Hyun‑Sook Song (b. 1952, Damyang, South Korea; based in Hamburg since the 1970s) is celebrated for her meditative, minimalist paintings that blend the ancient technique of egg tempera—pigments mixed with egg yolk—with gestures inspired by East Asian calligraphy. Executed with unwavering focus, each brushstroke is a single, deliberate movement—never corrected—that records both discipline and spontaneity.
Her 2014 work 18 Brushstrokes (Tempera on canvas, 130 × 180 cm) exemplifies this rigorous process: precisely eighteen bold strokes float on a monochromatic background, inviting viewers to trace each unique motion and embrace the space shaped by absence as much as by paint.
In its elegant economy—just eighteen marks—the painting becomes a quiet performance of memory, material, and mindful presence.