No.230129' (2023) Park Seobo Foundation

The inaugural exhibition at the Park Seo-Bo Museum, which opens on August 21 in Yeonhui-dong, Seoul, is not a solo show of his work. Instead, it is a two-person exhibition titled ‘Park Seo-Bo and Huong Do Dinh: Emptying, That Fullness,’ showcasing both Park Seo-Bo, who was born in Korea, and Huong Do Dinh (born 1945), an artist born in Vietnam and active in France. The exhibition features 25 works by Park and 17 by Do Dinh. Despite the museum bearing Park’s name, his works do not monopolize the galleries. This reflects the Park Seo-Bo Foundation’s intention to make the museum a platform for exhibitions, research, and education that connects the past and present of Korean contemporary art, rather than simply functioning as a memorial hall for his work.

The relationship between the two artists is relatively recent. In the summer of 2023, while holding his first solo exhibition in Korea, Do Dinh visited Park Seo-Bo, who was battling lung cancer. This meeting occurred three months before Park’s death. They spoke different languages, but in a post on his social media, Park Seo-Bo wrote, “While Do Dinh and I do not share a common language, we did not need an interpreter,” speculating that perhaps this was because they had both spent their lives pursuing similar artistic practices. In fact, Do Dinh was the last overseas artist Park met before his death.

The curatorial language connecting these two artists is “emptiness.” Park Seo-Bo repeatedly attached wet hanji (Korean paper) to the canvas, then drew and pushed with pencils or tools. Do Dinh applied mineral pigments in dozens of ultra-thin layers. On one artist’s canvas, ridges are formed; on the other’s, layers of color accumulate. Though both are acts of addition, the finished works display fewer visible traces. The museum describes this as a shared sense of repetition, accumulation, and restraint.

Huong Dothin's Untitled (1990) Park Seo-bo Foundation

However, simply describing both artists as embodying “emptiness” risks glossing over their differences. In reality, those differences are what immediately strike viewers in the gallery. On Basement Level 2, in ‘SPACE Ø’, works from the 1990s by both artists are displayed together. Next to Park Seo-Bo’s hanji Myobeop is Do Dinh’s 1990 painting ‘Untitled’, featuring a pale blue surface divided by thin lines and stone-like rounded forms. While Park’s canvas fully preserves the repetitive movements of his hand in one direction, Do Dinh’s gestures appear submerged beneath the layers of pigment.

If Park Seo-Bo’s sense of time is etched into the surface, Do Dinh’s is buried within multiple layers of color. What makes this exhibition compelling is not grouping both artists under “Eastern meditation” or “the aesthetics of restraint,” but rather comparing their distinct materials and the speeds of their hands. The gallery’s dim lighting further invites close examination of the physicality of each surface.

On the second floor, in ‘SPACE 2’, only Park Seo-Bo’s works are displayed. This space traces his evolution from his black hanji Myobeop series to his colored hanji Myobeop pieces. In this room, the familiar label “Master of Dansaekhwa” feels somewhat inadequate. After the dominance of black and gray, red and yellow begin to appear. Since the 2000s, as Park brought more colors from nature onto the canvas, the Myobeop series became more vibrant than expected. According to the museum, his black works embody memories of a mother’s love and sacrifice, while his later color pieces express his hope that modern people would find solace in nature.

Huong Doddin 'X.K.N.31' Park Seo-bo Foundation

And then there is the third floor. The ‘cube’ designed by architect Choi Moon-Gyu boasts an eight-meter-high ceiling. Natural light streams through semi-transparent glass walls on all sides. At the center are Park Seo-Bo’s final three white Myobeop paintings. Viewed from the front, the canvases seem almost white, but stepping to the side reveals the texture of the hanji and subtle hints of blue. Rather than fixed lighting, the changing weather outside and the viewer’s position continuously alter the surface of the works.

On the opposite wall hangs Do Dinh’s ‘X.K.N.31’ (2025–2026), a painting created in memory of meeting Park Seo-Bo. In this space, Park’s last three unsigned works—completed until 2023—share the room with Do Dinh’s ongoing project inspired by their encounter. While the exhibition’s framing of their brief connection may strike some as overly romantic, especially in the basement galleries, in this final room it becomes clear that time has flowed differently for each artist since their meeting.

The museum itself is also imbued with Park Seo-Bo’s time. It stands next to his former home and studio in Yeonhui-dong, where he lived and worked. The building has two basement levels and three floors above ground, encompassing a total floor area of 2,000 square meters. There are three exhibition spaces, a community area, and small gardens on each floor. From the outside, the building resembles a white cube stacked atop a blue-green exterior. Large windows and gardens intersperse the route through the galleries, prompting visitors to occasionally shift their gaze outdoors.

Seobo Park (left) and Huong Do Dinh. Seobo Park Foundation

Museums built after the death of the artist whose name they bear are inevitably confronted with a dilemma: as time passes, the artist becomes defined only by “representative works” or a handful of descriptors—‘dansaekhwa,’ ‘Myobeop,’ ‘practice,’ and ‘healing’ in Park Seo-Bo’s case. Moreover, Park's works have already become a powerful brand in the global art market. The question is: how open can the museum remain with such a name?

In this context, Huong Do Dinh represents the museum’s first answer—albeit a relatively safe one—to that question. She shared a bond with Park Seo-Bo while he was alive, and their works are united by repetition, restraint, and painterly discipline. Displaying their pieces together results in harmony rather than conflict. Yet the true character of the museum as a “contemporary platform,” as described in its mission, is more likely to emerge in future exhibitions—with artists whose work is unlike Park’s, who challenge his aesthetic, or who read the era from perspectives other than that of Dansaekhwa.

Exterior of the Park Seo-Bo Museum. Park Seo-Bo Foundation

Since 1967, while painting the Myobeop series for over half a century, Park Seo-Bo also played a leading role in founding groups such as École de Seoul and Indépendant, helping to create opportunities for other artists. The foundation has announced that the museum will continue to support curated exhibitions of young artists, research initiatives, and educational programs. For this reason, it is less important how many of Park’s works are exhibited than who comes into the museum in his name going forward.

The three unsigned white Myobeop paintings remain on the third floor. Following an opening ceremony on August 20, the museum will welcome visitors beginning August 21. The inaugural exhibition will run until January 3 of next year. The museum is open from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m., Tuesday through Sunday, and admission is 5,000 won.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.