Artist Chung Sang-Hwa (1932-2026) ⓒGallery Hyundai
On January 28,
2026, Chung Sang-Hwa (1932-2026), a master of Korean contemporary art, passed
away peacefully at the age of 93 following a prolonged illness.
As a
first-generation Korean avant-garde artist, Chung Sang-Hwa developed his own
distinctive technique of “peeling off” and “filling in,” a labor-intensive
process involving the repeated removal, filling, and layering of paint to
complete his canvases. Works created through this unique method embody the
accumulated traces of the artist’s physical and mental labor over time.
Installation view of 《Chung Sang-Hwa: Infinite Breath》 (Gallery Hyundai, 2023) ⓒGallery Hyundai
Chung Sang-Hwa,
who entered the Department of Painting at Seoul National University College of
Fine Arts during the Korean War, initially focused on figurative painting that
sought to represent its subjects.
In the mid to
late 1950s, while active as a member of the Contemporary Artists Association
and Actuel that led the wave of the Korean Avant-garde at the time, he became
deeply engaged in expressing the pain and trauma he experienced during the
Korean War through Informel-style avant-garde art.
Through turbulent
acts of throwing, spraying, inflating, twisting, and ripping out paint of
intense colors, he transferred the gloomy social atmosphere upon canvas.
After relocating
to Kobe, Japan, in 1969, Chung sought transformation by departing from the
previous informel-style paintings characterized by bold colors and rough
matière, instead seeking depth within a flat surface. During this period, he
strictly restrained color and pursued radical flatness in content, and from
1973 onward began presenting monochromatic grid paintings.
Artist Chung Sang-Hwa (1932-2026) ⓒGallery Hyundai
In 1978, Chung
moved to Paris, France, where he devoted himself fully to his practice. After
returning to Korea in 1992, he built a studio in Yeoju, Gyeonggi Province, and
continued his artistic career there for the remainder of his life. In 2015, his
work Untitled 05-3-25 sold at auction for KRW 1.142 billion,
placing him—after Lee Ufan—as only the second living Korean artist to join the
so-called “10-billion-won club,” referring to artists whose works have
surpassed the 1 billion won mark at auction.
In a 2023
interview with curator Hans Ulrich Obrist, Chung reflected, “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,” adding, “Art, in
a way, is about beginning something endless. It’s not about making an end. It’s
about doing something endless.”
