South Korean Pioneering Abstract Artist Kim Whanki’s Painting Becomes The Most Expensive Korean Artwork Ever Sold After Fetching 4 Million Dollars At An Auction

Kim Wahanki's abstract oil painting titled "19-VII-71 #209" was sold for $4 million in Hong Kong's Seoul Auction on the evening of Oct. 5, making it the most expensive Korean artwork ever sold, reported Korea JoongAng Daily Oct. 7.

Yonhap News Agency noted Oct. 6 that the previous record was held by Park Su Geun's artwork titled "Washing Place," which sold at $3.89 million in 2007.

"We expect more foreigners to take interest in Korean art after Kim's went for the highest price for a Korean artwork in eight years," said a Seoul Auction official.

Apart from the other paintings by Kim, dansaekhwa artworks also fared well at the auction in Hong Kong. Dansaekhwa is a type of abstract painting that incorporates minimal color and unusual textures into the artwork and are sold at higher prices than estimates not only by top auction houses K Auction and Seoul Auction, but by the famous Sotheby's as well.

"It is a sign that the trade of Korean modern and contemporary art has begun to globalize in earnest," pointed So Jin Su, Kangnam University professor and president of the Art Market Research Institute.

The Seoul Auction on Oct. 5 made a remarkable 90 percent sell-through rate, with Kim's "19-VII-71 #209" being the newsmaker of the sale. His expensive oil-on-cotton artwork is a 1971 masterpiece filled with countless bluish white dots on a darker blue background created in his so called New York period (1963-1974).

"Local collectors have the limits on purchasing power," said art market expert So. "It is a natural phenomenon that, after the local auction art market grew over the past decade, the weight of the overseas market for Korean artists grew."

Kim Whanki was born in 1913 and is among the first generation Korean Abstract Artists known locally and overseas, including the centers of Modern Art, New York and Paris. He received the Honorary Award in Sao Paolo Biennale in 1963 in the category of painting as a representative painter of South Korea. Kim's most important artworks were created in his New York period, which began in 1963 until his death in 1974.