Yun Suknam

Yun Suk-nam (born 1939) is a Korean feminist painter and activist. She co-founded October Group (Simwolmoim) in 1985. The October Group is a feminist collective. She worked with other women artists from Korea. Yun collaborated with Kim Dijinsook and Kim Insoon in 1986. They produced an exhibition, called From Half to One. It talked about women’s issues. Mother’s Eye was one of Yun’s earliest exhibitions. It was made of rotting wood scraps. She said that the texture was similar to wrinkled skin. The softness represented her mother. Yun received the Joon-Sup Lee award. She was the first woman to get the award. She earned the Prime Minister’s Prize for Women’s Development in 1997. Yun’s paintings and exhibitions include Seedling of Lights (1997), Pink Room (1997), and To Be Lengthened (2003).

Early life

Yun Suk-nam is from Manchuria. She was the third child out of six. Yun Beknam was her father. Won Jeungsook was her mother. Yun Beknam founded the first Western theater in Korea. He was a movie director, producer, newspaper writer and historical novelist. Her father died in 1954. Her mother became a street vendor to support the family. They moved back to Korea after the Japanese occupation ended.

Life Before Art

Yun worked at Korean Electrical Company for four years. She went to Sungkyunkwan University in Seoul. She studied English literature. Yun had to drop out after two years (1959-1962) because her family didn't have enough money. She then married and had children.

Career

Yun was questioning her self-identity. She was only a mother and a wife. She became an artist at forty years old. She moved to New York City to learn about printmaking and drawing at the Pratt Institute Graphic Center. She joined the Pratt and the Arts League in the early 1980s.

Yun Suknam admires her mother for being strong and independent. Yun learned that being poor isn't something to be ashamed about. The subject of her first paintings was her mother. It was her mother’s determination and sacrifice that let them overcome poverty. Yun paints women fighters who fought for independence from Japanese occupation. She started using chaesaekwa in 2011, when she was around 70. She saw a self-portrait of a Joseon time period painter, Yun Duseo and was inspired. Jeong Jeonghwa was an independence activist who she painted. Yun depicted women who were not known, but did substantial actions. Yun focuses on the subject’s eyes. She makes them strong, fierce, and staring at the audience. She says this gives them life.