“Art Has No End”: Master of Dancheonghwa Jung Sang-hwa Dies at 94
Creatrip Team
a month ago
Jung Sang-hwa, a master of dancheonghwa (Korean monochrome painting movement), passed away on the 28th at age 94. Known as a perfectionist who believed “satisfaction and completion do not exist” in art, Jung reflected that art is an endless beginning. Born in 1932 in Yeongdeok, he started art in middle school and studied at Seoul National University’s College of Fine Arts. Active in postwar avant-garde groups, he expressed loss and anxiety through informal (art brut/Informel) styles and held his first solo show in 1962. In the 1960s–70s he worked in Paris and Kobe, developing grid-structured monochrome works by repeatedly coating canvases with kaolin clay, folding and cracking them, and layering paint to create depth—each piece a visual record of process and life. After years abroad, he returned to Korea and continued creating in Yeoju. In 2015 one of his works sold for over 1.14 billion KRW, placing him among living Korean artists whose works exceeded 1 billion KRW. The funeral is at Seoul National University Hospital, with the service on the 30th.
