Writing No. 35-78
- Artist: Park Seo-Bo
- Date: 1978
- Medium: Oil paint and graphite on canvas
- Dimensions: support: 1302 × 1617 mm
- Museum: Tate Modern
- Collection record: Tate Modern website
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About this artwork
This is the “Writing No. 35‑78” by Park Seo‑Bo. Created in 1978, the work is a striking example of the artist’s fusion of oil paint with graphite, giving the canvas a layered, textural quality that feels almost tactile. The painting’s size—just over 1.3 by 1.6 meters—draws you in, while the interplay of thick brushstrokes and fine graphite lines suggests a written dialogue across the surface. Park Seo‑Bo, known for his thoughtful exploration of language and form, channels that dialogue into a visual poem, where each line seems to carry both narrative weight and abstract suggestion. The piece sits on long‑term loan at the Tate Modern as part of the “The Shape of Words” exhibition, a program that celebrates the physicality of writing and the power of gesture. The subtle balance between the bold, oil‑laden swaths and the delicate graphite traces invites you to linger, to read between the lines, and to feel the rhythm of the strokes that speak to both memory and imagination.
See it in person
Writing No. 35-78 is in the collection of Tate Modern on Bankside, London — free to enter. Point your phone at any artwork there and audioguide.london plays a free audio guide in six languages — no app download needed.
