Meditation

Throughout his life, Yoong Bae created works of art that infused Korean artistic traditions with elements from modern Western art. Seeking to create a new visual language incorporating both cultures, he said, “I feel that the artist has an obligation to preserve and even reinterpret the traditional arts. I prefer not to change them but to learn from them and then use them as I adapt them to my needs.”

As one of the founders of modern Korean printmaking, Bae introduced Western methods of printmaking to Korea and established the Contemporary Korean Printmakers Association in 1968. The artist was active in both Korea and the San Francisco Bay Area, where he moved in 1974.

Produced a year before the artist’s death, this strikingly powerful image evokes various questions. What is the monumental figure with its elongated beak looming over the seated person? Is it a bird, a guardian figure, a divine being, or a spirit? Below the black figure, a person seems to be meditating, perhaps balancing resistance and submission. Here, Bae prepared a silk screen to which a cut stencil was attached, and then poured red, yellow, and brown pigments through the unmasked areas of the screen onto the paper below.