Tigerish Bean

2005

American, (born in Canada), 1964

Known for his ingenious technique that celebrates painting for its own sake, Korean-American artist Joseph Park tells stories through a world of invented characters. In Tigerish Bean, Park presents his own private Pure Land presided over by a benign multi-armed Buddhist deity. Emerging from her lotus pedestal, she floats upon a sea of graduated grey tones, her heavily lidded eyes closed in meditative contemplation. The work is contoured with smoothly-painted transitions evocative of Western painting traditions, and with flat, hard edges that suggest Chinese woodblock prints.

Oil on canvas

36 x 30 in. (91.4 x 76.2cm)

Northwest Purchase Endowment in memory of Linda Farris

2006.3

Provenance: Artist; [Howard House, Seattle, WA, 2006]; Seattle Art Museum, Seattle, WA, from 2006

Not currently on view

Resources

Exhibition HistorySeattle, Washington, Seattle Asian Art Museum, "Contemporary Art: Made in Seattle - A Northwest Summer", May 4, 2006 - July 23, 2006 (5/4/2006 - 7/23/2006)

Published ReferencesDarling, Michael et al. "Betty Bowen Award: Thirty Years." Seattle, WA: Seattle Art Museum, 2009, illus. p. 10

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