Kim Tae-Ho - Modern & Contemporary Art Day Sale Hong Kong Saturday, June 1, 2024 | Phillips

Modern & Contemporary Art Day Sale

Hong Kong Auction 1 June 2024

  • Kim Tae-Ho, who was fondly known as the ‘beehive artist’ of the Dansaekhwa movement, was born in Busan, Korea, in 1948. By the time of his passing at the age of 75 in 2015, he had come to be widely distinguished as a master of Korean Post-Monochrome art and celebrated for his best-known series of Internal Rhythm paintings.

     

    Demonstrating a proficiency for art at a young age, Kim relocated to Seoul after middle school to attend the Seoul Arts High School, where he was mentored by leading Dansaekhwa artist, Park Seo-Bo. He furthered his studies in Hongik University, learning from abstract artist Yoo Youngkuk, as well as studying under Dansaekhwa pioneers like Ha Chong-Hyun and Chung Sang Hwa, whose philosophies influenced Kim as he later became a prominent member of the Dansaekhwa movement himself, with a focus on abstract and monochrome paintings.

     

    Kim earned his bachelor’s degree from the College of Fine Arts in 1972 and a master’s degree in 1984 from the same university. That same year, Kim was honoured with receiving the third Journalists Art Prize and with this, his art practice came to be critically acclaimed worldwide. By 1987, he began a long tenure as a professor at Hongik University, concluding in 2016. During this time, Kim participated in over 40 solo exhibitions and numerous art fairs, not only in Korea but internationally as well.

     

     

    Detail of the present work

     

    The present work is a prime example of Kim’s most highly regarded series: Internal Rhythm. He first began to experiment with this body of works in the mid-1990s, following a meditative multi-step process that first began by covering his canvas with a base of white paint. Onto this, Kim would draw a grid before proceeding to paint over the grid lines in a methodological manner, working his way down the canvas in short and confident strokes that left raised bumps as the surface paint dried.

     

    Applying as many as 20 or so thick layers, Kim would then bisect these bulky masses of impasto by scratching the paint away, using a special knife to create a grid-like, three-dimensional texture that seemingly resembles a beehive. In doing so, the result then beautifully reveals a kaleidoscope of texture and variations of hidden color, born from the artist’s meticulous and laborious creative process.

     

    The rhythmic interplay of colours not only infuses the sculptural painting with energy and vibrancy, but also conjures myriad visual chambers within the crisscrossing lattice. Like individual cells in a beehive, each segment buzzes with its unique existence, endlessly expanding and proliferating within the domain.

     

    Over his forty-year career, Kim was recognised with several prestigious awards, including the 2003 Second Buil Art Grand Prize in Busan and the 1977 and 1980 Gold and 'Frontier' First Prizes at the Korean Art Exhibition, respectively. His art is held in notable collections worldwide, such as The British Museum, London; the Art Museum of the Guangzhou Academy of Fine Arts; the Seoul Museum of Art; and Busan Municipal Museum of Art; and the National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Seoul, among others.

     

     

    Kim Tae-Ho in his studio, 2016. Video Courtesy of MUSEPLUG

    • Provenance

      Galerie Françoise Livinec, Paris
      Acquired from the above by the present owner

146

Kim Tae-Ho

Internal Rhythm 2015-7

signed, titled and dated 'KIM TAE-HO "Internal Rhythm 2015-7" [in English and Hanja] 2015 TaeHo K.' on the reverse
acrylic on canvas
91.5 x 73.3 cm. (36 x 28 7/8 in.)
Painted in 2015.

Full Cataloguing

Estimate
HK$200,000 - 400,000 
€23,700-47,300
$25,600-51,300

Sold for HK$177,800

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Modern & Contemporary Art Day Sale

Hong Kong Auction 1 June 2024