Park Hang-ryul

He was born in Gimcheon, South Korea on 20 February 1950.[2] He began to paint early in his life. However, his father, an economist, disapproved of him becoming an artist and sent him back to his hometown. He attended an agricultural high school where he began to paint again. There, he saw the beauty of nature, such as flowers blooming in orchards, that he was not able to see in Seoul.[8] He captured the country-ness in his drawings. He also met his cousin, who influenced his future paintings, there. He spent much time with him, going to nearby mountains and lakes and reading books together. They became very close and their relationship continued when they both moved back to Seoul. Having returned to Seoul, his father finally allowed him to attend Seoul Arts high school.[9] During high school, the death of this close cousin from a spinal lesion and the memory of being with her in the country became sources of inspiration going forward. After the arts high school, he graduated from Seoul National University in 1974. He received his master's degree in Painting in Hongik University in 1982. Since then, he has been teaching at Sejong University as a professor of Painting.[6]

He used to be an Informel artist using minimal forms and geometric abstractions.[1][10][11] His style changed after his first poetical works were released in 1991.[11] He unraveled his poetic sensibility to draw paintings with lyrical touches and concreteness. At the beginning of his career, he drew a boy with a buzz cut. After his trip to Mongolia, he was inspired by Korean traditional motives and drew a girl wearing Hanbok (Korean traditional clothing). Since then, he has drawn many different paintings with a girl wearing Hanbok especially in a rainbow-colored one.

He was fascinated with Goguryeo murals. He often used imaginary animals from the murals such as a fish with wings, bird with human face, crow with three feet living in the sun and Pegasus. His cousin was also his inspiration, both herself and the memory of being with her in the country. Because her image went well with butterflies, flowers, fruits and birds, he often placed those in a painting of a girl. He also wanted to put the features of humans meditating, thinking, ruminating the memory together in his paintings.[8]