"The late painter Park Seo-Bo held an artistic spirit that art must coexist with the public in daily life. Through collaboration, we will carry on Park Seo-Bo's beliefs by returning them to society."
Park Seung-ho, Chairman of the Park Seo-Bo Foundation, made these remarks on Tuesday at "Pixel and Paint," a special forum within "Seoul Forum 2026" held at the Shilla Hotel in Jung-gu, Seoul. "The foundation has been pursuing collaborations with Louis Vuitton, Bernardaud, and LG OLED," he said.
"We are continuing Park Seo-Bo's belief in unfolding art into daily life and breathing with the times," Park said. "The foundation's role is to channel back into the world what Park Seo-Bo received from it." He added, "Collaboration and licensing are not about confining art, but a process of returning it to society."
Park cited the collaboration that rendered Park Seo-Bo's autumn-foliage Ecriture (Myobop) onto a Louis Vuitton bag as a representative example. "Park Seo-Bo refused to simply print images of his works onto bags, but he embraced the rebirth of his works through new media," the chairman explained. "Reinterpretation, not reproduction, is the essence of collaboration."
On the digital collaboration with LG OLED, he said, "Park Seo-Bo emphasized during his lifetime the philosophy that 'when the times change, the works must change as well.'" He added, "It is a case that demonstrated the possibility of works meeting audiences in new ways through digital technology."
The funds raised through such collaborations and licensing are used for exhibitions, conservation, archive construction, academic research support, the discovery of emerging artists, and international exchange projects. "Our foundation will carry on his spirit through 'letting flow' rather than 'piling up,'" Park said.
