People 1995

Se-Ok Suh made this ink painting, simply titled ‘People’, using a brush and ink on paper. The diluted, watery ink bleeds into the paper in soft strokes and washes. It’s all about process here, about letting the ink do its thing. The tonal range is limited to shades of black and white, but within that constraint, there’s a surprising amount of variation. Look at the forms the brushstrokes make - these figures, these little blobs and dashes of ink - they’re not quite representational, but they’re not entirely abstract either. There’s a real tension between control and chance in the way the ink has been applied. The density of the marks around the center of the composition gives way to lighter more translucent marks, creating an almost ethereal quality. It reminds me a bit of Franz Kline’s work, in that it’s a study of the beauty and power of the monochrome mark. Art, like life, is never just one thing. It’s always a conversation.