Ha Chong-Hyun

Background

Ha Chong-Hyun was born in 1935 in Sancheong, South Korea.

Education

Ha received Bachelor of Fine Arts at Hong-ik University in 1959.

Career

Ha Chong-Hyun is the first generation of Danseakhwa art movement. After his graduation from Hongik University, he was appointed as a professor at the same university for forty years. In 2001, he has retired and made "Ha Chong Hyun Art Award" with his severance pay. Every year, he chooses an artist and offers the prize.

Ha Chong-Hyun came to prominence with the advent of his "Conjunction" series in the early 1970’s. This groundbreaking work was immediately distinguished by three characteristics that became signature attributes of his practice. The first is Ha’s use of common burlap as his ground, a choice that both broke radically with art tradition and poignantly evoked the poverty and raw physicality of postwar Korea. The second is the way Ha applies his paint, approaching the picture plane from the obverse and pushing thick layers through the burlap weave to the front — an unprecedented method that creates a highly specific surface that balances control with organic subtlety. The final signature aspect of Ha’s paintings is his muted palette.

Ha creates unique abstractive art by using ma-dae; the basket used for carrying potatoes or grains in traditional Korean society. His representative series, "Jeop-Hap" has been his masterpiece since 1975. It has broken the stereotype that paintings must be done with a paintbrush on the front side of canvas. Instead, he creates a unique method in which he pushes paint on the back of the canvas and then smashes the paint from the front. Through the opened or closed structure of ma-dae, it brings the relaxed looseness and releases the tight tension at the same time. Prominent art critic Edward Lucie-Smith said that Ha actualized the remarkably different art style from the west.

Ha Chong-Hyun was the chairman of Korean avant-garde association from 1964 to 1974. After that, he was appointed as a commissioner for 24th Cagnes International Painting Festival and 43th Venice Biennale. From 2001 to 2006, he was the director of Seoul Museum of Art and worked actively to promote Korean art internationally. His work has showcased at the Mudima Foundation for Contemporary Art in 2003 and Gyeongnam Art Museum in 2004. In 2012, the National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art in Korea had a grand retrospective of his works.

Achievements

• Ha Chong-Hyun is best known for his material and process-oriented artworks created by applying a thick layer of paint on the reverse of a canvas.

Works

More photos

• painting

  • Untitled 72-C

  • Work 74-06

  • Work 77-15

  • Conjunction 92-99

  • Work 74-05

  • Conjunction 77-17

  • Conjunction 84-07

  • Conjunction No. 97-035

  • Conjunction 04-13

  • Conjunction 09-52

Views

Ha’s own multifaceted practice was expansive: moving from gestural abstract painting in the style known as “Korean Informel”, to geometric nonfigurative painting, to conceptual sculpture and installation that audaciously experimented with materiality and spatiality and revolutionized modern art in Korea.

Quotations: “My studio practice continues to be based on experiments with processes and new techniques through which to create work.”

Membership

Ha is a leading member of the movement known as Dansaekhwa.

References

• Ha Chong Hyun
  2018