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拍品專文
As a contemporary of other Asian artists like Zao Wou-Ki, Chu Teh-Chun, and Wu Guanzhong who also ventured to study in Paris, Rhee Seundja is a pioneer of Korean modern art, and the first among them to be acknowledged by the West. In 1951 at the age of 33, she was separated from her family by the Korean War, and arrived in Paris alone to study design. Despite having received no prior professional training, her talent in painting was quickly identified by her teacher, and within a year she was recommended and admitted to Académie de la Grande Chaumière in Paris to study oil painting under the tutelage of Henri Goetz. In just five years, she had already received widespread acclaim in the Parisian art world and exhibited at institutions such as Musée d’Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris, Salon des Indépendants at Grand Palais, and Musée National d'Art Moderne. In the subsequent decades, she focused her diverse stylistic language on the presentation of colour, nature, and traditional Korean culture, and became one of the most important figures in the history of Korean modern art.
This work from 1958 burns with vigour, featuring a warm and welcoming background on which brilliant sparks explode, reflecting Rhee’s quest to express her vitality, optimism, and passion for life. She used bold splashes of red to dominate the canvas, interspersed with soothing shades of sky blue, and further dotted with evocative hints of amber and cerulean – as though there are bursting fireworks or fields of flowers in bloom; these vivacious colours seemingly echo the glory of nature under the brushstrokes of impressionist masters. The uniform direction of her strokes suggests upward movement and dynamic growth, giving viewers an energising sense of spirit and liveliness. This work offers a glimpse of the beginnings of Rhee’s decades-long journey in abstractionism, marking when she moved beyond the sombre colour palette that characterise her early works in Paris, and used the poetry of light and nature to foretell new hopes and dreams in life.
This work from 1958 burns with vigour, featuring a warm and welcoming background on which brilliant sparks explode, reflecting Rhee’s quest to express her vitality, optimism, and passion for life. She used bold splashes of red to dominate the canvas, interspersed with soothing shades of sky blue, and further dotted with evocative hints of amber and cerulean – as though there are bursting fireworks or fields of flowers in bloom; these vivacious colours seemingly echo the glory of nature under the brushstrokes of impressionist masters. The uniform direction of her strokes suggests upward movement and dynamic growth, giving viewers an energising sense of spirit and liveliness. This work offers a glimpse of the beginnings of Rhee’s decades-long journey in abstractionism, marking when she moved beyond the sombre colour palette that characterise her early works in Paris, and used the poetry of light and nature to foretell new hopes and dreams in life.