Oil on canvas

46 × 55 cm. 18 1/8 × 21 5/8 in.

Signed in French and dated on bottom left; titled, signed and located in French on the reverse
EXHIBITED
1 Oct-1 Nov 1980, Seund Ja Rhee, Maison de Van Gogh, Auvers-sur-Oise

PROVENANCE
Private Collection, Europe
Private Collection, France

This work is accompanied by an exhibition poster of 1980 Rhee Seund Ja solo exhibition in Maison de Van Gogh, Auvers-sur-Oise, France

The Sun Burns Brightly, the Moon Shines Eternally
Rhee Seundja's Poetic Work

“Here, I present nature to you. Here, I record the essence of life.”

――Rhee Seund Ja

During the Korean War in 1951, Rhee became the first artist in Korean art history to go to France to pursue her dream. Having never received any formal art training, she entered the Académie de la Grande Chaumière in Montparnasse, where she studied under the French-American surrealist painter and sculptor Henri Goetz, took in the post-war Surrealism.

In the series Chemin des Antipodes, she juxtaposed the moon and the sun, two-dimensional elements that symbolize yin and yang, the poles and the extremes, in the same space, expressing the transcendental illusion and poetry of “the sun and the moon shining together, burning with splendor”. This time, Chemin des Antipodes, mars n°5 1980 is the exemplary work of this series.

The Sun and the Moon, Snuggling up to the Stars

The painting is divided between bright blue and soft red, with the red colour fading from the bottom to the top and disappearing into the white skyline above. A crescent moon hangs below, nestles next to the “sun”, which is composed of two half-full string moons as if it's whispering the secrets of time and space. The colour block outside the star is like the scale of time, forming a cycle of energy in the sunrise and moonset. Rhee Seundja once said: “Every time I paint, I am thinking of my children”, and the three stars in the painting speak of a mother's tender thoughts. Unlike her earlier works, Rhee has already held two retrospectives at the National Museum of Fine Arts in Seoul, and her paintings convey a different kind of warmth that is unforgettable.

Price estimate:
HKD: 70,000 - 150,000
USD: 8,900 - 19,100

Auction Result:
HKD: 86,400