Nationality South Korea Name Seund Rhee Revised Romanization Yi Seong-ja | Hanja 李聖子 Hangul 이성자 Died 2009 | |
Born June 3, 1918 ( 1918-06-03 ) Occupation Painter, printmaker, ceramist Education Academie de la Grande Chaumiere Books Seund Ja Rhee: Rivi`ere argent | ||
Seund Ja Rhee (also transcribed as Seongja Lee; June 3, 1918 – March 8, 2009) was a South Korean painter, printmaker and ceramist. She was a prolific artist with more than 1,000 paintings, 700 prints, 250 ceramics, and numerous drawings. She exhibited mainly in France and in South Korea, with 84 solo exhibitions and almost 300 group exhibitions during her lifetime. In 1958, she moved to Tourrettes, Var (France) where she finally built the "Milky Way", a large atelier and exhibition room.
Early life
Born in Jinju, Gyeongsangnam-do in Korea under Japanese rule, Rhee studied in Jinju Girls' High School before moving to Japan to attend Jissen Women's University in Tokyo in 1938. In 1938, she returned home and married. In 1951, she was separated from her three sons by the Korean War. Then she left for Paris, where she entered the Académie de la Grande Chaumière in 1953 to study under Yves Brayer and Henri Goetz. In 1958, she moved to Tourrettes, Var, where she used a stone shepherd's cottage for her atelier. In 1996, she built the "Milky Way", a larger atelier, in the Korean style.