{
"data": {
"id": 378677,
"accession_number": "2021.102",
"share_license_status": "Copyrighted",
"tombstone": "Person, early 2000s. Suh Se Ok (Korean, 1929\u20132020). Ink on mulberry paper; paper: 130.5 x 139 cm (51 3/8 x 54 3/4 in.); framed: 146.3 x 155.5 x 6 cm (57 5/8 x 61 1/4 x 2 3/8 in.). The Cleveland Museum of Art, John L. Severance Fund, 2021.102. \u00a9 the Estate of Suh Se Ok. Courtesy Lehmann Maupin, New York, Hong Kong, and London",
"current_location": null,
"title": "Person",
"creation_date": "early 2000s",
"creation_date_earliest": 2000,
"creation_date_latest": 2004,
"artists_tags": [
"male",
"Asian (from 1900 to present)"
],
"culture": [
"Korea"
],
"technique": "Ink on mulberry paper",
"support_materials": [],
"department": "Korean Art",
"collection": "Korean Art",
"type": "Drawing",
"measurements": "Paper: 130.5 x 139 cm (51 3/8 x 54 3/4 in.); Framed: 146.3 x 155.5 x 6 cm (57 5/8 x 61 1/4 x 2 3/8 in.)",
"dimensions": {
"framed": {
"height": 1.463,
"height_inch": 57,
"height_inch_fraction": 0.625,
"width": 1.555,
"width_inch": 61,
"width_inch_fraction": 0.25,
"depth": 0.06,
"depth_inch": 2,
"depth_inch_fraction": 0.375
},
"paper": {
"height": 1.305,
"height_inch": 51,
"height_inch_fraction": 0.375,
"width": 1.39,
"width_inch": 54,
"width_inch_fraction": 0.75
}
},
"state_of_the_work": null,
"edition_of_the_work": null,
"copyright": "\u00a9 the Estate of Suh Se Ok. Courtesy Lehmann Maupin, New York, Hong Kong, and London",
"inscriptions": [],
"exhibitions": {
"current": [
{
"id": 443874,
"title": "Creating Urgency: Modern and Contemporary Korean Art",
"description": "Creating Urgency: Modern and Contemporary Korean Art. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (April 22-October 23, 2022).",
"opening_date": "2022-04-22T04:00:00"
},
{
"id": 677112,
"title": "Juxtaposition and Juncture in Korean Modern and Contemporary Art",
"description": "Juxtaposition and Juncture in Korean Modern and Contemporary Art. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (March 21, 2025-May 3, 2026).",
"opening_date": "2025-03-21T04:00:00"
}
],
"legacy": []
},
"provenance": [
{
"description": "(Lehmann Maupin Gallery, New York, NY, sold to the Cleveland Museum of Art)",
"citations": [],
"footnotes": null,
"date": "?\u20132021",
"sortorder": 1
},
{
"description": "The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH",
"citations": [],
"footnotes": null,
"date": "2021\u2013",
"sortorder": 2
}
],
"find_spot": null,
"related_works": [],
"former_accession_numbers": [],
"did_you_know": "The artist's son, Do Ho Suh (\uc11c\ub3c4\ud638, b. 1962), is also an artist, who reinterprets Korea\u2019s traditional house or hanok, exploring the concept of home and space.",
"early_education_description": null,
"artlens_description": null,
"description": "Starting in the 1960s, Suh Se Ok focused on dismantling the boundary between the abstract and the figurative, and calligraphy and drawing, as a way to reimagine the Korean ink-painting tradition, which often stresses figurative realism. To visualize the strong gestural movement delivered by a massive amount of ink, the artist dashed a large brush over a sheet of thick and fibrous Korean mulberry paper. Here, he transformed the ink into a colossal abstract symbol, which evokes two classical Chinese characters: big (\u5927) and person (\u4eba). Perhaps, the artist wanted to remind the viewer of monumental historical events achieved by everyday heroes.",
"external_resources": {
"wikidata": [
"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q117244528"
],
"internet_archive": []
},
"citations": [
{
"citation": "\u201cInstallation. Creating Urgency: Modern and Contemporary Korean Art.\u201d Cleveland Art: Cleveland Museum of Art Members Magazine 62, no. 2 (2022): back cover.",
"page_number": "Reproduced and Mentioned: Back cover.",
"url": ""
}
],
"url": "https://clevelandart.org/art/2021.102",
"images": {},
"alternate_images": [],
"creditline": "John L. Severance Fund",
"image_credit": null,
"sketchfab_id": null,
"sketchfab_url": null,
"gallery_donor_text": null,
"athena_id": 378677,
"creators": [
{
"id": 378678,
"description": "Suh Se Ok (Korean, 1929\u20132020)",
"extent": null,
"qualifier": null,
"role": "artist",
"biography": "Korean painter and professor of art, who pioneered contemporary abstract ink painting on the basis of literati painting.",
"name_in_original_language": "\uc11c\uc138\uc625",
"birth_year": "1929",
"death_year": "2020",
"use_in_caption": true,
"include_extent": false,
"weight": 1
}
],
"legal_status": "accessioned",
"accession_date": "2021-06-07T00:00:00-04:00",
"sortable_date": 2000,
"date_added_to_oa": null,
"date_text": "early 2000s",
"collapse_artists": false,
"on_loan": false,
"recently_acquired": false,
"record_type": "object",
"conservation_statement": null,
"has_conservation_images": false,
"cover_accession_number": null,
"is_nazi_era_provenance": false,
"impression": null,
"alternate_titles": [],
"is_highlight": false,
"updated_at": "2026-08-13 11:44:38.047000"
}
}