Song Burnsoo Korea, 1943-2026

Song Burnsoo is a leading figure of Korean modernism and a formative member of the Korean avant-garde movement. Spanning over half a century, Song developed an entirely new aesthetic interpretation of Korean painting traditions, contemplating existential themes through a deeply spiritual and formally innovative lens.

From the early stages in his career until the 1970s, his practice was informed by his encounters with social injustice, propelling him to voice himself critically through provocative prints, which borrowed from pop art elements. During his years in Paris, Song started experimenting with tapestry. The works conceived in this early stage of his career earned him popular and critical acclaim. Woven in a sophisticated manner, these works are grounded in and titled after profoundly personal experiences, and widely considered to represent his style. Upon his return from Paris in the mid 1970s, the thorn and its shadow became major motifs in his work. Deriving from his depiction of roses, which frequently appear in his print works, the sharp thorn protruding in all directions became a symbol intrinsically linked with Song’s artistic persona. As he deepened his spiritual reflection, his practice grew alongside his religious contemplation. Individual or clusters of thorns, which appear to emerge from within the canvas, effectively evoke notions of pain and sacrifice, darkness and hope, at once imbuing his paintings with tension and tangibility. In his most recent works, Song extended the symbolic meaning of the thorn from its solitary unit to planets, constellations and clusters, echoing his early, masterful witnessing of the world’s wonders.

From 1980 to 2008, Song served as professor at Hongik University’s College of Fine Arts, dedicating himself to the education of younger generations of artists. He later served as director of the Daejeon Museum of Art and was subsequently named Professor Emeritus at Hongik University. In 1998, he founded Museum of Maga to support the study and advancement of fiber art and continued to serve as its director. He received the Presidential Award of the Order of National Service Merit in Korea in 2000 and was awarded the Grand Prize at the International Tapestry Exhibition Celebrating the Millennium of the foundation of the Hungarian State in 2001.

Along with the large-scale retrospective, Song Burnsoo_Pantomime of 50 Years in the MMCA in 2017, his work was exhibited at major institutions including SeMA - Photography Seoul Museum of Art, Gyeonggi Museum of Modern Art, Daejeon Museum of Art, Busan Museum of Art, Kumho Museum of Art, Youngeun Museum of Contemporary Art, Ilmin Museum of Art, Itami Craft Center, Tokyo Metropolitan Art Museum, Contemporary Art Space Osaka, and Museum of Fine Arts Budapest. His works are held in the collections of the MMCA, Seoul Museum of Art, Busan Museum of Art, Daejeon Museum of Art, the National Museum of Budapest, Museum Art.Plus in Germany, and the HQ of the Korean U.N. in Geneva, among other institutions.