158th Art Auction on the 15th... 191 Items Worth About 12 Billion KRW to be Offered
Online Auction on the 17th Introducing Artists from Gyeonggi Region... Auction Starting from 0 KRW
[Asia Economy Reporter Byunghee Park] Seoul Auction will hold its final auctions of the year on the 15th and 17th. On the 15th, the 'Seoul Auction 158th Art Auction' will take place, and on the 17th, the 'ZEROBASExArt Gyeonggi Online Auction' will be held. The '158th Art Auction' will feature a total of 191 works valued at approximately 12 billion KRW. The 'ZEROBASExArt Gyeonggi' auction is designed for novice collectors who are just starting to purchase artworks, with 65 pieces up for auction starting from 0 KRW.
The '158th Art Auction,' held at 4 PM on the 15th, will showcase works by major figures in contemporary Japanese art such as Yayoi Kusama, as well as popular Japanese artists in the art market like Madsaaki and Rokaku Ayako. Kusama's works hold the highest auction prices among living female artists. She has worked through her paintings to confront her inner wounds, developing her signature pumpkin motif in various forms and colors. This auction will feature three of Kusama's iconic pieces, including the yellow pumpkin 'Pumpkin (2005)' and 'Flowers (1996)'.
The distinctive Japanese artist Madsaaki's work 'Mirror (2017)' will also find a new owner at this auction. This piece depicts a woman touching up her makeup in a tatami room of a traditional Japanese house, expressed through Madsaaki's unique technique. This large-scale work measures 190 cm in both width and height, with an estimated auction price of 300 million to 500 million KRW. Also featured is a work by Rokaku, known for evoking imagination. Rokaku's piece sold for 250 million KRW at the Seoul Auction Busan auction held last October. His works repeatedly feature a girl who appears influenced by Japanese animation. The current piece 'Untitled' prominently depicts a girl on the canvas, with an estimated auction price of 160 million to 240 million KRW.
Works by Korean masters are also heavily featured. Eight works by Lee Ufan will be presented, notably the large-scale 300-ho piece 'Dialogue' created in 2016. This work features a single dot painted in the center of a large canvas, with a deep vermilion dot rendered in a gradient fading from right to left. Unlike other works painted with a single brushstroke, this piece shows repetitive brushstrokes within the dot's form, with multiple layers creating a richer gradation of red hues.
Four works by Cheon Kyungja will be exhibited, depicting women and girls. Since the mid-1960s, Cheon Kyungja began painting figures centered on women. From the 1970s, her distinctive style of female portraiture became prominent, producing many of her representative works during this period. The auction piece 'Portrait of a Woman,' created in 1977, shows a woman wearing a floral headpiece gazing forward with a melancholic expression. The estimated auction price is 500 million to 800 million KRW.
Lee Jung-seop's late-period oil painting with humorous motifs, 'Children, Bird, and Fish,' painted while longing for his family, will also find a new owner. The work features dynamic and bold expression through brushstrokes conveying speed and strongly applied paint. The figures, birds, and fish are each rendered with different coloring and techniques, creating a sense of spatial depth in the painting. The estimated auction price is 500 million to 800 million KRW.
Seoul Auction has prepared a special section to newly spotlight Park Saeng-gwang, who has been undervalued until now. Park Saeng-gwang was an Oriental painter from Jinju, Gyeongnam, who worked in Japan before returning to Korea and presenting his unique sculptural world. Early in his career, he showed tendencies of Japanese painting but later focused on traditional-colored works themed on Korean shamanism, Buddhist legends, and folk paintings. He regarded Buddhism as part of Eastern philosophy and Korean history, frequently painting historical scenes, the ten longevity symbols, shamans, and jangseung (Korean totem poles). Eight of Park Saeng-gwang's works will be exhibited, including 'Nirvana (涅槃)' from 1982, 'Geumgangsan Bodeok Cave (金剛山普德窟)' from 1968, and 'Tiger (虎)' from 1980.
Danwon Kim Hong-do's 'Landscape Painting (山水圖)' will also be available at this auction. It depicts a spring day with rain, featuring winding willows, two orioles perched on branches, and a peach blossom tree with buds, capturing the essence of spring. The work includes a line from the Tang dynasty poet Du Fu's poem 'Qujiang Duijiu (曲江對酒)'. It expresses the poetic content inspired by watching the spring rain, demonstrating the unity of poetry and painting and reflecting Danwon's scholarly taste. The estimated auction price is 50 million to 100 million KRW.
Gyeomjae Jeong Seon's 'Baegak Bu-eo Rock (白岳負兒岩)' is named after the image of one rock resting atop another. For Gyeomjae, who lived at the foot of Inwangsan Mountain, Bukaksan Mountain was a familiar place. Therefore, his works featuring the Bukaksan mountain range are especially notable. This piece shows Gyeomjae's characteristic style with short, winding brushstrokes outlining the mountain and bold omissions and exaggerations for selective composition. The estimated auction price is 60 million to 150 million KRW.
Danwon Kim Hong-do's 'Landscape Painting (Sansudo)', ink and color on paper, Ø62.3 cm Photo by Seoul Auction
This auction also includes a 'Works on Paper' section to showcase the artistic worlds of major modern and contemporary Korean artists through paper media. Works on paper by Kim Kyung, Jung Kyu, Ahn Changhong, Joo Kyung, Park Soo-keun, Kim Whanki, Jang Uk-jin, and Choi Wook-kyung will find new owners. These works utilize various media such as pencil, ink, conte, oil paint, and woodblock prints. Notable pieces include Park Soo-keun's 1950s work 'Girl and Puppy,' Kim Whanki's 'Untitled (1959),' and Choi Wook-kyung's 'Untitled.'
'ZEROBASExArt Gyeonggi' is a collaboration between Seoul Auction and the Gyeonggi Cultural Foundation. Seoul Auction specialists discover artists with artistic value and provide them an opportunity to enter the art market through Zero Base. Following the introduction of artists from Jeonnam in June, this time artists from the Gyeonggi region are featured. It is expected to be a great opportunity for regional artists, who find it difficult to enter the art market, to showcase their artistic worlds. Six artists from the Gyeonggi region will participate in this Zero Base auction. Since these artists do not yet have established market prices, the auction prices will be entirely determined by buyers. All works in Zero Base start at 0 KRW, and depending on competition, high auction prices may be achieved. The 'ZEROBASExArt Gyeonggi' auction will close sequentially on the Seoul Auction website at 2 PM on the 17th.
The preview exhibition for the '158th Art Auction' will be held at the Seoul Auction Gangnam Center until the 15th, and the preview for 'ZEROBASE x Art Gyeonggi' will be held at the same location until the 17th. The exhibitions are open free of charge from 10 AM to 7 PM. Additionally, due to COVID-19, visitors can view the exhibitions virtually through VR and e-catalogs online without visiting in person. Auction participation is possible via real-time bidding as well as written and telephone bids.
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