In today's Korean contemporary art market, it is naturally expected that Park Soo-Keun's work will keep its highest price among others. Not only the price of Park Soo Keun's works, but also other contemporary Korean artists', now arguing among collect...
In today's Korean contemporary art market, it is naturally expected that Park Soo-Keun's work will keep its highest price among others. Not only the price of Park Soo Keun's works, but also other contemporary Korean artists', now arguing among collectors and other general art lovers, become one of hot social issues. However, nobody can offer definitive and analytical data about why Park Soo Keun's works has become high, but tend to express his individual opinions.
I started my research why Park Soo Keun's works of art, which were not demanded by Korean collectors, but only foreign collectors residing in Korea in his life time purchased, have been recorded the highest prices in Korean art market. I studied cultural and social aspects influenced on the formative process of prices in Park Soo Keun's works of art, and studied formative processes of the prices themselves by analysing the prices of Park Soo Keun's works of art dealing in art market.
In the 2nd Chapter, I studied deciding elements of art work price and examined the change of art market caused by newly accepted system of appraisal, the sharing of price information, and tax exemption in art work trade in Korea.
In the 3rd Chapter, I studied cultural meaning of Park Soo Keun's works of art. For this, I examined Park's artistic careers focusing on international exhibitions rather than domestic exhibitions. For the problem of artisticity, I studied Park's own use of themes, colors, and flatness in his paintings and examined the cultural importance of Park's works through studying the retrospective commemorating the 10th anniversary of his death and the monograph published accompanying with the exhibition.
In the 4th Chapter, I examined foreign patrons who established Bando Gallery and supported him in gallery system. Bando Gallery was aiming at marketing Korean artists' works to American collectors and foreign people then residing in Korea. Foreign collectors of Park's works thought that Park had the strongest sense of Korean sensibilities and they also tried to introduce Park's works into the USA ofter his death. So I examined that what kinds of influences were possibly made by them on artistic development of modern Korean art.
In the 5th Chapter, I examined price changes of Park's works before the advent of auction houses and then paralleled the price before and after the auction houses in Korean art market. Before the auction houses, the prices were based on a postcard size measurement, but after the advent of auction houses, that measurement method became obsolete. From the year of 1959 to 2000, I examined the interrelationship between a postcard size price and the variables influencing on the changes of prices, and indexed the ratio of increasing percentage of prices in each work. I also calculated the number of art works traded in auction houses and researched traded size of his works, so I could find some problems of trading practices in auction houses.
Now I can say there has not been much research on Park Soo Keun's artistic aspects compared to the high interests in his works' art market value. In existing monographs, I can find the lack of art historical research and many editorial mistakes and misinformation in chronological record, the sizes and produced year of works, or image editing. These situations reflect the unusual relationship between art market and the myth of an artist.
I would like to say the elements influenced on the changes of prices of Park's works can not be interpreted only in market system. In the process of my research, I necessarily examined various aspects of his works not only the market values of his works, but also artistic quality and background of his works. Artistic or aesthetic judgement for an art work is the first and the last thing a researcher must consider even though her thesis is about the function of art market prices of an art work.