Ha Chong-Hyun

Made by pushing white oil paint with a painting knife through the loose weave of coarse burlap, Conjunction 74-26 reflects Ha’s sustained engagement with concepts of medium and method. A cofounder of A.G., a Seoul-based group of artists and critics responsible for some of South Korea’s most important experimental works and writings between 1969 and 1974, Ha abandoned the gestural abstraction that dominated the 1960s Korean art world in favor of two- and three-
dimensional works composed with a mix of organic and industrial materials. The physical properties of objects interested him more than acts of representation. As he has explained, “To ask what is being painted is meaningless.”

This work is among the earliest in a series of paintings titled Conjunction, which Ha initiated in 1974. Building on previous explorations of the tension between painting and sculpture, Ha began each work by stretching an expanse of fabric and attaching its corners to four metal posts. The artist then spread or swept paint across the canvas using a knife or brush. Before the paint finished drying, the work was removed from the posts, stretched over a frame, and left upright. This final stage of his process is visible in the thick pockets of paint that drip downward to various degrees throughout the composition.