Art Sonje Center is delighted to present a symposium dedicated to the work of Ha Chong-Hyun, serving as a preliminary research initiative for his upcoming solo exhibition, slated to open in early 2025. The period from 1959 to 1975 marks Ha’s graduation from Hongik University (1959) and the formative years of his career as an emerging artist. Before gaining recognition for his iconic Dansaekhwa (monochrome painting) series, Ha’s early works were created during a transformative era in Korea, reflecting the evolution of geometric abstraction in the late 1960s and experimental art practices of the 1970s.

The symposium aims to deepen the understanding by examining his works from the late 1950s to 1970s through the lenses of urbanism and materialism—key themes in the Korean art scene amidst the rapid industrialization of the post-war period. It will also contextualize Ha’s early artistic development within the broader international art scene, highlighting his participation in group exhibitions in Japan and Taiwan, as well as the Paris Biennale during this time.

Time Table
14:00-14:30 Chunghoon Shin, “Sublating Materiality: Ha’s Method of Painting”
14:30-15:00 Yeon Shim Chung, “Ha Chong-Hyun’s Early Medium Experiments”
15:00-15:45 Lesley Ma, “The Politics of Mark-making: Ha Chong-Hyun’s painting in the 1960s and 1970s”
15:45-16:00 Break Time
16:00-16:30 Panel Discussion, Q&A

About the Speakers
Chunghoon Shin
Chunghoon Shin is an art critic and historian specializing in the history and theory of contemporary art, as well as postwar architecture and urbanism, with a special focus on the Korean context. He earned his BA and MA in the Department of Archaeology and Art History from Seoul National University, and completed his PhD from State University of New York at Binghamton. Currently, Shin serves as an Associate Professor in the Department of Painting at Seoul National University, where he also participates in the Interdisciplinary Program of Art Management. His scholarly contributions have been featured in several publications, including Korean Art 1900-2020, ed. Helen Ku, MMCA, 2022; Interpreting Modernism in Korean Art, ed Kyunghee Pyun and Jung-Ah Woo, Routledge, 2021; Collision, Innovation, Interaction: Korea Art from 1953, ed. Chung Yeon Shim et. al. London: Phaidon, 2020; Spectres of the State Avant-garde (exhibition catalog for the Korean Pavilion, La Biennale di Venezia, 2018), Propaganda, 2018.

Yeon Shim Chung
Yeon Shim Chung, Ph.D. in Art History from New York University, is a professor of Art Theory and Criticism at Hongik University in Seoul, Korea. She previously taught Art History as an assistant professor at the Fashion Institute of Technology, SUNY. Dr. Chung co-curated the 2018 edition of the Gwangju Biennale and served as the artistic director for the 2021 DMZ Art & Peace Platform. From 2018 to 2019, she was a Fulbright Fellow and visiting research professor at the Institute of Fine Arts, NYU. Dr. Chung has published numerous articles and critical essays, as well as four books. She also authored and co-edited Korean Art from 1953: Collision, Innovation, Interaction (London: Phaidon, 2020).

Lesley Ma
Lesley Ma joined The Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Department of Modern and Contemporary Art in April 2022 as the inaugural curator with a focus on East and Southeast Asia. From 2013 to 2022, she was the founding Curator, Ink Art at M+ in Hong Kong. Prior to M+, she worked at the Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles and was Project Director at Cai Guo-Qiang’s studio in New York. She earned her BA from Harvard College and MA from New York University. Her Ph.D. in Art History, Theory, and Criticism from the University of California, San Diego, focused on abstract painting in postwar Taiwan.