Blue-Umber ‘76, 1976
Yun Hyong-keun
PKM Gallery
In mid-20th-century South Korea, amid the economic hardship and political repression that followed the Korean War, a vanguard of abstract artists forged a radical new visual language. Pushing back against rigid, state-sanctioned academic realism and breaking decisively from centuries of traditional fine-art ink painting, these artists sought an art form untethered from past conventions.
The Korean art critic Lee Yil curated a selection of their works into a groundbreaking group show at Tokyo Gallery in 1975; he coined the term Dansaekhwa in 1980 to define these nonfigurative works executed in understated, neutral hues.
Though the term translates to “monochrome painting,” the label is a misnomer. Dansaekhwa was never about the passive application of a single color. Rather than treating the canvas as a flat window for representation, these artists rejected Western compositional logic altogether, elevating process over final result and prioritizing physical labor as a form of spiritual meditation.
Through disciplined repetition—dragging gouges through wet paint, soaking and tearing traditional Hanji paper, or squeezing pigment through coarse hemp from behind, for example—they rendered the physical surface an arena of endurance and material transformation.
Meditation 91007, 1991
Chung Chang-Sup
Axel Vervoordt Gallery
Over the past decade, a surge of international retrospectives, such as the 2015 “Dansaekhwa” exhibition at the 56th Venice Biennale (curated by art historian Yongwoo Lee) and major market interest, have cemented Dansaekhwa as one of modern art history’s vital movements. This November, Phaidon will publish Dansaekhwa: Korean Abstract Art and Its Cultural Impact as well.
As the international art world recalibrates following another bustling edition of Frieze Seoul, global attention remains fixed on South Korea’s rich modern art legacy. Driven by landmark gallery retrospectives and major international surveys, from Venice to San Francisco and Seoul, Dansaekhwa continues to stand out as the defining cornerstone of Korean abstraction.
The following nine artists offer essential entry points to the movement.
Kim Whanki
B. 1913, Kijwa-do, Korea. D. 1974.
26-I-70, 1970
Kim Whanki
San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (SFMOMA)
Heaven and Earth 24-IX-73 #320, 1973
Kim Whanki
Leeum, Samsung Museum of Art
Pioneering modernist painter Kim Whanki is revered as the foundational precursor to Dansaekhwa. He was active between Seoul, Paris, and New York throughout his long and transformative career. Kim primarily worked on monumental oil canvases, filling his expansive surfaces with tens of thousands of small blue dots enclosed within tight, hand-drawn square grids. These sweeping abstract compositions, rendered in translucent washes of indigo, navy, and oceanic teal, evoke vast starry night skies or shimmering water as they bridge traditional Korean nature motifs (mountains, moon jars, and sky painting specifically) with Western modernism. The watery, ink-like transparency of his oil pigment creates a deeply atmospheric, meditative depth that immediately sets his work apart from American field painters.
By translating spiritual harmony into systematic markmaking, Kim laid the ideological groundwork for the generation of Korean abstract artists that followed. Today, the artist holds an unrivaled position at the apex of the Korean art market, setting a historic auction record in 2019 when his painting 05-IV-71 #200 (Universe) (1971) sold for over $10 million and became the most expensive artwork ever by a Korean artist. His monumental legacy is preserved at the dedicated Whanki Museum in Seoul, while key works anchor the permanent collections of major institutions such as the National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art (MMCA), Korea, and the Leeum, Samsung Museum of Art.
Kwon Young-Woo
B. 1926, Riwon, Korea. D. 2013
Kwon Young-Woo was a Paris- and Seoul-based master who abandoned traditional ink brushes early in his career and worked with paper as a sculptural medium. Kwon used his fingers, fingernails, wooden tools, and scratch awls to tear, puncture, scratch, and layer multiple sheets of white hanji paper. His medium-to-large-scale monochromatic compositions feature rhythmic, torn incisions and subtle three-dimensional relief, occasionally accented by soft blurs of blue or dark ink seeping through from the reverse side. The resulting works resemble delicate, highly tactile topographies; the physical destruction of the paper becomes the generative act of creation.
Kwon forced a radical reevaluation of paper’s role in Korean and broader East Asian art history, bringing it into a modern context. His work was featured in the benchmark survey exhibition “Dansaekhwa” at the 56th Venice Biennale in 2015. Today, his tactile paper compositions are preserved in the permanent collections of major global institutions, including the MMCA in Seoul, the British Museum in London, and the Centre Pompidou in Paris.
Chung Chang-Sup
B. 1927, Cheongju, Korea. D. 2011
Seoul-based painter and longtime academic Chung Chang-Sup spent decades investigating the raw, organic possibilities of tak, the natural mulberry bark fiber used to craft traditional Korean Hanji paper. Foregoing conventional oil paint, Chung soaked raw mulberry fibers in water, kneaded the wet pulp by hand, and pressed it directly onto large canvas stretchers. As the pulp dried, it formed surface cracks, fibrous ridges, and subtle folds that revealed the medium’s organic origins. His finished works present thick, sculptural surfaces in muted, earthy monochromatic tones of ivory, warm tan, charcoal, and slate gray. They often feature squares and rectilinear shapes embedded in their centers.
Chung viewed his labor-intensive process as unifying his own breath and physical effort with the natural material. His tactile approach to material heritage gained global prominence when he was featured in the historic collateral exhibition Dansaekhwa at the Palazzo Contarini-Polignac during the 56th Venice Biennale in 2015. His works are now held in renowned international collections, including the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in New York, the National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art (MMCA) in Korea, the Leeum, Samsung Museum of Art, and M+ in Hong Kong.
Yun Hyoung-Keun
B. 1928, Cheongju, Korea. D. 2007
Yun Hyoung-Keun was a Seoul-based artist who produced some of the most emotionally resonant and understated works of the Dansaekhwa movement. Working on large, unprimed linen and raw cotton canvases, Yun applied wide, vertical bands of dark, heavily diluted oil paint using a signature mixture of burnt umber and ultramarine pigment. These towering dark pillars feature soft, feathery borders where the watery paint bleeds naturally into the untreated fabric, creating deep, gate-like architectural voids of near-black alongside raw cloth.
The resulting paintings feel monumental yet remarkably quiet, visually echoing the natural bleeding of traditional ink wash on absorbent paper. Informed by personal trauma during Korea’s post-war political turmoil (he went to prison and was nearly executed for participating in student movements), Yun’s work treated canvas as an acoustic chamber for grief and restraint.
His international stature was solidified by a landmark posthumous solo retrospective at Palazzo Fortuny during the 58th Venice Biennale in 2019. His market momentum continues this September with a solo exhibition at PKM Gallery in Seoul, accompanying the historic restoration and public opening of his longtime residence and studio in the city. New York’s Judd Foundation will also open a solo show of his work on October 8th. Yun’s oeuvre is represented in major permanent collections worldwide, including the MMCA in Korea, Glenstone in Maryland, and Tate Britain.
Park Seo-Bo
B. 1931, Korea. D. 2023
Park Seo-Bo is recognized as the father of Dansaekhwa. He served as the movement’s theorist and organizing force, championing Korean art from his perch in Seoul until his passing. He is most famous for his lifelong “Écriture” series (1972–2023): In the 1980s, Park developed a technique of soaking sheets of traditional Hanji (mulberry paper) for weeks, layering it onto canvas, and pushing the wet pulp with his fingers, sticks, and rulers to build abstract, sculptural ridges, often referred to as Hanji “mountains.”
The artist’s early palette was restricted to unbleached white, inspired by the translucent purity of Korean Joseon porcelain, and deep matte black, recalling the soot lining traditional Korean kitchen hearths. Beginning in the early 2000s, Park introduced luminous hues drawn directly from nature, naming specific shades such as Maple Leaf Red, Canola Yellow, and Sky Gray.
Park saw this relentless, daily repetition as an exercise in self-erasure and spiritual healing for both the artist and the viewer. Seoul’s Kukje Gallery is currently celebrating his legacy with a retrospective that remains on view through October 18th. His footprint continues to expand with the recent opening of the Park Seo-Bo Memorial Museum in Seoul, alongside key acquisitions by prestigious institutions like Tate Modern in London, the Museum of Modern Art in New York, and the Centre Pompidou in Paris.
Chung Sang-Hwa
B. 1932, Korea. D. 2025
Untitled 019-5-2, 2019
Chung Sang Hwa
Gallery Hyundai
Chung Sang-Hwa, who worked between Paris, Japan, and South Korea, was an internationally celebrated artist who approached painting as a labor-intensive ritual of construction and deconstruction. He coated large canvases with a thick mixture of kaolin clay and acrylic paste, let them dry, then methodically folded them into tight, uniform grid patterns. The rigid surfaces cracked, clay peeled away, and the artist refilled the empty geometric voids with oil paint.
Repeating this painstaking cycle dozens of times produced subtle, mosaic-like surfaces of off-whites, grays, or muted blues with intricate textural depth. Up close, Chung’s canvases reveal a complex relief of tile-like fragments that catch ambient room light. In 2021, Seoul’s National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art (MMCA) honored the artist with a sweeping solo retrospective. His works are permanently housed in major institutional collections across the globe, including the Guggenheim Abu Dhabi, the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden in Washington, D.C., M+ in Hong Kong, and the MMCA in Korea.
Ha Chong-Hyun
B. 1935, Korea.
Conjunction 23-67, 2023
Ha Chong-hyun
Tina Kim Gallery
Seoul-based master Ha Chong-Hyun has revolutionized the physical mechanics of canvas painting through his long-running “Conjunction” series. The artist eschews traditional front-facing brushwork, instead applying thick, muted oil paint in shades of taupe, dark ocher, rust brown, and charcoal to the back of coarse burlap or hemp fabric. Using significant physical force, he squeezes the viscous pigment forward through the open weave of the fabric until it oozes out the front, where he scrapes, smears, or shapes the paint using trowels and palette knives. The final works feature heavy, sculptural impasto trails protruding from rough, unpainted burlap.
Ha’s unconventional technique turned painting inside out, transforming coarse industrial sacking into a tactile battlefield. His work reached milestone prominence in 2022, when Kukje Art and Culture Foundation organized a solo show at Fondazione Bevilacqua La Masa as an official Collateral Event at the 59th Venice Biennale.
On September 25th, the artist will open a major presentation at the Asian Art Museum in San Francisco: his first-ever North American retrospective. His pieces form an integral part of major permanent collections around the world, including MoMA and the Guggenheim Museum in New York, as well as the Centre Pompidou in Paris.
Lee Ufan
B. 1936, Kyongnam, South Korea.
From Line, 1974
Lee Ufan
Upsilon Gallery
Lee Ufan is an internationally renowned painter, sculptor, and philosopher who splits his practice between Japan, France, and South Korea. Lee occupies a unique position in art history: while recognized as the key theoretical architect of Japan’s Mono-ha (School of Things) movement in the late 1960s, he simultaneously served as a vital international bridge for Dansaekhwa. Though scholars debate the artist’s exact categorization—his “Relatum” series of spare sculptures align with Mono-ha’s prioritization of physical, unmediated interactions between raw industrial materials and natural objects, while his rhythmic paintings share more with Dansaekhwa—Lee’s practice links both movements via a philosophical commitment to restraint and material dialogue.
To make his famous “From Point and From Line” series, Lee holds his breath for up to two minutes, synchronizing his body with his brushwork: His deliberate strokes of mineral pigment fade systematically across bare canvas.
Lee remains the most commercially successful living Korean artist, with benchmark works like East Winds (1984) achieving over 3.1 billion won ($2.7 million) at auction in 2021. His institutional footprint is secured by dedicated foundation spaces in Naoshima, Japan, Arles, France, and Busan, high-profile site-specific commissions at the Château de Versailles and the Hirshhorn Museum, and a retrospective organized by the Dia Art Foundation at SMAC Venice as an official Collateral Event of the 61st Venice Biennale this past year.
Lee Dong-Youb
B. 1946. D. 2013
Interspace, 2008
Lee Dong-Youb
The Columns Gallery
Interspace, 1980
Lee Dong-Youb
The Columns Gallery
Lee Dong-Youb represents the younger wave of artists associated with Dansaekhwa's initial push; he was included in Lee Yil’s seminal 1975 exhibition “Korea: Five Artists, Five Hinsek ‘White’” in Tokyo. The Seoul-based artist studied under Lee Ufan and was celebrated for his radically spare visual language. Lee’s signature “In-Between” series consists of expansive canvases covered in ultra-thin, translucent layers of pale white and soft gray paint. Applied with broad, whisper-light brushstrokes, his quiet gradations of tone leave vast, cloud-like central spaces that evoke open sky, architectural light, and infinite silence. The subtle shifts between pale pigment and bare canvas are so delicate that they require slow, contemplative viewing to register.
By stripping painting down to its most minimal atmospheric presence, Lee pushed monochrome abstraction to its logical extreme. The artist launched into prominence after winning the Grand Prize at the 1972 Seoul National Exhibition, establishing the second-generation trajectory of Korean monochrome abstraction. Today, his understated works are held in premier museum collections, including the National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art (MMCA) in Gwacheon, the National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo (MOMAT), and the Seoul Museum of Art (SeMA).
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