HA CHONG-HYUN

b. 1935 in Sancheong, Korea

Lives and works in Seoul, South Korea

 

 

Ha Chong-Hyun is an important Korean artist whose unique method has set him apart from his ‘Dansaekhwa’ contemporaries. He uses coarsely woven hemp cloth - the oldest fabric known in Korea - and pushes oil paint through the loose weaves of the hemp from the back, then reworks the pigments using spatulas. Through his intuitive sense of aesthetic understanding, Ha Chong-Hyun focuses on the primary concerns of painting, such as the surface, gesture, space, and light.

 

Through direct modulation and contrasts, Ha Chong-Hyun’s reduction of palette to black, white, and earth tones, inspire a fresh interpretation of blank writing based on the organic geometry found in ‘Hangul’ - the phonetic Korean alphabet invented during the Joseon Dynasty in the 15th century. Likewise, Qi, or energy, plays a fundamental role in these works as the artist engages in a kind of ancient mystical writing, inscribing a set of marks that hold an emotional and intellectual counterpart.

 

Ha Chong-Hyun has lived and worked in Seoul since graduating from Hongik University, in 1959. Awarded an honorary doctorate degree, he served as the Dean of the Fine Arts College from 1990 to 1994. From 2001 to 2006, Ha was the Director of the Seoul Museum of Art.

 

Ha Chong-hyun has had numerous solo exhibitions in South Korea, including retrospectives at the Art Sonje Center, Seoul (2025);  at the Daejeon Museum of Art, Daejeon (2020); at the National Museum of Contemporary Art, Gwacheon (2012); and the Gyeongnam Art Museum, Changwon (2004).

 

His first international exhibition dates to 1961, when he exhibited at the 2nd Paris Youth Biennale, Paris, France and thereafter he participated in the 3rd India Triennale, New Delhi, India (1975); the 13th São Paulo Biennale, São Paulo, Brazil (1978); and the Venice Biennale, Venice, Italy (1993).

 

Recognition in the United States began when his paintings were featured in From All Sides: Dansaekhwa on Abstraction, curated by Joan Kee, Associate Professor of History of Art at the University of Michigan. Since then, his work has also been featured in surveys such as When Process Becomes Form: Dansaekhwa and Korean Abstraction, Villa Empain – Boghossian Foundation, Brussels, Belgium (2016) and Dansaekhwa, Palazzo Contarini Polignac, Venice, Italy (2015). Most recently solo exhibitions at institutions worldwide including; Light Into Color, Château La Coste, Provence, France (2025), Ha Chong-Hyun: Collateral Event of the 59th International Art Exhibition – La Biennale di Venezia, Palazzetto Tito, Venice, Italy (2022).

 

His paintings are in the collections of leading institutions such as the Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, IL; Leeum, Samsung Museum of Art, Seoul, South Korea; M+, Hong Kong, China; Museum of Modern Art, New York, NY; National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Gwacheon, South Korea; and the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, NY, among others.