Varlen Pen—an artist who must never be forgotten again.

The subject of the second title in the Portrait of the Artist series is Varlen Pen. He had all the makings of a representative painter of modern Korea. However, he immigrated to Russia, and thus remained largely unknown in his homeland. Despite his background as an immigrant, he became the first Korean to receive a doctoral degree in art in Russia. As a realist artist, he held a professorship at a prestigious university for thirty-five years. However, due to the political ideology of the times, he was shunned by his homeland, and thus lived through the Cold War era in a foreign country all his life. Despite such difficult circumstances, he firmly retained his Korean identity, and conveyed Korean sentiments and nostalgia in each of his works. Needless to say, he deserves to be recognized and respected as a true national painter. It is hoped that his name will now be remembered in Korea.