Lehmann Maupin is pleased to announce its representation of Suh Se Ok, and the artist’s debut exhibition in New York. The 89-year-old South Korean artist will exhibit a number of works from People, his ongoing series of ink paintings produced between the 1960s and the 2000s. Made with extended brushes on large sheets of rice and mulberry paper, the works depict highly stylized human figures constructed from dashes and linear strokes that vary in scale, thickness, and tone. Each painting is made quickly, but only after an extended period of contemplation, and the result has a quiet but focused visual poetry that rewards repeated looking. The gallery will host an opening reception on Saturday, September 8, from 6 to 8 PM at 536 West 22nd Street.

As a classical technique, ink painting has long been distinguished by certain conventions. But beginning in the 1950s, Suh Se Ok began adapting the elements of what is known as “literati painting” called Muninhwa, derived from calligraphy and poetry and traditionally practiced by noble scholars. In this approach, Suh Se Ok developed a new, progressive and abstract visual language that refused the modernist spirit of heedless novelty in favor of one that also embraced and expanded on historical precedent. Suh Se Ok’s initial approach to the medium was then disruptive, but was also marked by great sensitivity and intelligence. Neither was he alone in his emphases; in 1959, he formed a group called the Mungnimhoe, or Ink Forest Society, which strived for unique styles of experimental ink painting that had its roots in literati painting.