[THE INVESTOR] In the lobby of AmorePacific‘s Beauty Campus in Osan, Gyeonggi Province, stands the gigantic installation “Fractal Turtleship” by media artist Paik Nam-june, created to commemorate the opening of the Korea exhibition at the Venice Biennale in 1995.

“It presented what Korea had to the world, and embodied the philosophy of breaking down barriers between East and West, between science and art, the everyday and the artistic,” AmorePacific chairman Suh Kyung-bae said about his choice to Maeil Business Newspaper. 

In a way, the philosophy represented by “Fractal Turtleship” is what defines AmorePacific and the passions of its chairman.

Suh devotes himself to all kinds of beauty -- and not just in the form of cosmetics, his life’s work.

An avid art collector and enthusiastic patron, Suh has publicly said that if he had not become the head of a cosmetics company, he would have probably pursued a career as an art critic. 

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Suh, named as one of the world‘s 200 top collectors by ARTnews this year, has consistently strived to marry AmorePacific’s themes of Asian and Korean beauty with his brand. 

“AmorePacific is a company that spreads culture rather than just sells cosmetics,” Suh told ARTnews.

AmorePacific runs its own museum with thousands of art pieces including “traditional and modern pieces from Korea and around the world,” according to a spokesman at the brand. The museum also has a running project called the APMAP (AmorePacific Museum of Art Project), which has been touring the country since 2013 providing public art exhibits.

His keen interests in art was inherited from his father, the founder of Pacific Chemical Industries, predecessor of AmorePacific. The late founder was also known as an enthusiast of Korean traditional art.

The company has also been providing $200,000 to the Los Angeles County Museum of Art each year from 2010 for buying and displaying contemporary Korean art.

Suh also made a public commission himself last year, when he commissioned artist Kim Byung-ho to create a giant statue of ramen noodles as a gift to his father-in-law, chairman Shin Choon-ho of food giant Nongshim. Called “Colorful Stories,” the 3-meter-high noodle statue stands in front of Nongshim‘s headquarters in Seoul.

Meanwhile, AmorePacific‘s total hair cosmetics brand Mise en Scene sponsors a namesake short film festival each year. The festival began in 2002, hoping to support filmmakers who worked outside of the more conventional blockbuster full-length format. 

The focus on beauty and art is also visible in projects that have to do with Suh’s other love, tea.

AmorePacific‘s tea brand Osulloc runs a tea museum in Jeju Island near the tea fields of Seogwangdawon. First opened in 2001, the museum‘s main purpose is to promote the traditional tea culture of Korea.

However, it is the natural beautiful architecture of the tea museum that has caught the world’s eye. After undergoing a remodeling and extension in 2014 at the hands of Korean firm Mass Studies, the Osulloc Tea Museum was named one of the big museum openings of 2014 by Designboom.

Last year, the Osulloc branch in the Seoul branch of the National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art was remodeled to become the brand‘s flagship store.

“Through the best of teas, we hope to bring inner beauty to our consumers, add aesthetics to their everyday life, and infuse warmth into their relationships in every space in which they enjoy our products,” said an Osulloc official.

By Won Ho-jung (hjwon@heraldcorp.com)