This image, provided by Christie’s Korea, shows Korean painter Kim Tschang-yeul’s 1978 artwork “CSH I.”
SEOUL, May 26 (Korea Bizwire) — A painting by prolific South Korean artist Kim Tschang-yeul has sold for more than 1.4 billion won (US$1.3 million) in a record for an artwork by the late painter (1929-2021).
“CSH I,” one of Kim’s signature water drop paintings from 1978, fetched 9.85 million Hong Kong dollars at an auction held in Hong Kong earlier this week, according to Christie’s Korea.
The amount far exceeds the estimated bidding price of 700 million to 870 million won.
Demand for the late painter’s water drop series has been growing following his death earlier this year. The previous record for a 1977 piece was 1 billion won sold in a February auction by Seoul Auction.
The late artist first presented his paintings depicting water drops in Paris in 1972, and they became his signature theme throughout his career.
“For me, thinking about transparent water drops is an act of making bad things go away. I’ve dissolved and erased horrible memories by painting them countless times,” the artist said during an interview with Yonhap News Agency in 2016.
“I’m almost cured, I think.”
(Yonhap)
