Seund Ja Rhee

{{Short description|South Korean painter, engraver, draughtswoman, and illustrator (1918–2009)}} {{family name hatnote|Rhee||lang=Korean}} {{Infobox person | image = Photo of Seund Ja Rhee.jpg | birth_date = {{birth date|1918|6|3}} | death_date = {{death date and age|2009|3|8|1918|6|3}} | occupation = Painter, printmaker, ceramist | alma_mater = Jinju Girls' High School<BR/>Jissen Women's University<BR/>Académie de la Grande Chaumière | website ={{URL|http://seundjarhee.com/}} | module = {{Infobox Korean name/auto | hangul = %이성자 | hanja = 李聖子 | child = yes}} }}

'''Seund Ja Rhee''' (also transcribed as Seongja Lee; June 3, 1918 – March 8, 2009) was a South Korean painter, engraver, draughtswoman, and illustrator.<ref>{{cite journal|journal= Korean Cultural Center in Paris|title=Seund Ja Rhee ou l'intemporel|author=Jean-Clarence Lambert|date=October 1996| url=http://www.coree-culture.org/IMG/pdf/43.pdf|pages=15–17}}</ref> She also designed tapestries and mosaics.<ref name="Benezit">{{Cite book|url=https://uiuclib.on.worldcat.org/oclc/935485030|title=Dictionary of Artists|last=Benezit|first=Emmanuel|year=2006|publisher=Gründ|isbn=2700030702|location=Paris}}</ref> She was a prolific artist with more than 1,000 paintings, 700 prints, 250 ceramics, and numerous drawings.<ref>{{cite web|work=Seundja Rhee Foundation|title=Oeuvres|url=http://www.seundjarhee.com/www.seundjarhee.com}}{{Dead link|date=January 2026 |bot=InternetArchiveBot }}</ref> She exhibited mainly in France and in South Korea, with 84 solo exhibitions and almost 300 group exhibitions during her lifetime. In 1958, she moved to Tourrettes-sur-Loup, French Riviera (France) where she finally built the "Milky Way", a large atelier and exhibition room.<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.tourrettessurloup.com/index.php?cat=personnalit%E9&mc=artiste%20ancien |title=Tourrettes Sur Loup |access-date=2011-01-27 |archive-date=2017-09-13 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170913043943/http://www.tourrettessurloup.com/index.php?cat=personnalit%E9&mc=artiste%20ancien |url-status=dead }}</ref>

==Biography==

Born in Jinju, Keishōnan-dō, Korea, Empire of Japan, Rhee studied in Jinju Girls' High School before moving to Japan to attend Jissen Women's University in Tokyo in 1938. In 1938, she returned home and married. In 1951, she was separated from her three sons by the Korean War. In the same year, she left for Paris, where she entered the Académie de la Grande Chaumière in 1953 to study under Yves Brayer and Henri Goetz.<ref name="Blouin">{{Cite web|url=http://www.blouinartinfo.com/artists/seund-ja-rhee-153181|title=Seund Ja Rhee - Seund Ja Rhee Biography, Artwork, Galleries Online {{!}} Blouin Artinfo|website=www.blouinartinfo.com|language=en|access-date=2018-03-03|archive-date=2018-03-04|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180304173838/http://www.blouinartinfo.com/artists/seund-ja-rhee-153181|url-status=dead}}</ref> Rhee started to develop an interest in woodcuts and engraving while visiting Stanley William Hayter's "Atelier 17." In 1958, she moved to Tourrettes sur Loup, French Riviera, where she used a stone shepherd's cottage for her atelier. In 1996, she built the "Milky Way", a larger atelier, in the Korean style.<ref>{{cite web|work=Korea Foundation|title=Rhee Seund-ja's Atelier in Tourrettes|author=Lee Ku-yeol|url=http://koreana.kf.or.kr/view.asp?article_id=899|access-date=2011-01-27|archive-date=2016-03-03|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160303170324/http://koreana.kf.or.kr/view.asp?article_id=899|url-status=dead}}</ref><ref name="Blouin" />

In 1991, Rhee was appointed the Chevalier of the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres in France. The Seundja Rhee Foundation was established in 2009 in Korea to preserve and promote her art.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://seundjarhee.com/content/foundation-history|title=Seundja Rhee|website=seundjarhee.com|access-date=2018-03-03}}</ref>

== Artwork and exhibitions == Rhee's style is primarily decorative abstraction, utilizing geometric patterns and discreet colors. She was known to incorporate Korean symbols and script in her artworks. It has also been argued that, starting from the 1950s, her style changed both formally and conceptually: not only “her bold and expressionistic brushwork began to dismantle into tiny strokes, forming color planes,” but feminist allusions started to emerge, leading to a work that “was chiefly about experiences distinctive to women.”<ref>Yeon Shim Chung, “Seundja Rhee's Early Works: ’Woman-Earth’ in the 1960s, Longing and Painting,” ''Korean Modern and Contemporary Art'' 2018:1–13 (1, 5).</ref> Her work has been featured in various collective exhibitions in museums and galleries, including Salon de la Société Nationale des Beaux-Arts, Paris (1956), the International Biennale of Ljubljana (1963, 1965, 1967), the Geneva Museum of Art and History (1965), and the International Biennale of Engravings in Buenos Aires (1968, 1970, 1972).<ref name="Benezit" /> Rhee's solo exhibitions have appeared in both European and Asian art institutions.<ref name="Benezit" />

== Tributes ==

On 3 June 2016, Google celebrated Rhee Seund Ja’s 98th birthday with a doodle.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Rhee Seund Ja’s 98th birthday |url=https://doodles.google/doodle/rhee-seund-jas-98th-birthday/ |access-date=2023-06-02 |website=www.google.com |language=en}}</ref>

== References == {{Reflist}}

== External links == * [http://fcanarelli.free.fr/maison-rhee.html Art-cote magazine d'art et d'architecture de Florence Canarelli] * [http://henri.desoubeaux.pagesperso-orange.fr/butorweb-s.html Exhibitions and works] with Michel Butor (the entry is located at Seundja, not at Rhee) * [https://web.archive.org/web/20101223234949/http://www.archivesdelacritiquedart.org/outils_documentaires/critiques_d_art/264/bibliographie Bibliography of writings by Gaston Diehl on Seund Ja Rhee] * [https://web.archive.org/web/20110720213135/http://www.bmvr-nice.com.fr/OPACWebAloes/index.aspx?IdPage=171 Catalogue of the exhibition at the BMVR of Nice]

{{DEFAULTSORT:Rhee, Seund Ja}} Category:1918 births Category:2009 deaths Category:Alumni of the Académie de la Grande Chaumière Category:People from Jinju Category:20th-century South Korean painters Category:20th-century South Korean women artists Category:20th-century women artists