[...] Suh Seung-Won is a Zelig of Korean modern art: at various times, during his six-decade career, he has been a leading figure of Dansaekhwa and a founder of the ‘Origin’ group of hard-edged abstract painters. Little known in the US, his work seems long overdue for a retrospective here. This elegant show, which features paintings from the 1960s through to the ’80s, tracks Suh’s work from early, rough-edged minimalist forms in bright hues to later compositions in neutral tones, precisely layered and sanded. Suh began this later series when struck by the angle of moonlight cast through a traditional paper screen door; against the sea-blue of the gallery’s walls, the paintings’ luminous rhombi, obliquely projected, have a sense of suspended animation or oceanic drift.
September 13, 2019
