- 612
Chung Sanghwa
Estimate
150,000 - 250,000 HKD
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Description
- Chung Sanghwa
- Untitled
- acrylic on canvas
signed in Hanja and dated 1976 on the reverse, framed
Condition
This work is in good condition. There are diagonal hairline craquelures throughout the surface and scattered pintpoint paint losses especially on the upper half and centre. There is also a minor crack near the upper right corner with associated minor paint loss. Minor wear in handling around the edges. Please note that the work was not examined under ultraviolet light.
"In response to your inquiry, we are pleased to provide you with a general report of the condition of the property described above. Since we are not professional conservators or restorers, we urge you to consult with a restorer or conservator of your choice who will be better able to provide a detailed, professional report. Prospective buyers should inspect each lot to satisfy themselves as to condition and must understand that any statement made by Sotheby's is merely a subjective, qualified opinion. Prospective buyers should also refer to any Important Notices regarding this sale, which are printed in the Sale Catalogue.
NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF BUSINESS PRINTED IN THE SALE CATALOGUE."
"In response to your inquiry, we are pleased to provide you with a general report of the condition of the property described above. Since we are not professional conservators or restorers, we urge you to consult with a restorer or conservator of your choice who will be better able to provide a detailed, professional report. Prospective buyers should inspect each lot to satisfy themselves as to condition and must understand that any statement made by Sotheby's is merely a subjective, qualified opinion. Prospective buyers should also refer to any Important Notices regarding this sale, which are printed in the Sale Catalogue.
NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF BUSINESS PRINTED IN THE SALE CATALOGUE."
Catalogue Note
The Action of Thought
Chung Sanghwa
Amongst some Korean contemporary artists, the “action of thought”, rather than the representation of something figurative, is the desired result, and the canvas is accordingly transformed as a space for thought itself.
– Oh Kwang-Su
Hailing from the 1970s, Untitled (Lot 612) is a rare early work by Chung Sanghwa that represents the first stage of the development of the celebrated Dansaekhwa artist’s idiosyncratic and pivotal process-based oeuvre. Beginning in the late 1960s, the period when Chung Sanghwa left Korea and travelled back and forth between Japan and France in an attempt to search for his own independent methodology, the artist began to tear segments of paint from its substructure in various freeform patterns. The resultant surfaces appear ancient, fragile, eroded by time, with each excavated surface detail presenting small intimate histories that invite meditative contemplation. In his early pre-monochrome period Chung Sanghwa often constructed the scalloped circle as in the present lot, a motif that combines visual and spiritual references to Zen and the void. As Oh Kwang-Su writes, in the 1970s Chung Sangwa lived mostly “in seclusion as if he were a priest cultivating the concentration of his mind for a long time in a remote mountain far from home”.1
The early works of iconic artists often directly reveals the origins of their most significant contributions to the global art world. The present lot is no exception, as the simple yet decisive act of ripping or tearing off of paint heralds Chung Sanghwa’s later signature method of repeated application and excavation of paint. Defined by a patient, conscious interaction with and awakening of surface, his work is a long, laborious process in which creation is inextricably identified with recreation and reconstruction—a method that implies a willed determination and conscious construction of the self. Embodying such a meditative self-realization that unfolds dynamically within a seemingly neutral work, Chung Sanghwa’s art eschews all mimetic or narrative elements, leaving behind all dramatic gestures and emotional desires to foreground the modest, unembellished act of creation itself.
Deliberately impersonal, objective, neutral and material, Chung Sanghwa’s works evoke the modest ethical stance of the artist, the silent solemnity of nature, and the corresponding silent introspection of the viewer. In his early works as in his later mesmeric monochrome canvases, the surface fragility of Chung Sanghwa’s paintings emanates a hypnotic impression of delicate impermanence, thereby invoking our own mortality and the transience of all things in the universe. As Lorand Hegyi writes, “the process of creating a seemingly neutral work of art is continued in the beholder’s process of self-realization [...] while the artist-as-creator remains entirely in the background, his spiritual, intelligible presence is manifested [...] [Chung Sanghwa] is there to lead the beholders to themselves”.2
1 Chung Sang-hwa: Painting Archaeology, YON ART Printing, 2009, p. 14
2 Ibid, p. 9
Chung Sanghwa
Amongst some Korean contemporary artists, the “action of thought”, rather than the representation of something figurative, is the desired result, and the canvas is accordingly transformed as a space for thought itself.
– Oh Kwang-Su
Hailing from the 1970s, Untitled (Lot 612) is a rare early work by Chung Sanghwa that represents the first stage of the development of the celebrated Dansaekhwa artist’s idiosyncratic and pivotal process-based oeuvre. Beginning in the late 1960s, the period when Chung Sanghwa left Korea and travelled back and forth between Japan and France in an attempt to search for his own independent methodology, the artist began to tear segments of paint from its substructure in various freeform patterns. The resultant surfaces appear ancient, fragile, eroded by time, with each excavated surface detail presenting small intimate histories that invite meditative contemplation. In his early pre-monochrome period Chung Sanghwa often constructed the scalloped circle as in the present lot, a motif that combines visual and spiritual references to Zen and the void. As Oh Kwang-Su writes, in the 1970s Chung Sangwa lived mostly “in seclusion as if he were a priest cultivating the concentration of his mind for a long time in a remote mountain far from home”.1
The early works of iconic artists often directly reveals the origins of their most significant contributions to the global art world. The present lot is no exception, as the simple yet decisive act of ripping or tearing off of paint heralds Chung Sanghwa’s later signature method of repeated application and excavation of paint. Defined by a patient, conscious interaction with and awakening of surface, his work is a long, laborious process in which creation is inextricably identified with recreation and reconstruction—a method that implies a willed determination and conscious construction of the self. Embodying such a meditative self-realization that unfolds dynamically within a seemingly neutral work, Chung Sanghwa’s art eschews all mimetic or narrative elements, leaving behind all dramatic gestures and emotional desires to foreground the modest, unembellished act of creation itself.
Deliberately impersonal, objective, neutral and material, Chung Sanghwa’s works evoke the modest ethical stance of the artist, the silent solemnity of nature, and the corresponding silent introspection of the viewer. In his early works as in his later mesmeric monochrome canvases, the surface fragility of Chung Sanghwa’s paintings emanates a hypnotic impression of delicate impermanence, thereby invoking our own mortality and the transience of all things in the universe. As Lorand Hegyi writes, “the process of creating a seemingly neutral work of art is continued in the beholder’s process of self-realization [...] while the artist-as-creator remains entirely in the background, his spiritual, intelligible presence is manifested [...] [Chung Sanghwa] is there to lead the beholders to themselves”.2
1 Chung Sang-hwa: Painting Archaeology, YON ART Printing, 2009, p. 14
2 Ibid, p. 9