Christie’s Sale of Rhee Seund-ja Painting Sets New Auction Record for Korean Female Artist

A new auction record for a Korean female artist has been set at a recent Christie’s Hong Kong auction. Artist Rhee Seund-ja (1918 – 2009), the first-generation Korean abstract painter, is the new record-holder. Four additional Korean artists netted new records in the recent sale. This shows that K-art, along with K-pop, K-content, and K-food, is making strides overseas.

On May 28, 2024, Rhee Seund-ja’s The Mountain without Shadow (1962) went up for auction at Christie’s Hong Kong First Half Evening Sale at the Hong Kong Convention Center. The painting’s price went up as the phone rang repeatedly and on-site bids were made, and the auctioneer finally announced the successful bid:  HKD 8.19 million (USD 1.05 million). It easily exceeded HKD 4 million to 6 million estimate. The successful bidder was an overseas collector who was bidding on-site. It was a heated contest as Francis Belin, Christie’s Asia-Pacific president, also facilitated phone bidding.

Rhee Seund-ja incorporated Eastern philosophy into her artworks for more than 60 years. The winning piece, The Mountain without Shadow, featured geometric shapes such as squares and triangles. Rhee’s work is said to reflect her longing for the children she left behind in Korea when she moved to France in 1951.

The winning bid also broke the previous record high price for Rhee Seund-ja’s works. A Sudden Law (1961), which previously held Rhee’s auction record, achieved HKD 5.67 million (USD 726,400) with Christie’s Hong Kong in 2022.

Lee Hak-joon, CEO of Christie Korea, said, “It is a day of great significance for the Korean art market,” adding, “Rhee Seund-ja has been devalued for being a woman even though she has worked with Kim Whan-ki and Nam Kwan in Paris since the 1950s, but it is in line with the trend of undervalued female artists being re-examined recently.” Rhee’s other works, A City of Uranus, April No. 1, 2007, were sold for HKD 3.78 million (USD 484,250) at an auction on May 29, 2024.

Rhee Seund-ja is attracting attention in many ways. An individual exhibition titled “Seundja Rhee: Towards the Antipodes” is being held at the 60th Venice Biennale, which opened in April. About 20 paintings featuring Rhee’s unique subtle colors are receiving positive reviews. The Biennale will run through November 24, 2024. In late May, Rhee’s Atelier Galaxy, which she used as a studio and residence in France while she was alive, was designated as a “Notable Modern Architecture Contemporary” given to cultural property-grade structures. The structure was designed by Rhee herself and completed by architect Christophe Petcollot in 1993.

Four other Korean artists (Jeong Young-doo, Son Dong-hyun, Jeon Hyun-sun, and Kim Soo-yeon) broke individual auction records at the recent Christie’s Hong Kong auction. In this sale, a total of 17 Korean artists’ works were submitted and 15 were sold. Kim Tschang-yeul‘s Water Drop, Baek Nam-joon’s Root 66, Lee Bae’s 3-88, and Kim Whan-ki’s Mountain and Moon and 21-V-68 #21 were sold over the estimated price.

Meanwhile, a piece from Andy Warhol’s Flower series, which drew attention even before the auction, sold for HKD 66.62 million (USD 8.53 million). It was slightly higher than the minimum estimate of HKD 62.8 million (USD 8.05 million). Works by René Magritte, Marc Chagall, and other 20th-century artists all sold. 

Overall, this auction has continued the recent downturn in the art market due to high interest rates and war in 2024’s first quarter. The total amount of successful auction bids was HKD 963 million, which was less than the HKD 1.05 billion achieved in the second half of last year. The sluggish global art market is also breathing a chill into the auction industry, with news of Sotheby’s restructuring reported.