《Ha Chong-Hyun: Retrospective》, on view September 25, 2026–January 25, 2027, at the Asian Art Museum, is the first major North American museum exhibition by pioneering Korean contemporary artist Ha Chong-Hyun. This exhibition also marks the first solo presentation by a Korean artist at the Asian Art Museum.
 
The exhibition features more than 50 paintings — including two new works completed as recently as 2025 — tracing Ha’s creative evolution over more than six decades. 《Ha Chong-Hyun: Retrospective》 is guest curated by eminent Seoul-based scholar and curator Sunjung Kim.

Born in 1935 during Japanese colonial rule and coming of age in the aftermath of the Korean War, Ha developed his practice in a country marked by upheaval, scarcity, and rapid transformation. These conditions are embedded in the structure and materials of his work — as in his frequent use of industrial burlap sacks, once used to ship rice to South Korea after the war, as canvases.
 
“For Ha, painting is not about illusion or representation,” said exhibition curator Kim. “It is about encounter — between the artist’s body and the material, between pressure and release. That encounter is what gives the work its enduring power.”

Since its opening, the Asian Art Museum has consistently presented landmark exhibitions of Korean art, making it an especially meaningful and symbolic venue for Ha Chong-Hyun’s first North American retrospective. Soyoung Lee, the Barbara Bass Bakar Director and CEO, shared the following remarks on the exhibition.
 
“Ha Chong-Hyun’s work reshapes how we understand abstraction — as a visceral experience, more than a purely visual language. This exhibition reveals an artist who expanded the possibilities of painting and embodied the realities of his time and place.”

The retrospective also places Ha within a broader global context. Where Western Minimalism often sought industrial precision, Ha’s surfaces retain vulnerability — each mark a trace of effort and resistance.
 
Seen in full, 《Ha Chong-Hyun: Retrospective》 unfolds as a sustained inquiry into what painting can be when pushed — physically and conceptually — beyond its limits. It is also a reminder that the story of postwar abstraction is neither singular nor Western, but global.
 
Meanwhile, on October 3—during the run of Ha Chong-Hyun’s solo exhibition—San Francisco Museum of Modern Art will also present 《RM X SFMOMA》, an exhibition of BTS RM’s personal collection, further transforming San Francisco into a hub of K-art.
 
For more information about the exhibition, please visit the Asian Art Museum website: https://about.asianart.org/press/ha-chong-hyun-retrospective/.

References

• 샌프란시스코 아시아 미술관 보도자료 (San Francisco Asian Art Museum Press Release)