London Korean Links

Covering things Korean in London and beyond since 2006

London salerooms get Korean bug

Two of London’s main art dealers and auction houses are majoring in Korean art at the moment. Phillips de Pury, tucked in behind the old Army & Navy store in Victoria, has an exhibition and sale of major contemporary artists which it hopes will become an annual event, while Christie’s is preparing for an auction … [Read More]

Linda Wrigglesworth collection under the hammer

Last year during Asian Art in London I paid Linda Wrigglesworth a visit. She has an interesting collection of antique textiles and Korean costume alongside her own more modern takes on the oriental style. I particularly liked the rather fine 19th century purple official’s robe (below), not that I would have a use for it … [Read More]

A Park Soo-keun comes up for sale

“80% of Korean art buyers are pure speculators”, says Juhl Joohyun Lee, director of Arario Gallery. And with Lee Kun-hee having stepped down from the chairmanship of Samsung and allegations flying that an illegal slush fund was used to buy works for his wife’s Leeum museum, Samsung has stopped buying art. So says the FT … [Read More]

Recycled jeans raise $232,000

Records were tumbling at the Christie’s auction of contemporary Asian art in Hong Kong on 24 May. As was to be expected, most attention (and cash) was focused on Chinese artists, but auction records were also set for individual artists from Indonesia, India and South Korea. One of the Korean artists featured was Choi So-young … [Read More]

New record price for Korean painting

Every few months there’s another news item in the Korean press about a new domestic record price paid at auction for a Korean painting. And each time, the artist is Park Soo-keun (Bak Su-geun, 박수근) (1914-1965). The most recent record was set this month (22 May), at W4.52bn: The previous record was for Park Soo-keun’s … [Read More]

The Rise of the Korean Art Market

The Korea Times records how the Korean Art market is beginning to boom. Perhaps carried on the coat-tails of the ebullient Chinese art market, prices for major Korean artists are edging up. Lee Ufan is one of the hot artists, and also Park Soo-keun, Kim Whanki and Chang Uc-chin. And last year Elton John made … [Read More]