Oil on canvas

50.3 × 65 cm. 193/4 × 255/8 in.

Signed in English on bottom right; numbered, located, signed in English and Chinese, and titled on the reverse

LITERATURE
2018, The 100th Anniversary of Birth – Rhee Seundja: Road to the Antipodes, National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Gwacheon, p.99
EXHIBITED
22 Mar – 29 July 2018, The 100th Anniversary of Birth – Rhee Seundja: Road to the Antipodes, National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Gwacheon

PROVENANCE
23 Nov 2014, Christie’s Hong Kong Autumn Auction, Lot 129
Private Collection, Asia

A myriad of stars with a bright moon
Female Korean Master of Abstract Painting — Rhee Seundja
During the Korean War, in 1951, Rhee Seundja left her motherland for Paris in order to pursue her artistic dreams. She was the first Korean artist who decided to develop her talents in France. Her tenacity and independence led to the formation of her lyrical, abstract style, and as she continued to expand her creative themes and approach, she gained recognition not only locally, but even among international art circles. During her first two years in Paris, Rhee attended the Académie de la Grande Chaumière, where she studied under Henri Goetz, the French-American surrealist painter and sculptor, and served as his assistant, benefiting from the opportunity to encounter the latest techniques and ideas. In addition, Rhee also studied the forms of French painter Yves Brayer and French-born Russian sculptor Ossip Zadkine, gaining a deep understanding of Post-War Surrealism and Abstract Expressionism, arousing her interest in abstract painting. In terms of artistic creation, Rhee excelled in “shaping” lines and images via the multilayer accumulation of colors, resulting in multiple repeated points and lines. She also broke routine, replacing brushes with sticks and utilizing their coarseness to give her works a unique texture. The vast universe reflected in Rhee’s works truly embodies the great power of nature.
Rhee’s extraordinary style of painting earned her recognition in just five years since her arrival in France. Her works were exhibited in notable local art institutions, such as the City of Paris Museum and the “Salon des Independants” of the Grand Palais de Paris, and entered the collections of the Musée National d’Art Moderne and the Leeum Samsung Museum of Art, among others.
Home is a Thousand Miles away
This spring’s auction features The Moon on October 15, 1963, Rhee Seundja’s masterpiece from the sixties and the most vivid and lyrical painting in her series Woman and Earth. Using unique color language, the artist recorded a moment of looking up at the night sky and depicted a round, bright moon hanging in the boundless universe.
The upper-right part of the picture features a bright moon. On a pale yellow background, the artist joined together multiple triangles, circles, and rectangles to form larger figures. The fan-like shape below the moon resembles time-space fluctuations the great satellite causes, and these are transmitted farther to the two “galaxies” below and on the left. The whole work seems to depict the energy cycle of the universe through texture and varied shapes. Moreover, the black fine lines visible in the moonlight-colored background parallel stars shining in the night sky, symbolizing how far Rhee was from her motherland while living in Paris. With this work, Rhee communicated her infinite longing for home and her family, far away but yet still under the same starry sky.
Magnificent Galaxy of Shapes and Colors
Inspired by Neo-Impressionism and Pointillism, Rhee utilized dots of color to express rhythm and strength, resulting in a detailed, yet integral abstract expression. In The Moon of October 15, 1963, these colorful dots of red, blue, yellow, and black seem to condense the artist’s memories into a starry sky and, via moonlight, transmit it back to Korea. This allows the viewer to unknowingly participate in another time-space. However, unlike the Pointillist paintings of Paul Signac and Georges Seurat who arranged color dots of balanced shades to depict realistic scenes, Rhee carefully distinguished the expressive forces of different color dots, using a mode of abstract expression to demonstrate certain powers of the universe.
The artist’s long-term observations and reflections on herself, her life, and the universe are hidden behind the delicate brushwork and colors of this work. The shades in the picture softly become vast galaxies, embodying an indescribable resilience, tolerance, and power and truly touching the viewer’s heart.

Price estimate:
HKD: 550,000 - 650,000
USD: 70,500 - 83,300

Auction Result:
HKD: 649,000