Seoul Auction Surpasses 20 Billion KRW in Total Sales for the Second Time This Year... Lee Ufan's 'Record High Price'

Lee Ufan's 1984 work 'East Winds' (Dongpung). (Photo by Seoul Auction)

[Asia Economy Reporter Donghyun Choi] Seoul Auction surpassed a total hammer price of 20 billion KRW for the second time this year in the art auction held this month.

On the 25th, Seoul Auction announced that the total hammer price reached 20.3 billion KRW with a successful bid rate of 86.3% at the 162nd auction held the previous day. Following the 24.3 billion KRW total hammer price recorded in the June auction, this is the second time this year that the total hammer price exceeded 20 billion KRW. Although the total starting price for this auction was 17.3 billion KRW, most of the lots saw competitive bidding, resulting in sales at higher-than-expected prices.

In particular, Lee Ufan’s 1984 work 'East Winds' was sold for 3.1 billion KRW, breaking the artist’s highest price record just two months after the previous record. The previous highest auction price was 2.2 billion KRW. The sold 'East Winds' is one of the masterpieces in the ‘Winds’ series, where uniform order is dismantled according to free rhythm and cadence. This is the first time a living Korean artist’s work has surpassed 3 billion KRW in the art market.

Works by young domestic artists also showed good results in this auction. Moon Hyungtae’s 'Diamond' (2018), characterized by a playful and simple expression of colorful hues, figures, and spaces, was sold for 40 million KRW. Woo Gukwon’s 'Tah-Dah' (2018), which blends seemingly scribbled phrases, people, and animal shapes with spontaneous brush strokes and vivid colors, was sold for 102 million KRW. Additionally, works by various artists such as Kim Sunwoo, Moon Hyungtae, and Jung Youngjoo competed fiercely.

Kim Whanki's red ignition '1-VII-71 #207' created in 1971. (Photo by Seoul Auction)

Kim Whanki’s red dot painting '1-Ⅶ-71 #207' created in 1971 recorded the highest hammer price of 4 billion KRW in this auction. This lot is a full-surface dot painting produced by Kim Whanki in his later years. Kim Whanki’s red full-surface dot paintings are very rare, making them highly valuable. All of Kim Whanki’s submitted works, including sketches and line abstraction pieces, were also sold.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.