Lee Bae - 20th Century & Contemporary Art Day Sale Hong Kong Thursday, March 30, 2023 | Phillips

Create your first list.

Select an existing list or create a new list to share and manage lots you follow.

  • “When I started working with charcoal I saw at once that it was closely bound up with my own culture. What’s more, at the time I felt the need to keep a strong connection with my roots, like any unknown artist arriving in a city that he doesn’t know and whose language doesn’t speak - especially one coming from the Far East. I felt like a stranger, very far from home, and for me the charcoal was a way back to the world of Indian ink, of calligraphy, the atmosphere of house building that I had known as a child. In the Korean tradition, when you dig the foundations, charcoal is the first thing you put in, notably for protection against humidity, insects, etc. Likewise, when a child is born, you announce the fact by hanging charcoal from the door on a rope. It is also the centre of that fire ceremony, ‘Burning the moon house’, when, on the occasion of the first full moon, in January villagers build a mound like a house, 20 to 25 meters high, with pine trunks. The members of each family hang up their wishes there, written on bits of Chinese paper, then they set light to the whole thing. So I was familiar with charcoal and its symbolic strength. It enabled me to keep the connection with my past.”

    — Lee Bae

     In the studio with Lee Bae

    Video Courtesy of Art Drunk

    • Provenance

      Wooson Gallery, Daegu
      Private Collection, Seoul
      Acquired from the above by the present owner

133

Untitled

signed, inscribed and dated 'Leebae [in English and Korean]" 2020 ' on the reverse
acrylic and charcoal on canvas
81.3 x 64.9 cm. (32 x 25 1/2 in.)
Executed in 2020, this work is accompanied by a certificate of authenticity issued by Wooson Gallery.

Full Cataloguing

Estimate
HK$150,000 - 250,000 
€17,400-29,000
$19,200-32,100

Sold for HK$241,300

Contact Specialist

Danielle So
Specialist, Head of Day Sale
+852 2318 2027
danielleso@phillips.com

20th Century & Contemporary Art Day Sale

Hong Kong Auction 31 March 2023