By Woo Jae-yeon
SEOUL, Jan. 28 (Yonhap) — Chung Sang-hwa, a leading figure in contemporary Korean art and a master of monochrome abstract painting, also known as “dansaekhwa,” has passed away at the age of 93.
The celebrated painter died at 3:40 a.m., according to Gallery Hyundai, which enjoyed a long-standing relationship with the artist since hosting his first solo exhibition in 1983.
Born in 1932 in Yeongdeok, North Gyeongsang Province, Chung Sang-hwa studied fine art at Seoul National University. Following his graduation in 1957, he emerged as a pivotal figure in the country’s avant-garde art movement. He spent time working abroad in Paris and Kobe, Japan, and participated in significant international exhibitions, including the Paris Biennale in 1965 and the Sao Paulo Biennale in 1967.
Artist Chung Sang-hwa attends a press conference for his retrospective at the National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, in this file photo from May 21, 2021. (Yonhap)
Chung Sang-hwa’s distinctive style is characterized by a meticulous, repetitive process of applying and removing paint to create layered, grid-like compositions. These works evoke a sense of meditative, monochromatic abstraction, deeply rooted in the Dansaekhwa movement.
The artist’s painstaking artistic process could take up to a year to complete a single artwork, and he was known for working independently, never employing assistants.
In May 2021, the National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art (MMCA) honored Chung Sang-hwa with a major retrospective exhibition. The exhibition explored his extensive body of work, which the MMCA noted had “not received sufficient research in the past despite the significance and value that they hold in terms of art history.”
“I’ve done everything I wanted to do as a painter. … But in fact, even at this moment, I’ve got a lot of regrets that I should have done a little better,” Chung Sang-hwa reflected during a 2023 interview with Swiss art curator and critic Hans Ulrich Obrist, according to the interview script shared by Gallery Hyundai.
“Art, in a way, is about beginning something endless. It’s not about making an end. It’s about doing something endless.”
Visitors take photos of Chung Sang-hwa’s paintings at the National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, in this file photo from May 21, 2021. (Yonhap)
A man views paintings by Chung Sang-hwa at the National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, in this file photo from May 21, 2021. (Yonhap)
jaeyeon.woo@yna.co.kr
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