Hyun-Sook Song’s practice embraces the act of painting as physical-performative event that occurs in a state of complete concentration and meditation.

Hyun-Sook Song
3 Brushstrokes, 2019
Tempera on canvas
160 × 250 cm
63 × 98 3/8 inches
Hyun-Sook Song’s practice embraces the act of painting as physical-performative event that occurs in a state of complete concentration and meditation.
Hyun-Sook Song
3 Brushstrokes, 2019
Tempera on canvas
160 × 250 cm
63 × 98 3/8 inches
Hyun-Sook Song
3 Brushstrokes, 2019 (detail)
Hyun-Sook Song
3 Brushstrokes, 2019 (detail)
Hyun-Sook Song
3 Brushstrokes, 2019 (scale image)
Hyun-Sook Song
3 Brushstrokes, 2019
Tempera on canvas
160 × 250 cm
63 × 98 3/8 inches
Hyun-Sook Song
3 Brushstrokes, 2019
Tempera on canvas
160 × 250 cm
63 × 98 3/8 inches
Hyun-Sook Song
3 Brushstrokes, 2019 (detail)
Hyun-Sook Song
3 Brushstrokes, 2019 (detail)
Hyun-Sook Song
3 Brushstrokes, 2019 (scale image)
Hyun-Sook Song’s first solo exhibition at Sprüth Magers, Berlin features both new and older large-scale paintings that give a comprehensive insight into her artistic oeuvre.
Hyun-Sook Song
12 Brushstrokes, 2021
Tempera on canvas
160 × 200 cm
63 × 78 3/4 inches
Hyun-Sook Song
12 Brushstrokes, 2021 (detail)
Hyun-Sook Song
12 Brushstrokes, 2021 (detail)
Hyun-Sook Song
12 Brushstrokes, 2021 (scale image)
Hyun-Sook Song
12 Brushstrokes, 2021
Tempera on canvas
160 × 200 cm
63 × 78 3/4 inches
Hyun-Sook Song
12 Brushstrokes, 2021
Tempera on canvas
160 × 200 cm
63 × 78 3/4 inches
Hyun-Sook Song
12 Brushstrokes, 2021 (detail)
Hyun-Sook Song
12 Brushstrokes, 2021 (detail)
Hyun-Sook Song
12 Brushstrokes, 2021 (scale image)
Hyun-Sook Song’s first solo exhibition at Sprüth Magers, Berlin features both new and older large-scale paintings that give a comprehensive insight into her artistic oeuvre.
Song’s painting, which began with an unleashing of calligraphic characters in the 1970s, remains an exploration of memory to this day. Her brushstrokes and the colors she chooses convey a sense of longing, give shape to memories of a homeland that no longer exists.
Though reduced in terms of coloring and formal vocabulary, the variations are endless. The works can be viewed from both an abstract-meditative and a figurative-symbolic perspective. Yet Song’s paintings do not depict objects, and their titling further underscores the absence of a narrative—they are rather an expression of Song’s memory of certain objects. The artist’s painting technique translates it into brushstrokes that evoke associations with recurring forms from her homeland.
Hyun-Sook Song
8 Brushstrokes, 2021
Tempera on canvas
170 × 120 cm
67 × 47 1/4 inches
Hyun-Sook Song
8 Brushstrokes, 2021 (detail)
Hyun-Sook Song
8 Brushstrokes, 2021 (detail)
Hyun-Sook Song
8 Brushstrokes, 2021 (scale image)
Hyun-Sook Song
8 Brushstrokes, 2021
Tempera on canvas
170 × 120 cm
67 × 47 1/4 inches
Hyun-Sook Song
8 Brushstrokes, 2021
Tempera on canvas
170 × 120 cm
67 × 47 1/4 inches
Hyun-Sook Song
8 Brushstrokes, 2021 (detail)
Hyun-Sook Song
8 Brushstrokes, 2021 (detail)
Hyun-Sook Song
8 Brushstrokes, 2021 (scale image)
Though reduced in terms of coloring and formal vocabulary, the variations are endless. The works can be viewed from both an abstract-meditative and a figurative-symbolic perspective. Yet Song’s paintings do not depict objects, and their titling further underscores the absence of a narrative—they are rather an expression of Song’s memory of certain objects. The artist’s painting technique translates it into brushstrokes that evoke associations with recurring forms from her homeland.
Hyun-Sook Song
7 Brushstrokes, 2020
Tempera on canvas
130 × 180 cm
51 1/8 × 70 7/8 inches
Hyun-Sook Song
7 Brushstrokes, 2020 (detail)
Hyun-Sook Song
7 Brushstrokes, 2020 (detail)
Hyun-Sook Song
7 Brushstrokes, 2020 (scale image)
The characteristic style and expressive quality of a brushstroke have been considered a constitutive element of Korean art for many hundreds of years. Each brushstroke in Song’s work marks a unique, intuitive movement that documents the artist’s state of mind at a given point in time—an aspect that locates her work in the post-Dansaekhwa movement.
Hyun-Sook Song
7 Brushstrokes, 2020
Tempera on canvas
130 × 180 cm
51 1/8 × 70 7/8 inches
Hyun-Sook Song
7 Brushstrokes, 2020
Tempera on canvas
130 × 180 cm
51 1/8 × 70 7/8 inches
Hyun-Sook Song
7 Brushstrokes, 2020 (detail)
Hyun-Sook Song
7 Brushstrokes, 2020 (detail)
Hyun-Sook Song
7 Brushstrokes, 2020 (scale image)
The characteristic style and expressive quality of a brushstroke have been considered a constitutive element of Korean art for many hundreds of years. Each brushstroke in Song’s work marks a unique, intuitive movement that documents the artist’s state of mind at a given point in time—an aspect that locates her work in the post-Dansaekhwa movement.
Song came to West Germany in 1972 with the intention of moving back to Korea after a few years of work. Instead she studied painting at the University of Fine Arts in Hamburg, where she developed a unique technique using tempera paint (a mixture of egg and colored pigment) that draws on the traditions of Western medieval art. Though she has lived in Germany for fifty years, Song’s artistic approach is firmly rooted in Korean calligraphy and influenced by her relationship to nature and the body. In this way her work can be seen as both a product of the East and the West or a blend of neither; more than anything, it reflects an artist immersed in a world of her own making.
Hyun-Sook Song
19 Brushtrokes, 2020
Tempera on canvas
160 × 120 cm
63 × 47 1/4 inches
Hyun-Sook Song
19 Brushtrokes, 2020 (detail)
Hyun-Sook Song
19 Brushtrokes, 2020 (scale image)
Hyun-Sook Song
19 Brushtrokes, 2020
Tempera on canvas
160 × 120 cm
63 × 47 1/4 inches
Hyun-Sook Song
19 Brushtrokes, 2020
Tempera on canvas
160 × 120 cm
63 × 47 1/4 inches
Hyun-Sook Song
19 Brushtrokes, 2020 (detail)
Hyun-Sook Song
19 Brushtrokes, 2020 (scale image)
Song came to West Germany in 1972 with the intention of moving back to Korea after a few years of work. Instead she studied painting at the University of Fine Arts in Hamburg, where she developed a unique technique using tempera paint (a mixture of egg and colored pigment) that draws on the traditions of Western medieval art. Though she has lived in Germany for fifty years, Song’s artistic approach is firmly rooted in Korean calligraphy and influenced by her relationship to nature and the body. In this way her work can be seen as both a product of the East and the West or a blend of neither; more than anything, it reflects an artist immersed in a world of her own making.
Hyun-Sook Song
5 Brushstrokes over 1 Brushstroke, 2009
Tempera on canvas
100 × 80 cm
39 3/8 × 31 1/2 inches
Hyun-Sook Song
5 Brushstrokes over 1 Brushstroke, 2009 (detail)
Hyun-Sook Song
5 Brushstrokes over 1 Brushstroke, 2009 (detail)
Hyun-Sook Song
5 Brushstrokes over 1 Brushstroke, 2009 (scale image)
Hyun-Sook Song
5 Brushstrokes over Tiger, 2009
Tempera on canvas
100 × 80 cm
39 3/8 × 31 1/2 inches
Hyun-Sook Song
5 Brushstrokes over Tiger, 2009 (detail)
Hyun-Sook Song
5 Brushstrokes over Tiger, 2009 (detail)
Hyun-Sook Song
5 Brushstrokes over Tiger, 2009 (scale image)
The movement of a brushstroke, from its first contact with the canvas to when it lifts away, is executed without interruption or revision; while a single brushstroke demands the highest levels of concentration and calculation on the one hand, so does its release at just the right moment. The paramount importance of the brushstroke in Song’s art also comes through in the titles of her paintings, which usually indicate the number of movements she needed to complete the work.
Hyun-Sook Song
5 Brushstrokes over 1 Brushstroke, 2009
Tempera on canvas
100 × 80 cm
39 3/8 × 31 1/2 inches
Hyun-Sook Song
5 Brushstrokes over 1 Brushstroke, 2009
Tempera on canvas
100 × 80 cm
39 3/8 × 31 1/2 inches
Hyun-Sook Song
5 Brushstrokes over 1 Brushstroke, 2009 (detail)
Hyun-Sook Song
5 Brushstrokes over 1 Brushstroke, 2009 (detail)
Hyun-Sook Song
5 Brushstrokes over 1 Brushstroke, 2009 (scale image)
Hyun-Sook Song
5 Brushstrokes over Tiger, 2009
Tempera on canvas
100 × 80 cm
39 3/8 × 31 1/2 inches
Hyun-Sook Song
5 Brushstrokes over Tiger, 2009
Tempera on canvas
100 × 80 cm
39 3/8 × 31 1/2 inches
Hyun-Sook Song
5 Brushstrokes over Tiger, 2009 (detail)
Hyun-Sook Song
5 Brushstrokes over Tiger, 2009 (detail)
Hyun-Sook Song
5 Brushstrokes over Tiger, 2009 (scale image)
The movement of a brushstroke, from its first contact with the canvas to when it lifts away, is executed without interruption or revision; while a single brushstroke demands the highest levels of concentration and calculation on the one hand, so does its release at just the right moment. The paramount importance of the brushstroke in Song’s art also comes through in the titles of her paintings, which usually indicate the number of movements she needed to complete the work.
Hyun-Sook Song
Brushstrokes Diagram II, 2021
Tempera on canvas
150 × 200 cm
59 × 78 3/4 inches
Hyun-Sook Song
Brushstrokes Diagram II (detail)
Hyun-Sook Song
Brushstrokes Diagram II (detail)
Hyun-Sook Song
Brushstrokes Diagram II (scale image)
Hyun-Sook Song
Brushstrokes Diagram II, 2021
Tempera on canvas
150 × 200 cm
59 × 78 3/4 inches
Hyun-Sook Song
Brushstrokes Diagram II, 2021
Tempera on canvas
150 × 200 cm
59 × 78 3/4 inches
Hyun-Sook Song
Brushstrokes Diagram II (detail)
Hyun-Sook Song
Brushstrokes Diagram II (detail)
Hyun-Sook Song
Brushstrokes Diagram II (scale image)
All installation views by Timo Ohler
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