New Year's Card Sent to an American Acquaintance
Publicly Revealed Through Private Donation
American collector Robert Martieli donated three items, including a New Year's card sent by Park Soo Keun (1914?1965), known as the "People's Painter," to an acquaintance, to the Yanggu County Park Soo Keun Art Museum in Gangwon Province, the Overseas Korean Cultural Heritage Foundation announced on the 20th.
New Year's card and envelope by Park Soo-keun. Provided by the Overseas Cultural Heritage Foundation
The New Year's card was sent by Park Soo Keun to Sandra Martieli at the end of 1962, and it bears his handwritten signature "Soo Keun Park" on the front. American collector Robert Martieli (100) and his late wife Sandra Martieli (1931?2024) had kept the card until recently before returning it to Korea last month.
Inside the New Year's card is a print depicting two people flying kites. The Martieli couple came to Korea in the 1950s as U.S. military civilian employees and engaged in various cultural and artistic activities centered around the Yongsan U.S. military base for 30 years, forming a connection with Park Soo Keun.
It is known that similar New Year's cards were sent to art historian Choi Sun Woo (1916?1984) and fellow painter Lee Ungno (1904?1989). The foundation explained, "It is especially important because the postal envelope indicating the specific sending date of December 1962 remains together."
The leaflet donated along with the New Year's card is material distributed at Park Soo Keun's solo exhibition held at the U.S. Forces Korea Seoul Base Command Library in early 1962. The leaflet contains information about the exhibition and the artist, titles of the exhibited works, and their prices.
The Leeum Museum of Art also holds the same leaflet, but it records 11 additional works presumed to have been newly exhibited during the exhibition, making it highly valuable for research.
The Martieli couple maintained ties with Korea until recently. They have donated several Korean cultural heritage items and historical documents, such as the Songgwangsa Temple Obuldo and old documents from the Gochang region in Jeonbuk, and have been recognized by the foundation as contributors to overseas cultural heritage.
Kim Jeong Hee, chairman of the foundation, said, "The foundation's dedication to discovering important materials and preserving their value, combined with the goodwill of the collectors, has led to another meaningful achievement."
The New Year's card and other items will be exhibited at a special exhibition held next month at the Yanggu County Park Soo Keun Art Museum. The museum was built in 2002 on the site of Park Soo Keun's birthplace and displays various works.
The museum stated, "We discovered Mr. Martieli's signature in the guestbook of Park Soo Keun's posthumous exhibition in 1965," adding, "It is meaningful as it allows us to newly highlight the relationship among foreign patrons."
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