devoid of realistic backgrounds and perspective. Park also produced prints, watercolours, drawings, and illustrations throughout his career. While Park Su-geun's themes and subjects of painting were of the common and ordinary, his artistic creativity and contribution to modern Korean art history is thought to be unique, especially as many other contemporary artists were experimenting with and even imitating Western subjects and styles of painting. Later life and death Despite his lifelong active production of artworks and relatively consistent sales toward the later period of his career, Park Su-geun neither owned his own studio nor was able to make a comfortable living from painting. In 1963, Park lost his sight in his left eye due to a cataract, and died of liver cirrhosis at the age of 51 in 1965. For much of his life Park struggled with poverty and hardship, but in 1980, he was posthumously awarded Eun-gwan Jang (은관장, 銀冠章, Silver Medal) of Order of Culture Merit (문화훈장, 文化勳章). A memorial solo exhibition of Park Su-geun was held on October 1965 at the Korean Information Service Gallery (중앙공보관) after his death. His work is housed in numerous institutions around the world, including the University of Michigan Museum of Art and the USC Pacific Asia Museum. Park Su-geun Museum was established in 2002 at Park’s birthplace, Yang-gu. References External links Park Soo Keun Museum 1914 births 1965 deaths Deaths from cirrhosis 20th-century South Korean painters People from Gangwon Province, South Korea