Phillips Presents an Exhibition at the Songwon Art Center in Seoul from 30 August to 8 September Coinciding with Frieze and Kiaf
The Exhibition Features a Group Show of In-Demand International Artists Titled Azure Horizons: A Journey Through Blue Alongside Highlights from the Modern & Contemporary Art Fall Auctions in Hong Kong
Phillips is pleased to be returning to The Songwon Art Center in the heart of Seoul’s historic Samcheong-dong from 30 August – 8 September to present an exhibition coinciding with the third edition of Frieze Seoul, and the city’s flagship art fair Kiaf. The exhibition features Azure Horizons: A Journey Through Blue, a group show presented by PhillipsX, a dynamic selling exhibition platform operated by the global Private Sales team at Phillips, which brings together works by a variety of international and Korean contemporary artists such as Nicolas Party, Ugo Rondinone, Flora Yukhnovich, George Condo, Salvo, Devon DeJardin, Liu Yin, Lee Ufan, and Minku Kim, among others; as well as a preview of highlights from the company’s upcoming Modern & Contemporary Art Fall Auctions in Hong Kong in which iconic works by 20th Century masters including Sanyu and Pierre Soulages will be on view. Works featured in Azure Horizons: A Journey Through Blue will be available for purchase through Phillips’ Private Sales in Hong Kong, and highlights from the Modern & Contemporary Art Fall Auctions will be offered on 25-26 November.
Yeonah Lim, Regional Representative, Korea, Phillips, said: “Over the last two years, Phillips received excellent response to our exhibitions during Seoul Art Week. We are very excited to present another exhibition this year, reflecting our belief to Korea’s flourishing art market and playing an active role in the continued development of the country’s vibrant art scene. Despite a challenging macro environment, buying activity across our global auctions from clients based in South Korea has increased by nearly 70% in the first half of 2024, compared to the previous year. By showcasing a broad spectrum of top-quality works by blue chip masters and in-demand contemporary artists, during this year's art week, we look forward to further our relationship with Korean collectors and connecting with art enthusiasts from around the world.”
Azure Horizons: A Journey Through Blue
Presented by PhillipsX, Phillips’ selling exhibition platform operated by its Private Sales department, Azure Horizons: A Journey Through Blue explores the multifaceted beauty and symbolism of Azure - not only, the most richly layered tone of blue, but also the highest valued pigment used in painting throughout the history of art. In this monochromatic yet richly layered exhibition, sophistication meets elegance in works that exude chic minimalism and timeless grace.
Highlighting the exhibition is Nicolas Party’s Tree with snow which has been created alongside other trees in full bloom and in the depths of winter. Party selects soft pastel as his favoured medium—a somewhat unusual choice for a contemporary artist which accounts for the majority of his output, including the present work—allowing him to articulate his artistic vision with grace and precision. Inspired by Party’s childhood explorations in Switzerland and its close relationship to the art historical canon, trees are a recurring theme in the artist’s oeuvre.
Also among the top highlights in the exhibition is Ugo Rondinone’s work vierundzwanzigsterjunizweitausendundfünfzehn, meaning ‘June 24th, 2015’, which refers to the precise date of its creation, all written in one word to challenge the meaning and significance of language at the same time. The work belongs to the artist’s cloud painting series which he started in 2008. Its rectangular field transforms into cloud-like undulations to create a sharp contrast between the vaporous trompe l’oeil and depict immeasurable space while also exuding a contrary sense of finiteness.
In addition, among the highlights is Flora Yukhnovich’s Tondo, showing her acclaimed contemporary interpretation of the Rococo painting style. The painting’s restless shifts between abstraction and figuration are typical of Yukhnovich’s work. However, with its dreamy, distinctive palette of midnight blues, sea-greens and lemony creams, Tondo signals a departure from the predominance of rose and pink tones that characterised the artist’s earlier work. Anticipating a subtle transition in her practice, Tondo signposts Yuknovich’s more recent preoccupation with the Italian Rococo.
George Condo studied Art History and Music Theory at university, while his practice has undergone a series of shirts and steady evolution over the years, his life-long love of drawing and music remains constant. Condo uses the terms ‘rhythm’ and ‘tempo’ to describe the process of drawing and the freedom it brings, and often liens this process to jazz music which retains a core order, following a musical progression, and allowing for increased spontaneity and improvisation. The Blues Musician highlighted in the exhibition belongs to ‘Blues Paintings,’ this series plays with musical references ranging from blues music to free jazz, while also composing an elegiac atmosphere. Executed in 2021, the artist refers to these works as a ‘lamentation for the return to the so-called new normal’ in the wake of the months of lockdown that followed the Covid-19 pandemic.
1970s is an important time in Lee Ufan’s life when he had received significant acclaim and started his famous From Line and From Point series. In Untitled, 1976, presented here, rows of consecutive blue brushstrokes become lines of movement and emphasize the physical encounter between brush and paper. Each brushstroke is unique and layered to produce a fading series of small, discrete, rectangular brushstrokes. This could be understood as visual representation of water, the instability of the body as opposed to the machine in an age of mechanical reproduction, or a depiction of time passed.
From a series portraying the archaeological ruins of Sicily, Italian Modernist Salvo’s demonstrates his Sicilian roots in Capriccio and simplifies natural forms into fundamental geometric shapes. The work reflects Salvo’s distinctive approach to capturing nature’s beauty—distilling it to its essential component parts—as well as themes of identity, memory, and cultural heritage, showcasing his skillful merging of avant-garde conceptualism with a vibrant, representational aesthetic.
A self-taught, multimedia artist currently working out of Los Angeles, Devon DeJardin creates a special work, Eri, for this year’s exhibition in Seoul, which is based on the theme of “Azure Horizons”, while depicting his iconic guardian in dynamic blue tones. In these series, he reformulates the guardians as entities and forces that protect, guide and challenge us to grow by pulling from the myths of ancient Greece, Aztects, East Island heads and Stonehenge.
Hong Kong based artist Liu Yin has developed a subversive artistic language that uses exaggerated, watery and sparkling eyes to create classic “shōjo manga” faces on widely circulated contemporary images, public figures, pop culture characters, inanimate beings, and more. Most recently, the artist has further focused on themes such as daily life situations, vegetables and fruits, plants and flowers, giving faces to non-human beings while exploring topics of gaze, confrontation, corporeality, death, and love. Created for this exhibition in Seoul, the adorable subjects in Blueberries are self-portraits of the artist – they are stubborn, mischievous, and their faces are almost invisible.
A Korean painter and visual artist who lives and works in New York City, Minku Kim’s paintings serve as windows and diaries into psychological spaces where stillness and fullness emerge from parallel brush marks and rich colours. Presented in this exhibition is the latest piece from the artist’s Sarang series that he specially created for the show. In this work, viewers are invited to look at motifs such as horizons, sunsets, and windows that evoke a sense of memory and play, serving as portals into the artist's interest in pictorial space.
Fresh-to-Market Highlights from the Modern & Contemporary Art Fall Auctions in Hong Kong
Phillips’ Modern & Contemporary Art Fall Auctions in Hong Kong are set to take place on 25-26 November. As one of the leading star lots in the Evening Sale, Sanyu’s masterpiece Reclining Nude, with Raised Knee II, from the Collection of Doctor Eric Edwards, Paris, will be on view in Seoul. An exceptional painting by Sanyu featuring his most iconic and celebrated subject, the work was acquired by Dr. Edwards from the Parisian dealer and collector Jean-Claude Riedel, a major advocate of Sanyu’s works, and has since resided in his collection for over four decades. As the largest painting of the female form that has remained in a private collection in France by Sanyu, this momentous sale presents a great opportunity for collectors to acquire a work of exceeding importance and illustrious provenance. An acclaimed collector of works by Sanyu, Dr. Edwards once owned some of the most prominent works by the artist sold at auction, including the record-breaking Five Nudes. Created from a late period of Sanyu’s life, the present work shines as an epitome of the artist’s relentless quest into art, his time, and the world. With a boldly exaggerated composition and simplified but powerful linearity, Sanyu breaks away from tradition and convention, seeking new artist expressions whilst brining Chinese shanshui to reinvent the Western nude.
Also coming to auction for the first time, French master Pierre Soulages’s Peinture 202 x 143 cm, 25 septembre 1967 presents a visual dichotomy, where the stark contrast between black and white does not clash, but rather converses in harmony. One of the largest works by the artist to be offered at auction, the present work has been included in several institutional shows. The present work brilliantly captures Soulages’s striking ability to reflect light in the black hues that he employs. His black is a black that gives back, that interacts with its surroundings, and changes with the viewer’s perspectives. Notably, the influence of Japanese aesthetics is evident in the artist’s minimalist approach and evokes a profound sense of balance within his works. The Japanese influence pushes the work beyond mere visual experiences, ushering it into a realm where each viewer's encounter with the painting becomes a unique and contemplative dialogue. Pierre Soulages’ oeuvre is revered around the world, and is held in the collections of renowned institutions including the Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris. He is the third artist after Pablo Picasso and Marc Chagall to be bestowed a retrospective at the Louvre during their lifetime, in 2019.
Another highlight to be offered at auction for the first time is Mondrian, Hello, an exceptional work that exemplifies the artistic vision of Chinese artist Liu Ye. The piece depicts a girl standing against a vast, gradient background of blue and light yellow. She gazes towards the left, where a beam of light emanates from an unseen source, creating a sense of inherent mystery, anticipation, and tranquility. The object in the girl's hand pays tribute to the Dutch artist Piet Mondrian, as suggested by the title. The work features Mondrian's signature black lines and primary color blocks, with only yellow prominently displayed. Despite the simplicity of the overall composition, Liu's meticulous attention to detail is evident in the rendering of the girl's facial features and the precise geometric forms. Through a unique blend of realism and abstraction in the present work, Liu Ye masterfully combines simplicity and intricacy, presenting the viewer with a captivating synthesis of Chinese and Western artistic traditions.
Location: Songwon Art Center, 75, Yunposun-gil, Jongno-gu, Seoul, 03061, Korea
Date & Time: 30 August - 8 September, 10am – 6pm
*Extended hours until 8pm: 30 August, 31 August, 7 September
*Extended hours until 11pm: 4 September, for Seoul art week’s Samcheong Night
Inquiries: Phillips Korea Office, +82 2 797 8008/ 8001
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