Park Seo-Bo, 〈Ecriture No. 15-70〉, 1970. Pencil and oil on canvas. ⓒthe artist, White Cube (Kitmin Lee).

The Langen Foundation presents the first solo exhibition in Germany by Park Seo-Bo(b. 1931) and Minjung Kim(b. 1962). Regarded as one of the leading figures in contemporary Korean art, Park Seo-Bo is credited as being the father of the ‘Dansaekhwa’ (Korean Monochrome Painting) movement. Born in 1931 in Yecheon, Gyeongbuk, Park was part of a generation that was deeply affected by the Korean War (1950–53) which divided the country into North and South. He began to experiment with Western abstraction, particularly with Art Informel, which he encountered during a stay in Paris in 1961. The exhibition takes place throughout the museum and includes 40 works that give a broad overview of his practice.

Trained in Korean watercolor painting and calligraphy from the age of nine, Minjung Kim uses traditional Korean techniques and materials to create her conceptual, mixed-media works. Her refined, minimalist language is profoundly informed by Taoist meditation but also an instinctive and very personal one. Minjung Kim's abstract paintings are created using layers of Hanji – a traditional Korean paper made from the inner bark of mulberry trees. Using the rhythm of her breath on a lit incense stick, she gently and rhythmically burns the edges of each individual strip, and using a traditional Korean gluing technique painstakingly collages these strips, layer by layer, onto a larger Hanji surface.