One of the greatest artists of South Korea namely Park Seo-Bo has died at the age of 91 due to lung cancer. He was born in Japanese occupied South Korea in 1931.

Park Seo-Bo was enrolled in fine arts at Hongik University to study Korean painting. Park came into light in art in late 1950s because of the avant-garde movement of young Korean artists that emerged during the period of political upheaval. Park first presented his work as a part of exhibition of contemporary Korean art in New York in 1957. This exhibition put Park and little known Korean art on international map.

Park was a leading player behind the Korean Informel movement, when Korean artists started challenging a style of painting that was heavily influenced by Western artists. Park was considered as the forefather of Korean contemporary art. He created abstract artworks on canvases and produced monochromatic works.

Despite the criticism, Park has remained a highly influential figure in Korean art. In 2021, Alexandra Munroe, the Guggenheim Museum’s senior curator for Asian art, described him as a “towering figure” in Korean culture.