Rhee Seundja

signed in English, executed in 1961, framed

Private Asian Collection

Korea, Gwacheon, National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, 1-30 April, 1988

This work is generally in good condition. There are gentle wear and handling marks in the top left corner. Having examined the work under ultraviolet light, there appears to be no evidence of restoration.
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A Symphony of Line and Form
Rhee Seundja

In 1951, and in the midst of the Korean War, Rhee Seundja became the first Korean Abstract Expressionist to move abroad to Paris, in pursuit of her dreams to become an artist. No small feat to accomplish, the 33 year old left on her own, leaving behind a home and a family. When compared to her male contemporaries, such as Kim Whanki, Kim Tschang-Yeul and Lee Ufan, all of whom also sojourned in Paris at various stages after her, Rhee’s fame was one that was subdued and perhaps lesser known, in part due to her position as a female artist within a male-dominated art sphere. Though that is not to say she was not well-received: quite the contrary, her critics noted the brilliance of her work. One such figure was Gaston Diehl, an art critic and historian who published books on the likes of Joan Miró and Max Ernst, who remarked that her works were a “symphony of line and form.”¹ The present sale offers three of Rhee’s works, dated between the late fifties to early sixties, and which capture the world around her during her time in France.

Within the first two years of arriving in Paris, Rhee Seundja enrolled at the Académie de la Grande Chaumière, where she fell under the tutelage of Henri Goetz, a Surrealist painter and engraver of French-American ancestry. As teaching assistant to Goetz, Rhee worked closely alongside her new mentor, and was exposed to many fresh techniques of contemporary art. Her notable tutors also include Yves Brayer the painter; Ossip Zadkine the sculptor, as well as Stanley William Hayter the printmaker, all of whom were and are regarded as some of the most significant and influential contributors to post-war Surrealism and Abstract Expressionism. Within a mere five years since her first arrival in Paris, Rhee was already exhibiting at noteworthy institutions such as the City of Paris Museum, as well as the Salon des Independants at the Grand Palais de Paris. By the beginning of the millennium, her repertoire of exhibitions had extended to include prominent organisations such as the Espace Pierre Cardin in Paris and the Gallery Hyundai in Seoul.

When one turns to Rhône Valley No. 5 (Lot 764), painted in 1958, one can truly feel that it is a highly representative and also self-reflexive work, one that was executed at the cusp of Rhee’s changing style. When compared with her previous works, such as her Female Nude study (1955) rendered in a German Expressionist style not unlike that of Ernst Ludwig Kirchner’s; or Still Life (1956) which depicts crockery and fruit in a Post-Impressionist style decidedly similar to Paul Cézanne; or indeed, The Snow on the Street of Vaugirard (1956), a snowy street scene composed of boxy geometric shapes in a vaguely Max Beckmann fashion, Rhône Valley No. 5 captures an essence that breaks free from the Western masters that Rhee would no doubt have been taught to emulate.

Although the work does not completely abandon her previous influences, it is a work that has a unique language of its own. There are, within the piece, definite parallels with Rhee’s previous works. For instance, one may see the same snowy scene present from The Snow on the Street of Vaugirard alluded to in the present lot – except in a much more abstract manner. Though the content may be similar: snow, foliage, earth; the form of Rhône Valley No. 5 has been broken down: it now exists in a mesmerising abstract realm. Reminiscent of cave drawings, Rhône Valley No. 5 has a primal essence to it, reducing form to its simplest elements, but which is counteracted by a distinctively modern finish with its palette of primary colours. It is at this point, near the end of the fifties, that the simple hues of red, yellow and blue become permanent fixtures in Rhee’s style.

From the beginning of 1961 until 1968, Rhee worked on a series entitled “Woman and Earth”. This series truly launched her oil painting career, and was filled with styles and symbols that were to remain for the entirety of the artist’s oeuvre. This new body of works was a movement onto more geometric forms, governed by stricter linearity. Red Earth (766) and Untitled, which were respectively painted in 1961 and 1964, are splendid representations of the “Woman and Earth” series, as they epitomise the beginning and middle of this body of works. “Woman and Earth” investigates repetition in painting, where comb-like shapes are repeatedly piled onto the canvas, forming layer upon layer of thick paint. This would eventually lead onto a later series entitled “A Road to the Opposite End of the Earth”, in which nature and mechanical civilisation are held in tension.

“Woman and Earth” focuses on the laboriousness of painting, a theme which still holds cultural significance in Korean works of art to this day. The repetitive nature of laying paint upon paint; this labour intensive method of creation, can be seen in the present pieces. Red Earth, which was exhibited at the National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art in Korea in 1988, features a web of geometric shapes, created with colours that Rhee herself mixed together especially, injecting a sense of uniqueness into the work. Red Earth also demonstrates the equilibrium that the artist sought to achieve in all areas of her work. In her own words, "Yin and Yang, East and West, life and death – bringing contrasting motifs together in the process of creation on one canvas is what I have always sought." Thus, one can see a great command of balance in Red Earth: geometric shapes on either side of the canvas are complimented by one another, governed by a frame in bright blue, which acts as a framing device for the entire work.

Painted one year prior to her return to Korea, Untitled (Lot 765) from 1964 is a deeply captivating piece. With her palette matured, this work exhibits brighter pastel colours, as well as a more complex composition. In this piece, the four rectangular shapes, slightly slanted to the left, are composed below circular shapes in the upper right quadrant of the piece, framed by an instance of negative space to the upper left quadrant. The slanted shapes guide the audience’s gaze specifically to the direction of the negative space, and vice versa, thus achieving harmony within the piece itself. Untitled is a work that does not compromise content for structural integrity, and presents each of its components in a well-poised manner: at once exuding compositional prowess, at once capturing the marriage of “contrasting motifs” which Rhee has always sought to balance.  

Rhee Seundja is an artist whose works exhibit tremendous amounts of quality. Even from her early days as a student under her various mentors in Paris, her talent and potential were obvious, with many individuals strongly supporting and believing in her art. Rhee’s oeuvre of “symphonies of line and form” went on for many decades, and up until her passing she worked tirelessly on her art, producing endlessly alluring works. Now, more than five decades since her first arrival in Paris, Rhee Seundja, for so long underappreciated, undervalued, and under the proverbial radar, can finally claim the recognition fully deserving of such an esteemed artist.  

1 “Seund Ja Rhee”, Gaston Diehl, foreword to “Seund Ja Rhee: Galerie Hyundai”, South Korea, 1974

i) Rhee Seundja at Salon des Indépendants, Grand Palais, Paris, 1956  © Rhee Seundja Foundation
ii) Rhee Seundja in her atelier in Tourrettes-sur-Loup, France, 1968 © Rhee Seundja Foundation