Highlights in the International Art World
This March I was in South Korea to explore the art market there. For years I have been following and admiring Park Seo-Bo’s works. He is one of the founders of Dansaekhwa, a group of painters that emerged in Korea in the mid 1970s.
Their technique is to push paint, soak canvas, drag pencils, rip paper and otherwise manipulate the materials of painting.
I was fascinated to visit him in his studio and home in Seoul. Byung Soo Cho, the architect of Park Seo-Bo’s home and studio cleverly harmonised his client’s art with the building. The studio door looks like one of his artworks.
As an Art Advisor, I would always recommend to buy Park Seo-Bo’s early Ecriture works from the 70s.
Studio visit of Jeong Yeon Do
Another highlight in South Korea was the studio visit of Jeong Yeon Do in Busan. He explained how he created an exhibition, in which he hung up rubbish and gave his visitors virtual reality glasses, which showed beautiful landscapes, while they were actually walking through a room full of rubbish.
Touching a rubbish bag felt like touching a liana.
He is an extraordinarily talented artist, who also had a major video installation shown in the Leeum Samsung Museum of Art, that I went to after the studio visit.
Art Basel Hong Kong
I also flew to Art Basel Hong Kong, which is a much smaller fair than Art Basel in Switzerland, but in a magical setting.
It was noticeable that many contemporary Asian artists clearly get some of their inspiration from Western artists
In particular I noticed similarities between Su Xiaobai and Gotthard Graubner, which as a German of course makes me smile.
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Rippling, 2018 by Su Xiaobai
New York during Frieze
For the first time I organised a 3 Day Art Trip to New York during Frieze.
I started off by introducing the works in the magnificent exhibition Spilling Over at the Whitney Museum to the clients who accompanied me on this trip. This was a good basis to explain further artworks at Frieze and TEFAF on the following days.
We also visited the studios of Bosco Sodi and Angel Otero, which everyone appreciated tremendously. Furthermore, we enjoyed delicious lunches, dinners and a cocktail invitation at the Peninsula and enjoyed great company.
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The group at Frieze -
Studio visit at Bosco Sodi
Intellectually stimulating conversations, lots of laughter and the mutual interest in art and culture contributed to the inspiring and positive atmosphere throughout the entire trip.
The exhibition of Ai Weiwei
Thanks to my friend Prof. Dr. Susanne Gaensheimer I got the chance to meet Ai Weiwei and listen to her asking him about his works in the fabulous K20 and K21 Museum in Düsseldorf - an exhibition called Wo ist die Revolution?
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Prof. Dr. Susanne Gaensheimer
with Ai Weiwei -
Artwork by Ai Weiwei
The exhibition shows Ai Weiwei’s diversity in using different materials from straw, to porcelain and even to lego to show his confrontation with the political situation in China and everywhere else in the world.
He is a remarkably mellow man with a great sense of humour despite having been imprisoned under the strictest observations for his opinions.