The ‘20th/21st Century’ sale to be held in Hong Kong from March 27 to 28 carries significance beyond that of a seasonal auction, as this year marks Christie’s “40 Years in Asia.” The sale will take place at The Henderson, where Christie’s Asia Pacific headquarters is located.
 
One notable aspect of this season is the presence of Korean artists. According to Christie’s, artists representing Korean modern and contemporary art—including Kim Whanki, Rhee Seundja, Lee Ufan, Kim Tschang-Yeul, Myonghi Kang, Chung Sang-Hwa, and Park Seo-Bo—are highlighted within the broader context of the sale. This configuration demonstrates how Korean art has come to occupy an important position in explaining both East Asian modernism and the global market for abstract painting.

 
Jung Yunah, Senior Specialist of 20th and 21st Century Art at Christie’s Asia, commented on the sale as follows:
 
“This spring at Christie’s Hong Kong, artists who shaped the language of Korean abstraction and defined the intellectual and material rigor of Korean modernism come together once again. From Lee Ufan’s philosophy of encounter to Rhee Seundja’s lyrical cosmology, Kim Tschang-Yeul’s meditative water-drop paintings, and Myonghi Kang’s poetic landscapes born from deep observation of nature, these works speak not only of aesthetics but of time, contemplation, and endurance.”
 
 
 
The Market Structure of Korean Abstract Art
 
In the global auction market today, Korean art is primarily traded through abstract painting and modernist artists, with Dansaekhwa works forming a particularly stable market structure. Since the mid-2010s, the expansion of international gallery exhibitions and museum research has positioned Dansaekhwa artists as an important category in the Asian auction market. Over the past decade, auction records for Korean abstract art have steadily increased.
 
Kim Whanki’s dot paintings have established the highest price benchmarks for Korean art, while Lee Ufan and other Dansaekhwa artists have become stable blue-chip names among international collectors.
 
 
 
Kim Whanki — The Dot Paintings that Established the Price Benchmark for Korean Abstract Painting

Kim Whanki (1913–1974) established a price benchmark for Korean art in the international auction market through his New York-period dot paintings.
 
After relocating his artistic base to New York in the late 1960s, he developed a painting method based on the repetitive accumulation of dots. His canvases filled with thousands of points constructed a unique language of abstraction combining Korean sensibility with a sense of cosmic space.
 
The 1971 painting 19-VI-71 #206 was sold at Christie’s New York 20th Century Evening Sale for approximately US$10,295,000, marking a landmark example of the global competitiveness of Korean art. In this Hong Kong sale, Kim Whanki’s name once again appears as a symbolic reference point for the price structure established by Korean abstract painting in the international auction market.
 
 
 
Lee Ufan — Painting that Connects Dansaekhwa and Mono-ha Philosophy

Lee Ufan (b.1936) is regarded as a key figure in understanding East Asian modernism. His work is widely known for linking the Japanese Mono-ha movement with the discourse of Korean Dansaekhwa.
 
His representative series From Line reveals the accumulation of time and gesture through repeated brushstrokes across the surface. Rather than functioning as purely formal abstraction, these paintings are notable for embodying philosophical reflections on existence and relationality.
 
A 1980 work from the From Line series was previously sold for approximately US$2,336,546, demonstrating the stable price structure that Dansaekhwa-related works have achieved in the international auction market.
 
 
 
Kim Tschang-Yeul — Meditative Abstraction Constructed through Water-Drop Painting

Kim Tschang-Yeul (1929–2021) developed a distinctive pictorial world through the motif of water drops.
 
The realistically rendered drops on canvas function not simply as still-life imagery but as meditative devices that contemplate the essence of existence and objects. His work has been interpreted as a synthesis of Western abstract painting and Eastern philosophical thought.
 
The work Untitled (BBV 08005) (2006), presented in this Hong Kong sale, exemplifies the characteristics of his water-drop paintings. The transparent image of the drop and the flatness of the picture plane create a subtle tension that produces a unique visual experience.
 
 
 
Rhee Seundja — Another Lineage of Korean Abstraction Formed in Paris

Rhee Seundja (1918–2009) was one of the most internationally active Korean women abstract painters. After relocating to France in the late 1950s, she developed an independent abstract language combining cosmic imagination with lyrical color.
 
Her work Jamais vu de mémoire d’arbre (1963–1965), which merges memories of nature with a cosmic spatial sensibility, previously sold for approximately US$1,292,615 at auction, marking a meaningful record in the international market.

The work Mon auberge de mars No.3 (2002), presented in this sale, demonstrates how this cosmic imagination continued to unfold in her later practice.
 
 
 
Ha Chong-Hyun — Dansaekhwa Painting Built on Materiality and Repetitive Gesture

Ha Chong-Hyun (b.1935) is a leading figure of the Korean Dansaekhwa movement.
 
His signature ‘Conjunction’ series is produced through a distinctive method of pushing paint from the reverse side of the canvas. In this process, the pigment passes through the woven structure of the canvas, revealing both material presence and traces of physical action.
 
The work Conjunction 21-13 (2021), included in this Hong Kong sale, demonstrates how this method continues to define the artist’s practice today.
 
 
 
Myonghi Kang — Abstract Landscapes Translating the Sensory Experience of Nature

Myonghi Kang (b.1947) develops her paintings by translating the sensory experience and memory of nature into fields of color and abstract structures rather than directly depicting landscape. Her work can be understood not as representation of nature but as a process of reconstructing the sensations of time and space experienced within nature on the pictorial surface.
 
The work Hwangwouchi (2011), presented in the Christie’s Hong Kong sale, clearly demonstrates this approach by transforming a natural landscape into an abstract configuration of color and structure.

 
Hong Kong remains a central stage for the Asian art market. While New York and London lead the structure of the global art market, Hong Kong functions as one of the most important crossroads for art transactions in East Asia.
 
The Christie’s Hong Kong 40th Anniversary Sale therefore represents an important moment that reveals which artists and works come to represent Korean art within the international art market. At the same time, it demonstrates how Korean abstract art continues to be read within the global language of modernist abstraction.
 
 

Auction Information

Christie’s Hong Kong
20th / 21st Century Art Day Sale
27–28 March 2026
The Henderson, Hong Kong
Christie’s Asia Pacific Headquarters
Website: www.christies.com