The year of 2021 was a pivotal turning point for not only Korea’s domestic art market but the international art market as well. The year saw a boom unprecedented since the beginning of the COVID pandemic. This was possible because of both the hype for Dansaekhwa — now continuing for almost ten years — and the steady success of several blue-chip artists. In particular, the emergence of the MZ generation as a new group of collectors and the remarkable leap of artists in their thirties and forties are almost inexplicable. The “Forties Trio,” who have all produced outstanding results in Korea’s domestic art market, are Ha TaeIm (1973-), Moon Hyeongtae (1976-), and Woo Kuk Won (1976-). A common factor shared by the three artists is that they have all risen in a rapid growth synchronized to 2021’s art market boom.

However, the economic recession in the first half of 2022, caused by a combination of factors including the three-highs — high price, high interest rate, and high exchange rate — could not but put a halt on the art market’s growth. Even the Forties Trio, noted for their exceptional trend of increase, could not avoid a decline in their total prices realized. Except Ha. Among the trio, she was the only artist whose number of works sold at auctions made a remarkable jump (from 77 in 2021 to 108 in 2022). Usually, when assessing the economic value of an artist’s work and his potential of growth in terms of the market, the quantity of works sold at auctions is no less important than the total prices realized. This is because the number of works sold at auctions can become the barometer for “market preference.” Furthermore, the relationship between an artist’s primary sales — centered around galleries — and his performance in the secondary resale market — centered around auctions — is often a highly sensitive matter to the prospective buyer.

But, why does Ha enjoy such levels of popularity, and so consistently, as well? Is it simply because of the exquisite colors? Or, is it due to soap operas and social media influencers who have been increasing the exposure of her works to the general public? Recently, the way art enthusiasts value an artist has changed greatly. Before, there was a clear-cut division between the so-called “museum artists” and the “gallery artists,” but now, there is a preference for jack-of-all-trades artists, ones who have the ability to traverse both the realms of museum and gallery. This may owe to art enthusiasts beginning to recognize that true enthusiasm and appreciation of art happens only when one can understand both the artist’s beliefs and unique visual language, whereas previously, it was more of a blind pursuit of financial value no different from treating any other commercial product. Notably, Ha is gradually fulfilling this requirement as well.

Ha is known as the “color-band artist” by the way color bands of various colors come together harmoniously in her paintings. While her works are visually splendid, her simple and repetitive working process brings up many different interpretations. Kwon Hye-in, a curator at Seoul Museum of Art, claimed in her critique that “having Ha’s body as their base, the repetitive acts produce an immanent rhythm made up of inner standards and movements. The repetition of her color-band composition — a set of identical forms — between paintings and the visual strengths and weaknesses occurring from the contrast between her colors, cause the viewer’s eyes to move accordingly, creating a relative dynamism which leads to the production of rhythm.” Ha’s actions are simple and repetitive, but Kwon interpreted the artistic intention behind them as “the manifestation of rhythms immanent in her inner self.”

In an interview, Ha stated that she “colors that can be beautiful without any content or form; they are a means for me to communicate and gives me comfort.” In other words, she understands that colors have innate functionality even when the artist does not imbue intentions or special meanings to them, and that “communication through color” is something that is always ongoing. Her comment is closely related to the art historian and Myongji University professor emeritus Lee Tae Ho’s statement, saying that “Having studied so diligently during her years in the French art school, Ha’s painting of colors are marked with the French style and characterized by a rational formal language constructed upon the traditions of abstract painting. Her abstract paintings are the results of “expressing inner meanings outward through forms,” and in that aspect, are closest to Wassily Kandinsky’s classic theory of abstract painting, “when inner desires produce dots, lines, and planes in the order of impression-expression-spontaneity, they attain their location not through chance, but by inevitability.”

Indeed, Ha TaeIm has studied fine art at a French university; she had dreamt of becoming an artist since her teenage years, and had already begun preparing to study abroad in France, none of which could have been possible without her supportive, encouraging father, Ha In-doo. Ha In-doo (1930-1989), one of Korea’s first-generation of modern artists, was a pioneer of the Art Informel (or non-representational) movement in Korea, and a key contributor in the birth of Korean abstract art. Perhaps, the color-band studio practice Ha has achieved over many years may owe to her inheriting the “DNA of tuning the inherent, natural beauty of colors into harmony.” The countless, repetitive acts of applying and accumulating layers of paint on the canvas has now almost become like keeping a diary to her, but instead of language, written through her encounters with colors.

“The numerous acts involved in making one color band reflect the affirmations, denials, and the feeling of transcending reality in my inner self. The repetitive gestures are dependent on the power of my brushstroke generated by the reach of my arm with my body as the central axis. The power includes the energy coming from the tension between a slow brushstroke and a tightly-stretched canvas. The clean and transparent contrast of complementary and colors and comparative comparison expresses the primitive energy. The layering and overlapping, as well as the process of parallelization disassembles the first ones, and achieve the goal of organizing the ‘crack between painting and erasing.’

Ha TaeIm’s color band is a ‘result of creating the crack’s borders with blank space’s subtle rhythmic sense.’ The method of painting a brushstroke in a single movement without hesitation in a length of an arm on the canvas is in close relation to the aesthetics of ‘one-stroke-on-a-paper’ created on a traditional Korean paper. The two concepts are similar in that they both attempt to wholly express the vivid sense of energetic movement. Furthermore, in that Ha’s works present their unique transparency as paint’s planes are added, rather than gaining thick texture by stacking piles of paint, they resemble ‘the method of water coloration method on Hanji (traditional Korean paper).’ Ultimately, Ha TaeIm’s way of painting is closer to Korean painting’s original spirituality and methods, while it utilizes materials of the Western painting.

Also, those cracks are passages of communication that are gradually expanded to infinite space. Each color that accords with other hues has its own role and meaning within it. The harmony of color bands in the curved form, overlay of the repetitive act, and the aesthetic of cracks left blank among the overlapped parts are significant elements of Ha TaeIm’s paintings. Through this process, Ha reflects upon her inner world and gains comfort from tranquility and serenity. Also, the viewer gets to find solace in quiet calmness, as if one is looking at the water’s surface after a storm has passed or taking in a deep breath by stepping away from tiring everyday life.

“The unique pure colors become converted into data through unique memory or experience of the nervous system, which carries the stimuli through retina to the brain. Colors reflect who the painter really is. In my practice, each color, which reveals a psychological state as it is, is a living being containing life, as well as a protoplasm.” As Ha’s statement recounts, her color-bands contain noble vitalism that draws the viewer’s heart and the power of consolation. Thus, color can be an energy of comfort and a source of ideas for Ha. As the title of her 2012 PhD Thesis Painterly Activity Effect of Curved Pattern Composition Using Color-Bands implies, Ha’s sincerity toward color and deep contemplation became driving forces that kept her to continue her practice.

There was an interesting episode through which Ha TaeIm received global attention. The event was the ‘Kim Jong-Un—Trump North Korea-US Summit’ that took place in June 2018. Ha TaeIm’s color-band paintings hung at the walls of the Capella Hotel, Singapore, where the summit happened, were broadcast worldwide. It was a historically meaningful moment, when the North Korean and American leaders, who had been in conflict for around 70 years, held hands together. When Kim Jong-Un was broadcast on major media channels, including CNN, color-band paintings that could be seen over seated Kim’s back became another main character of the moment.

It was a dramatic and a coincidence that Ha’s works were hung at the place where the North Korea-US Summit took place. The story began when a Jewish art dealer who had been interested in Ha’s works since viewing those at KIAF (Korea International Art Fair), COEX, Seoul in 2007 ordered four paintings from her. As the purchase was an unexpected event, Ha visited Santa Monica, US, to see him in person. During her visit, she checked the place where her works would be hung, looking at the floor plan of Capella Hotel, Sentosa Island, Singapore. Ten years after, we got to encounter those works again, along with the historical moment.

2007 belongs to the early years of Ha TaeIm’s color-band painting series. After coming back to Korea from France in 1999, starting color-band practice in 2003, and beginning to study at Hongik University’s PhD program in 2004, she developed the series Un Passage, La Porte, and Un Impression from 2006 to 2012. She reached beyond two-dimensional practice through production of the three-dimensional color-band work Une Extension with stainless steel in 2015 and conversion of Un Passage into a video work in 2018, continuing to deepen and widen the color-band series.

Perhaps, the starting point of Ha TaeIm’s works gaining interest and accomplishment in the art market can be thought as the year 2007, fifteen years ago. When we consider an artist’s successful artistic activity, we take the artwork’s collection institutions into account. Ha’s works are included in extremely wide-ranging collections. Fondation Prince Pierre de Monaco at International Contemporary Art Fair Monaco, Hommage à CESAR (Prix de la ville de Monaco) MONACO Museum of Contemporary Art Among Korean collections, Seoul Museum of Art, National Museum of Contemporary Art’s Art Bank, Amorepacific Museum of Art, Yangpyeong Art Museum, Samsung Electronics, Samyang Corporation, LG Electronics, DooSan Group, Korean Drug, Byucksan Engineering, Seoul Family Court, Seoul Eastern District Court, Avison Biomedical Research Center in Yunsei University Health System, and Magog Lotte Castle all hold Ha’s works.

Recently, there have been many people who are keen on Ha TaeIm’s performance in the art market. It is probably due to their expectation that Ha has successfully entered the category of the so-called blue-chip artists. Some of the most significant requirements of the blue-chip artists are the much higher secondary sale price at auction compared to the primary gallery price and the consistency of such a phenomenon. As an example, the work with a size of 10-Ho was realized at 15 million won in an auction, while the exhibition price was 3 million won, in October 2022. 50-Ho work with the primary price of 14 million won was realized at 34 million won, and 100-Ho work with the exhibition price of 25 million won was realized at 54 million won. If we take the 20% buyer’s premium into account, the total price becomes higher. Approximately, the realized price at auction is more than 2.5 times the exhibition price. Works exhibited at Ha’s solo exhibitions after 2015, when her color-band works are considered as reaching their height in terms of delicacy, are consistently sold out.

The phenomenon of realized price being constantly higher than the exhibition price is not always positive for an artist. It is because the price of an artist’s works is not a guarantee of his/her artistic competence. There might be a situation in which buyers purchase works only interested in their profit gained from reselling artwork, rather than having a belief in an artist’s long-term potential. As a broad base of support creates a developing basis in all cultural areas, an artist’s prospect gets decided by what type of enthusiasts become gathered around the artist. It took about fifteen years for Ha TaeIm’s color-band works to gain both public attention and recognition. If we consider the average length of an artist’s active career as around sixty years, the years that took Ha to this point is less than a third of the period. Some people state that Korean art is in its golden age. It is the point of time when an artist that is loved for a long time, like a steady-seller in literature, to appear. I hope the second and the third ‘Ha TaeIm’ are discovered among young, emerging artists, who can contribute to the further flourishing of the contemporary Korean art world.

Yoon Sub Kim, PhD (CEO, AIF Art Management)