Works beloved by RM of BTS head to K Auction's October sale

K Auction holds October sale Wednesday

16 works by 7 artists featured in 'RM x SFMOMA' exhibition go under the hammer

3 works by Yayoi Kusama also on offer

Works by Park Soo-keun, Yun Hyong-keun and other masters of Korean modern art — artists cherished by BTS leader RM — are heading to the auction market.

K Auction will hold its October sale Wednesday at its headquarters in Sinsa-dong, Gangnam-gu, Seoul. The auction features 85 lots valued at a combined 11.2 billion won ($8.43 million), including works by artists whose pieces appear in the exhibition "RM x SFMOMA: Between You and Me," currently on view at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (SFMOMA).

The SFMOMA exhibition, for which RM served as a curator, brings together roughly 190 works — about 150 from RM's personal collection alongside pieces from SFMOMA's holdings. Among RM's collection are works by Korean modern and contemporary artists Park Soo-keun, Yun Hyong-keun, Chung Sang-hwa, Lee Seung-jio, Kim Tschang-yeul, Lee Dae-won and Kim Chong-hak. Sixteen works by these seven artists are included in the October sale.

Yun Hyong-keun's "Untitled." [K Auction]

Park Soo-keun was a master of Korean art who rendered the humble lives of ordinary people and a distinctly Korean sensibility through his signature textured surfaces. The work on offer, "Homeward," dates to 1964 and takes as its motif a woman returning home. It exemplifies the simplified pictorial language and evenly textured surfaces that came to define Park's work in the 1960s. The estimate is 680 million to 1.8 billion won.

Yun Hyong-keun's 1988 "Untitled" carries an estimate of 50 million to 70 million won. Yun worked by repeatedly applying a mixture of umber and ultramarine paint onto hemp or cotton cloth. He likened the blue to sky and the brown to earth, calling the series "Umber-Blue."

Chung Sang-hwa, who died in January, created his grid-like surfaces by folding and unfolding canvas, peeling away paint and filling the gaps back in. His 1984 work "Untitled 84-3-1" carries an estimate of 370 million to 440 million won, while a 1970 "Untitled" painted during his time in Kobe, Japan, is estimated at 21 million to 35 million won.

Chung Sang-hwa's "Untitled 84-3-1." [K Auction]

Kim Tschang-yeul, known as the "water drop painter," first unveiled his signature water drop paintings in 1972 and went on to render droplets on canvas, hemp and newsprint. From the late 1980s he developed his "Recurrence" series, in which he wrote hanja — including passages from the Thousand Character Classic — across the picture plane before painting water drops over them. His 1976 "Water Drops" carries an estimate of 300 million to 500 million won; his 2008 "Recurrence SA0800H1" is estimated at 220 million to 380 million won; and his 1984 "Water Drops CHS8405-84" is estimated at 45 million to 150 million won.

Lee Seung-jio's 1987 "Nucleus 87-09," built from repeated cylindrical bands, carries an estimate of 130 million to 450 million won.

Lee Dae-won is known for his "Farm" series depicting orchards and rural landscapes in short, lively brushstrokes and bright colors. His 1986 "Farm" is estimated at 42 million to 100 million won.

Six works by Kim Chong-hak, known as the painter of Seoraksan, are also on offer — including "Flowers in Full Bloom" (estimated at 50 million to 120 million won), "Flower Vase" (25 million to 55 million won) and "Autumn Landscape" (15 million to 55 million won).

Three works by Yayoi Kusama, who died last August, are also featured. Her 1981 "Butterfly" — a canvas filled with blue dots from which a butterfly form emerges — carries an estimate of 650 million to 1.4 billion won. Two print works by the artist are also included.

The sale also spotlights women artists long overlooked in art history. Chun Kyung-ja's 1981 "Woman" is estimated at 250 million to 500 million won, while Chung Kang-ja's "Woman with Mehndi Patterns on Her Hands (At a Wedding)" carries an estimate of 5 million to 24 million won.

pink@heraldcorp.com