ARTISTS
Introduce
Born in Seoul in 1946, Choi Sangchul first gained recognition when his geometric abstract work Summer-K, 1970 won the “Seoul Mayor Award” at the 1st Grand Art Exhibition of Korea in 1970, the year after he graduated from the Department of Painting at Seoul National University College of Fine Arts. Throughout his career spanning over 50 years to date, he has lived as both an abstract painter and educator, constantly devising new tools and methods. Choi’s works, which deviate from the act of painting as a coincidental and accidental event and instead move toward agentiality, are replete with relational and generative aesthetic concepts.
He distances himself from the mainstream tendencies of contemporary art—Dansaekhwa, monochrome, minimalism, and abstract expressionism. He began to fully embrace performativity and the incidental elements that intervene each time in his work by repeatedly performing acts such as tearing tape on paper to reveal simplicity and regularity through the flatness, color, form, and texture of early geometric abstraction; moving a paint-laden brush within a rectangular frame to discover the “gaps where paint cannot reach”; and rolling thinly diluted paint on canvas with a squeegee to find a homogeneous surface—repeating these acts dozens or even hundreds of times. Based on the arduous labor of working and the authenticity of life that emerges from it, he elevates the concealed “essential problem of the act of painting” to the core of his art, not as a byproduct of experimentation. Through repeated experimentation, he intentionally eliminates all volitional acts traditionally assumed for painting work—meaning, planning, guidance—from his practice. “An experiment that empties the mind in painting, does not paint, and hopes to be painted” (Choi Sangchul, Artist’s Note, 2003). This is a proposition that Choi has defined for himself and continues to uphold today. The “act of being painted without painting” plays a crucial role in his work. For this purpose, the act of rolling stones that Choi devised has become his signature method of expression. Choi proposes situations where painting occurs without painting, and as a result, the work appears not as an intended or purposeful outcome but as an inevitable trace. This act indicates that painting can essentially be an ontological-aesthetic event. Post-representationalism, minimalism, resistance to stylistic authority, non-painting painting, randomness, drawing/painting acts, contingency, de-subjectification, materiality, nature, things, nonhuman, agentiality, etc. These are aesthetic concepts that have been or could be used to describe the characteristics of Choi Sangchul’s work.
Within the context of Korean contemporary art history, Choi has contributed to the formation of Korean abstract art and expanded the terrain of Korean minimalism through his reimagining of its visual landscape. From his early geometric abstractions to his recent work tendencies, Choi’s expressive forms and aesthetics share universality with those of artists who shaped contemporary Korean abstract art. Furthermore, the new expressive characteristics being experimented with in the Mumool (無物) series since 2005 clearly demonstrate the specificity of contemporary Korean art. His method, which seeks to eliminate all artificiality, along with his life attitude, can be interpreted as resistance to the habitus embedded in the stylistic conventions of Korean contemporary art. These characteristics of Choi Sangchul’s artistic world serve as important resources for tracing the generation and transformation of abstract art in contemporary Korean art history, representing significant opportunities for expansion into new interpretive territories through various aesthetic perspectives being proposed in recent contemporary art.
History
Choi Sangchul (b. 1946)
Former Professor, Western Painting Major, College of Fine Arts, Chugye University for the Arts
1969 Graduated from the Department of Painting, College of Fine Arts, Seoul National University
Solo Exhibitions
2025 Baik Art Gallery, Jakarta, Indonesia
2024 Wooson Gallery, Daegu
2024 Art Space 3, Seoul
2024 Baik Art Gallery, Seoul
2021 Art Space 3, Seoul
2020 AV Modern & Contemporary, Geneva, Switzerland
2018 Art Space 3, Seoul
2016 Gurimson Gallery, Seoul
2009 523KunstDoc, Seoul
2007 523KunstDoc, Seoul
2005 Moran Museum of Art, Seoul
2003 Gallery LAMER, Seoul
2001 Gallery Sang, Seoul
1999 Gallery Sang, Seoul
1996 Kisshodo Gallery, Kyoto, Japan
1994 Kumho Museum of Art, Seoul
1990 Korea Culture and Arts Foundation Art Center, Seoul
1986 Kwanhoon Gallery, Seoul
1982 Korea Culture and Arts Foundation Art Center, Seoul
Major Group Exhibitions
2025 Echo: Resonance of Relationships, White Block, Gyeonggi-do
2024 And Still Now, Choi Jung Ah Gallery, Seoul
2023 Geometric Abstraction in Korean Art, National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Korea, Gwacheon, Gyeonggi-do
The Origins of the Stone, SEOHO Museum of Modern Art, Gyeonggi-do
Colorful Korean Painting - From Harmony to Purification, Art Space 3, Seoul
2022 Neither Good nor Evil, Chang Ucchin Museum of Art Yangju, Gyeonggi-do
Seeking passage of Art upon Pandemic - Art Work, Seoul National University Museum of Art, Seoul
2017 Asian Diva: The Muse and The Monster, Buk-Seoul Museum of Art, SeMA, Seoul
Black’n Black - Color of Abyss, Emu Art Space, Seoul
2016 Transition of movement, SOMA, Seoul
Black, Gallery 3, Seoul
2015 From Line, Gallery 3, Seoul
2013 Who Are You, SAMTAN ART MINE, Gangwon-do
International Contemporary Art Gwangju Art Vision, Garden of Confession, Gwangju Biennale Hall, Gwangju
2012 Korea Drawing 50 years, Seoul Arts Center, Seoul
Experimental Art Project - Manner & Scene, Daegu Art Factory, Daegu
2009 Kim Whanki International Art Festival: Resonance and Preservation of the Ecosystem - Eco Zone, LOTTE GALLERY / Iang Gallery, Gwangju/Seoul
2008 Kim Whanki International Art Festival: Islands Rhapsody, Gallery Light / LOTTE GALLERY, Seoul/Gwangju
Hangaram Museum of Art Collection Exhibition: Artist’s 30 Years, The Beautiful Change, Seoul Arts Center, Seoul
Korea-Middle East Forum “The beauty of Korea” Special Exhibition, Cairo Opera House, Cairo, Egypt
2007 1970s Korean Art: National Exhibition and People’s Exhibition, Seoul Arts Center, Seoul
2005-18 PAGO, TopoHouse, Gyoha Art Center, Paju Civic Center, Gyeonggi-do (not listed in biography file)
2005 Seoul Art Exhibition - Painting, Seoul Museum of Art, Seoul
2003 The Opening Exhibition of Gail Art Museum, Gail Art Museum, Gyeonggi-do
Yadang-ri · Field · Wild Flower, Jungle Book Art Gallery, Gyeonggi-do
The Exhibition Invited by Pocheon Art Association, Pocheon Banwol Arts Hall, Gyeonggi-do
2002 Overcome of Korean Contemporary Art, Gallery LAMER, Seoul
Golden Wings - Painting and Sculpture of North Gyeonggi, Gyeonggi Provincial Government Complex 2, Gyeonggi-do
Age of Philosophy and Aesthetics, National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Korea, Gwacheon, Gyeonggi-do
2001 Decade of Transition and Dynamics, National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Korea, Gwacheon, Gyeonggi-do
Another Situation - Contemporary Characteristic of Korean Contemporary Art, Hanwon Museum of Art, Seoul
2000 50th Anniversary of Seoul National University of Fine Arts Alumni Association: Seoul National University and the New Millennium 1950-2000, Seoul Museum of Art, Seoul
Picture Diaries[日記]. Reading Pictures, Gallery Sang, Seoul
1999 Exhibition of 90’ Situation, Ellen Kim Murphy Gallery, Seoul
1998 Spirit of 2000 Era, Daejeon Museum of Art, Daejeon
1997 DOTS, Kumho Museum of Art, Seoul
1996 50th Anniversary of Seoul National University of Fine Arts Alumni Association, Gongpyeong Artcenter, Seoul
1994-97 Seoul Grand Art Festival, Seoul Museum of Art, Seoul
1993 Korean Contemporary Artists Dual exhibition - Oriental Eyes, Oriental Spirit, Saihaku Gallery, Osaka, Japan
1992 5th Japan-Korea Contemporary Artist Exchange Exhibition, Seoul Arts Center, Seoul
From Concept to Essence, Kumho Museum of Art, Seoul
Seoul-Sapporo, Seoul Museum of Art, Seoul
Life – Phenomena, Gallery Midopa, Seoul
1991 ‘In the Forest of Chaos’, Zahamun Museum of Art, Seoul
1990 90 - New Spirit, Kumho Museum of Art Spring Exhibition, Seoul
Common & Discommons on Korean-Japanese Modern Arts, Korea Culture and Arts Foundation Art Center, Seoul
Korean Art: Today’s Situation, Seoul Arts Center, Seoul
1989-97 Abstract, 63 Gallery, Seoul (listed as Gallery Seomi in 1989)
1989 Asia Modern Exhibition, Fukuoka Art Museum, Fukuoka, Japan
'89 Seoul – Kyoto 37 Artists, Kyoto Municipal Museum of Art, Kyoto, Japan
Invited 89 Artists by 10th Anniversary of Kwanhoon Gallery, Kwanhoon Gallery
1988 International Asian – European Art Biennale, Ankara, Turkey
1988-91 International Impact Art Festival, Kyoto Municipal Museum of Art, Kyoto, Japan
1986 Seoul National University and Korean Art, Seoul National University Museum, Seoul
1984-2007 Com-Generation, Kwanhoon Gallery, Seoul
1982 Contemporary Art View – Incheon, Montmartre Gallery, Incheon
1981-89 Artist of the Year, Korea Culture and Arts Foundation Art Center, Seoul
1981 Sao Paulo Biennale, São Paulo, Brazil
1980-88 Process, Korea Culture and Arts Foundation Art Center, Seoul
1980 Paintings by Seven Artists, Korea Culture and Arts Foundation Art Center, Seoul
Korea-Arab Art Exchange, Arab Cultural Center, Seoul
1979 Seoul Painting by 15 Artists, Korea Culture and Arts Foundation Art Center, Seoul
1978-79 Exhibition by 6 Artists in Their 30s, Korea Culture and Arts Foundation Art Center, Seoul
1978 Asian Contemporary Art, Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo, Tokyo, Japan
Busan Contemporary Art Festival, Busan Citizen’s Hall, Busan
1977-79 Seoul Modern Art Festival, National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Korea, Seoul
1975-78 Daegu Contemporary Art Festival, Keimyung University, Daegu
1974 Art Center Opening Commemorative Invitational Exhibition, Korea Culture and Arts Foundation Art Center, Seoul
Exhibition of Korea Experimental Artists, Daegu Department Store Gallery, Daegu
1973-76 6th Shincheje Group Exhibition, Myeongdong Gallery, Seoul
1971-89 Korean Fine Arts Association Exhibition, National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Korea, Seoul
1970 1st Grand Art Exhibition of Korea Organized by Hankookilbo, National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Korea, Seoul
1968 Dong-A International Art Exhibition, Dong-A University, Busan
Awards
1970 1st Grand Art Exhibition of Korea, Seoul Mayor Award, Hankook Ilbo
Collections
2024 National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Korea
2007 Seoul Arts Center Hangaram Art Museum
2002 National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Korea
2001 National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Korea
1999 Daejeon Museum of Art
Critique
Detail View 
The Artistic World of Choi Sangchul
I. A Brief Biography of Choi Sangchul
Choi Sangchul (崔相哲) was born on April 27, 1946, in the vicinity of Hwanghak-dong, Seoul, where he grew up. His father, Choi Gwi-bong (崔貴奉, 1908–1999), whose ancestral seat was Gyeongju, had four sons and two daughters with Lee Jeong-soon (李貞順, 1914–1995). Choi Sangchul was the third son. Most of his youth intersected with deeply turbulent periods in modern Korean history, including the Korean War and several abrupt political upheavals. Despite the turmoil, Choi’s life was devoted entirely to art, contributing to the growth of modern Korean abstract art.
Choi first began professional painting studies beyond amateur hobbies in his senior year of high school. He enrolled at Seoul Art Academy in Gwanghwamun to learn painting, where he first met Jhun YoungWha (全榮華, 1929–2022) and Cho Yong-ik (趙容翊, 1934–2023). Jhun YoungWha, who painted Oriental paintings, graduated from the Department of Painting at Seoul National University and was an art teacher at Kyungbock High School at the time, later becoming a professor at Dongguk University College of Fine Arts. Cho Yong-ik participated as a member of the Contemporary Artists Association (現代美術家協會) from 1958 and was deeply involved in spreading antiformalist art in the Art Informel movement that resisted the Korean Grand Art Exhibition (大韓民國美術展覽會). From 1962, he became one of the founding members of the Actuel group, which included Park Seobo, Youn Myeung-ro, Chung Sang-hwa, Kim Tschang-yeul, Jung Yungyul, and Kim Bongtae. Cho Yong-ik is known as a first-generation Dansaekhwa artist and established the College of Fine Arts at Chugye University for the Arts in 1974.
Meanwhile, Choi Sangchul graduated from the Department of Painting at Seoul National University College of Fine Arts in 1969. According to his recollections, like many college students, he had to worry about life as a breadwinner, and his circumstances were not affluent enough, so it was only in his senior year that he could finally devote himself to creative work with confidence in art. After graduation, he worked as an instructor at Seoul Art Academy while struggling to continue his work in a corner of the academy. Lee Kilwon (李吉遠), a fellow instructor at the time, became a professor of Eastern painting at Chugye University for the Arts. In 1970, Choi left Seoul Art Academy to fulfill his mandatory military service, submitting work to the 1st Grand Art Exhibition of Korea before enlistment. His “geometric abstraction” work Summer-K, 1970 won the Seoul Mayor Award, but he was at the Nonsan Training Center when he heard the news and could not attend the award ceremony. Like many fine arts college graduates at the time, Choi also took the secondary school art teacher appointment exam and was assigned to Cheonho Middle School in 1971. Starting in 1972, he taught art theory and served as a question writer for the high school entrance joint examination that winter. His tenure as an art teacher continued until 1974.
Even while continuing to make a living after college graduation, he did not lose his passion as an artist. Although limited by financial constraints, he consistently participated in the Shincheje Group Exhibition from its 5th to 11th editions. It was only in 1978, when he became a professor in the Department of Painting at Chugye University for the Arts, that he could devote himself entirely to his work. From the mid-1970s to the mid-1980s, Choi was able to achieve many results while devoting himself to tape-peeling work and square-frame work. Until the early 1990s, he mainly worked in his studio at Chugye University for the Arts, later moving his studio to Ilsan and staying there. From 1996 to 2003, he shared a studio with Ryu Jang-bok, an art teacher at Seoul Arts High School, in Yadang-dong, Paju. From 2007 to 2016, he operated a warehouse-type studio together with artist Kim Beom-soo in Maekgeum-dong, Paju. After retiring from his professorship at Chugye University for the Arts in 2017, he established his current independent studio nearby and has since devoted himself to his artistic activities.
II. Interpretation of Choi Sangchul’s Artistic Tendencies
In the 1960s, Choi Sangchul’s geometric abstraction was constructed by drawing lines on the canvas with a ruler and painting thinly with a wide brush so that the thickness of the paint could not be felt. Alternatively, he drew lines, applied masking tape, painted color, and then removed the tape, creating “sharp” colors that approached pure flatness. At the time, geometric abstraction infused with Oriental color aesthetics or Korean nuances was gaining traction. However, Choi experimented with geometric compositions with an open mind, undeterred by prevailing trends.
After his geometric abstraction work in the 1970s, he turned to two entirely new approaches: tape-peeling and square-frame work. He applied tape densely or sparsely, vertically, horizontally, or diagonally on the canvas, and then applied paint over it. When the paint dried to some extent, he peeled off the tape that had been applied, and at this time, forms different from those expected and planned were created spontaneously. This work continued until around 1984. After that, he experimented with square-frame work for about four years. He created square frames of a certain size, placed them on the canvas, and brushed in a certain direction within the frames as if drawing strokes. Darker-colored regular forms filled the canvas compared to previous works. After finishing the square-frame work, Choi began using a squeegee to spread paint around on the canvas, creating forms that were inevitably pushed by physical force. This experiment continued for nearly 10 years until 1994. During that time, Choi held three solo exhibitions (Kwanhoon Gallery in 1986, Korea Culture and Arts Foundation in 1990, and Kumho Museum of Art in 1994).
In the 1990 solo exhibition, Oh Byung Wook succinctly placed Choi’s artistic tendencies within “abstraction.” “Choi Sangchul contains nothing in his paintings. His paintings are nothing more and nothing less than paintings. Therefore, it is futile to try to find any content in his paintings. He does not tell anything in his paintings. Also, he does not try to express any emotion. This attitude toward painting originated from Western art that developed in the direction of pursuing the purity of painting” (Oh Byung Wook, The Artistic World of Choi Sangchul, 1990). However, even without delving into the highly complex aesthetic concept of “abstraction” here, those who encounter Choi Sangchul’s work come to know that the art tries to say nothing at all. Oh Byung Wook’s experiential interpretation can be read as a postscript about the way of justifying anti-representationalism, and in particular, he finds legitimacy in minimalism. That is the materiality of the medium suppressed by the representationalist narrative. Thus, Choi Sangchul’s work aligns with the minimalist tendency, and the traces in the tape-peeling work of the first solo exhibition and the sparse straight lines and color planes within the square frames are interpreted as “pure” expressions of concealed materiality. In other words, “Choi Sangchul finds a breakthrough by actively intervening in those materials. In his works mentioned above, we can read this performative aspect, suddenly peeling off masking tape or making countless reciprocating brushstrokes using square frames. Through these actions, he activates those materials. Thus, those inert materials come alive, awaiting our response” (Oh Byung Wook, The Artistic World of Choi Sangchul, 1990).
Things and events are interlocked by the condition of fact. Facts are often concealed from someone, and the artist’s experiment is an act of un-concealment that makes facts indeterminate and approaches them again to reveal their identity. On the other hand, the politics of style tries to justify that fact to fit into a presupposed cultural system by mobilizing cultural capital and apparatuses. Art liberates the potentiality of expression imprisoned by the politics of style by driving expression into the experimental field. Therefore, the attempt of abstract art to focus on the materiality of the medium and experiment with it is resistance, and this can be an aspect of aesthetic politics.
Park Young-taek places Choi Sangchul’s abstract experiment on “the extension of the logic of flatness that reductionist modernist painting thoroughly pursued.” He considers two things here: reductionism and flatness. Above all, the ultimate goal of the ideology that reductionism pursues is “nothing.” It, therefore, has the self-consoling attribute of “purity.” Unfortunately, the last place this logic will reach will ultimately be the territory of the nonpictorial. Painting is one of the fundamental expressive methods through which humans visibly reveal themselves, whether it has content or not, whether it follows form or not. As various experiments in contemporary art have already sufficiently shown, reductionism that renders this powerless is excessively radical. Park Young-taek sees in Choi “an honest artistic spirit that strives to overcome the process of being drawn into such logic,” thereby granting him authenticity as an artist. This “strange tension”—an attempt to deviate without ever leaving the logic of reductionism—seems to follow Choi like fate, functioning as an element that constructs his unique artistic world. The tension dissolves into a dynamism that seeks to transcend anti-representational and anti-linguistic limits, becoming one with his own unique method of expression. Thus, “painting, through its own kind of ‘carnality,’ reveals the world invisible to the eye and things that transcend the limits of language. The artist’s choice of this method, intended to overcome the boundaries of existing forms of expression, constitutes his view of painting—his philosophy of art.” “That, in turn, reflects artist’s true intention, temperament, and worldview” (Park Young-taek, Exploration of Pure Artistic Consciousness, 1994). Regarding Choi’s such efforts, Park Young-taek interprets this as the reason he could maintain a certain distance from the minimalist tendency that our art world has pursued since the 1970s while resisting the tradition of trite figurative painting.
However, Choi’s method goes beyond the question of whether it conforms to the mainstream tendencies of the contemporary art world. Lee Yeong-wook saw this as an attitude of observing principles or rules that the artist himself established for art action and painting (Lee Yeong-wook, Light and Movement of Silence, 1999). In other words, the practical perspective of life that Choi aims to pursue is strong enough to transcend the pressure exerted by the art world’s habitus, and this integrates with the aesthetic expressiveness that appears in his work. Unfortunately, this aspect seems to grant legitimacy to some kind of ascetic authorship interpretation of Choi’s act of rolling stones after the mid-2000s.
Furthermore, he focuses on the flatness that Choi’s painting chose to reveal the aesthetic characteristic of materiality. In modern painting, flatness is one of the elements that reductionist modernism tries to realize. However, flatness in Choi’s work goes beyond a mere concept necessary for defining painting’s existence within modernist aesthetics. Rather, it turns our heads toward an idiosyncratic direction. Therein lies the hard labor of work and some authenticity of life that emerges from it. Park Young-taek says this. “The concentration, width, and intensity, speed, etc. of the traces of pulling and pushing paint using a squeegee instead of a brush define the content of the painting, and the will to work and labor are accumulated in it. The regular lines created by planned movements left on the screen, stain spots formed accidentally by them, and the traces of coagulated and precipitated paint create a very unique resonance and mental ripples, making his paintings active and attractive. Here, color is understood as neutral and decorative rather than having meaning in itself, which is considered to be mobilized as a means for expression rather than having a particular character, such as denial or avoidance of color or having a specific character” (Park Young-taek, Exploration of Pure Artistic Consciousness, 1994).
However, in Choi Sangchul’s work, the method of revealing simplicity and regularity through color, form, texture, etc., emphasized by minimalism, seems to move to the position of merely a means. And that’s not all. As he continues to work in seemingly similar ways, the value of action grows larger and larger, and the intensity of accidental generation of form also grows stronger because of this. Choi’s act of painting is a continuous experimental movement process from one work to another, and above all, it is interpreted as an “unending experiment.” Therefore, it is expected that the outcomes of such experiments will inevitably remain provisional. Meanwhile, the once-concealed “essential problem of the act of painting” emerges not as a byproduct of the experiment but as its central concern. This interpretation is very important in Choi’s squeegee work and subsequent work in the mid-1990s. This is because the artist’s act of work is read like that of some abstract expressionist artists who walked a different path from minimalism. Lee Yeong-wook speaks of this tendency in relation to the artistic reality of the time. “Choi Sangchul’s work integrates in its own way the context of abstract art, among them the layers of minimal restraint and logic, materialization, phenomenological confrontation, the layers of abstract expressionist action and emotion, pursuit of spirituality, and emotional resonance. In fact, this integration has similarities with the mainstream aspects of our abstract art in the 1970s” (Lee Yeong-wook, Light and Movement of Silence, 1999).
Three years after his solo exhibition at Kisshodo (吉象堂) Gallery in Kyoto, Japan in 1996, Choi held a solo exhibition at Gallery Sang (1999), when he had already moved beyond squeegee work and was conducting new experiments. He applied acrylic to bamboo of different heights and widths and created forms by knocking them down onto the canvas or directly striking it. As a result, straight lines collided or overlapped with each other to partition space, and circles created by pouring and pressing paint into the partitioned space sat in or overlapped. The order and uniformity of the screen shown in previous works gradually disintegrated, giving way to fluidity and unconventionality. Furthermore, a critical characteristic of Choi’s work was gradually coming into view, and in this work that continued into the early 2000s, the notion of action began to carry greater weight than before. His action of trying to escape from the “world of silence and restraint and, thus, contemplation (jeonggwan, 靜觀)” (Lee Yeong-wook, Light and Movement of Silence, 1999) is not a background for work but an essential element inseparable from the work.
Shim Sang-yong interprets the deletion of the purpose of action in Choi’s work as a problem of “self-withdrawal” and de-subjectification. However, whether conscious or unconscious, human action does not deviate from numerous intentions and purposes. It is nearly impossible to completely erase intention from action. Traditionally, all plans set for painting work and meanings pursued prove that the action itself is voluntary. The requirement for artists to “use tools such as brushes well” symbolizes such a meaning of action. Ultimately, under these conditions, only the method of intentionally deleting intention becomes possible. In fact, the method Choi adopted closely aligns with this approach. Shim Sang-yong’s introduction of the unfamiliar term “silpiljeung (失筆症, agraphia),” meaning the symptom of losing the brush, also points to this.
Furthermore, Choi’s abandonment of the brush and brushstroke and using bamboo to strike down on the canvas is understood as the realization of de-subjectification. According to Shim Sang-yong, in the 1980s and 1990s, “What Choi has been experimenting with consistently over a not-short period was precisely this method of withdrawing himself … The execution of self-withdrawal, or disconnection, was to abandon the path to humanity through intellect and open the path to ‘rejection of humanity’ through nature” (Shim Sang-yong, Choi Sangchul’s Painting Afflicted with Silpiljeung (Agraphia): Or Painting as ‘Self-Withdrawal,’ 2001). However, this “intentional act of de-intention” meant to eliminate subjectivity and intention can only suffer in self-contradiction, and the artist is fated to endure it.
“An experiment that empties the mind in painting, does not paint, and hopes to be painted” (Choi Sangchul, Artist’s Note, 2003). This is a maxim that Choi has used to define himself and still follows today. His effort to resist stylized, institutionalized forms of expression that operate like mechanical devices is precisely this, and this attitude continues throughout the artist’s life with unwavering consistency. Go Chung-hwan reads the maxim as equating Choi’s creative attitude with his approach to life. The problem is that this experiment is always destined for failure. This is because Choi, too, inevitably faces the self-contradiction that a group of contemporary art faces. “So, he wants to abandon all formative and stylistic aspects of himself that he learned consciously and acquired physically and push the process to the point where form becomes meaningless. However, the process from form to formlessness inevitably fails. It appears as another painting, one that is familiar and perhaps even aesthetically pleasing, inevitably taking the shape of yet another form. This attitude and method of the artist, which can only be realized after breaking the brush completely or not taking any action, was destined for failure from the beginning, and the artist also recognizes this” (Go Chung-hwan, Impossible Project, Painting without Painting, 2005). Go Chung-hwan calls this an “impossible project.” However, for Choi Sangchul, this project moves more firmly to the problem of “the act of painting itself.”
His previous maxim can be interpreted in two ways. Above all, “emptying the mind in painting” is, like Go Chung-hwan’s interpretation, a “refusal” (not a refusal of rights but a refusal of unilateral norms or style proposals demanded by the art world) to the power of contemporary art norms or expressive forms. The other is the problem of “the experiment desiring to be painted,” which, like Shim Sang-yong’s interpretation, is a product that emerges from the artist in the process of “self-withdrawal” and “loss of brush symptom.” Thus, “the experiment desiring to be painted” and the action itself that is condensed there and repeatedly performed are revealed as the unique methods of “refusal” and “expression” chosen by the artist. Here, the unique singularity of Choi’s artistic world is captured: “refusing expression” (not choosing something already presupposed). Thus, “refusal” drives the artist into the toil of endless experimentation.
In relation to this, Shim Sang-yong argues that through the critical language of “painting as self-withdrawal,” Choi is moving away from the critical categories of minimalism and reductionist modernism that once defined his work. “For Choi Sangchul, making is not as important as painting. His refusal to paint was probably not just to choose making traces of results. For him, the primary meaning is only emptying, not obtaining the result. Despite the superficial similarity, minimalists eliminated (or did) subjectivity ‘in order to’ reach essence (what is considered essence). In contrast, for Choi, emptying the subject is value in itself and not a methodology for any other essence. For him, emptying oneself is not a highly rational and cynical way of thinking about revealing the essence of things. Therefore, the entire process of the artist’s judgment, decision, and action should not be attributed only to its visual result. What is left as a result is only a trace of inevitability, not a trace as purpose” (Shim Sang-yong, Choi Sangchul’s Painting Afflicted with Silpiljeung (Agraphia): Or Painting as ‘Self-Withdrawal,’ 2001).
As Choi carried on with his experimental painting practice, by around 2005, the diversity of colors disappeared, reduced to only black and white, and only amorphous forms began to fill the canvas. On the other hand, the act of “being painted without painting” revealed itself more concretely, playing a central role in the work. The action of rolling stones that Choi devised for this continued to be experimented with as a personal form of expression. He named the results of this action “Mumool (無物).” He blocked the four sides of the canvas with a wooden frame, selected stones of various sizes, dipped them in a bucket of black acrylic paint, placed them on the canvas, and rolled them around. The initial position of the stone was determined by the combination of the artist’s intent and small rubber gaskets. The artist would toss the rubber gaskets onto the canvas, and the spot where it landed by chance would determine where the stone first began to roll. While Choi wished to control the stone’s movement by moving his body, the stone merely drew a trajectory appropriate to its own shape, the force applied by the artist, and the angle at which the canvas was tilted. And finally, after a thousand repetitions, a form that had never existed would appear for the first time. Of course, that’s not all. “Between the collision of cloth and stone, strange rhythms (lines) and deep colors are created, and the three heterogeneous things—cloth, stone, and paint—are unified into one. Meanwhile, when looking at the painting, the sound of the stone rolling seems to linger as an auditory hallucination. Visual effects are followed by sound effects. The stone created by nature is painting natural traces, an utterly natural painting in this way” (Park Young-taek, “Painting That Exists Like Nature,” 2018). We encounter those accidental things.
The act of “being painted without painting” now becomes the core concept explaining Choi’s artistic world. Park Soon-chul likens this concept of “being painted rather than painting” to Laozi’s idea of “doing nothing, yet nothing is left undone (無爲而無不爲),” interpreting it as “not doing it on purpose (無作爲)” (Park Soon-chul, The World of Non-Action Unfolded with an Empty Mind, 2016). Park Kyum Sook also emphasizes a certain aesthetic originality in the Mumool series that points to a state before form. “Because it takes place before taking shape, painting originates from a place connected to an indiscriminate world that cannot be revealed before our eyes. Painting simultaneously shows “something revealed” and “not revealed.” At this time, the “not revealed” is not “nothing (無)” but something that exists together but is “not yet revealed.” In other words, it is “Mumool—‘absence-existence (無物)’” (Park Kyum Sook, A Thousand Trajectories, 2021).
Kang Taisung, in commenting on Choi’s 11th solo exhibition, attempts to interpret that action concept from a slightly different perspective. He expands Choi’s action concept as an aspect of postmodernist art practice, saying: “It can be called postmodern logic that solves the dichotomy of modernists. The logic presented at this time is a logic of juxtaposition where subject and object can coexist. This is an effort to find a new utopia beyond the self that is acquired by relinquishing the self. For him, the ideal world includes the meaning of “sang (相, each other),” which connects absence and presence through dot-making, line-drawing, and then plane-making, repetition, etc. with various tools. In that respect, the randomness he emphasizes gives him an open subjectivity and accepts the movement of the world beyond the human. A space where mutually different characteristics coexist is composed of diversity, which the artist calls “the expression of lines.” It is a space that invites something else outside humans. It is where human and nonhuman movements are included. Human-nonhuman collaboration presents diverse expressions of lines, such as soft lines, straight lines, and sometimes explosive lines drawn by applying strong pressure from above” (Kang Taisung, Between One and Many Entities, Between Subject and Object, 2009).
Kang Taisung’s critique seems rough, but there are several points to note. In particular, the aspect of the artist’s de-subjectification is supported by the concepts of “between” and “things.” In the Mumool series, characteristics that were not well revealed in the work of dragging a squeegee around on the canvas, brushing within a square frame, or striking down bamboo coated with acrylic paint are shown more clearly. It is the relationship with those beings that we commonly still call “work tools.” The force and angle of inclination that Choi applies cause the stone to roll. This is the way we commonly know to describe things. We use stones as if we are their master. However, the stone resists the force and angle applied by the artist through the unique expression of its own existence. This is the stress response (應力) of the stone. The stone’s surface is not smooth and uniform but relatively round. So, it rolls in its own way according to its shape and density. Moreover, speed changes and expressive power varies according to the concentration and amount of paint. The stone also has its own expression. Therefore, the action cannot but be a generative action of something that the artist, stone, paint, wooden frame, etc. do together. It can be called “agentiality.”
Park Young-taek also captures well the unique characteristics of action in Choi Sangchul. He affirms the externality of the stone while simultaneously substituting it with the concept of “ziran (自然)”—often translated as “being so of itself” or “the natural order.” The stone is an external being that belongs to a certain order beyond the reach of human will or intention. Here, this order seems to point to the Korean word or Sino-Korean notion of jayeon (自然), evoking the meaning of naturalness—of things happening by themselves—and thereby complementing the process of de-subjectification. Choi proposes a situation to be painted without painting, and as a result, the work becomes not a result that realizes intention or purpose but a trace of existence that is inevitably revealed.
Therefore, Choi’s act of painting receives unique distinction from the desire for certain visibility that contemporary art craves. “It is a term that resists artificiality and evokes the state of an utterly natural painting and is placed on the dimension of reflecting on the behavior of visual desire that only tries to achieve something” (Park Young-taek, Painting the Present Like Nature, 2018).
Post-representationalism, minimalism, resistance to stylistic authority, non-painting painting, randomness, the act of drawing/painting, contingency, de-subjectification, materiality, nature, things, the nonhuman, agentiality, etc. These are aesthetic concepts that have been or could be used to describe the characteristics of Choi Sangchul’s work. These many concepts have their own weight and, therefore, require deeper discussion, but among them, what stands out most in efforts to explain Choi’s artistic world is action and agentiality.
Action generally means “someone doing something,” thereby implying an event in which place and time intervene. This concept of action lies at the core of Choi’s artistic world. For Choi, action is, in fact, the very essence of painting—it is “painting” (geurim). What we often overlook, however, is the fact that “painting” (geurim) is a word in which the verb and noun coincide. This is also true of other languages, such as “paint/painting” in English. Such a linguistic form, known as the gerund, emphasizes the variability and openness of the world, the events connected by actions and actions, rather than nouns that refer to objectified substances. The word “geurim“ thus carries a different resonance from “hoehwa” (“painting” as a noun), which is already commonly used as a noun.
Therefore, in Choi’s artistic proposition, the “attitude of desiring to be painted without painting” can be seen, on the one hand, as an attempt to achieve de-subjectification within the “act of painting” itself, and on the other, as an effort to embrace the otherness or nonhuman agentiality that the “act of painting” conventionally conceals. In other words, action points to the semantic connection of events in which time and place intervene, and the agent of an event may not be only “me.” That is, numerous agents are involved in the event. Choi Sangchul’s act of “painting / being painted” is a decisive element that breathes life into the succession of numerous agents: bamboo, stone, acrylic, canvas, the smell of the studio, rubber gaskets that determine randomness, ropes hanging from the beam, the tree in the front yard, and many others. There are also many “devices,” both visible and invisible. They may appear to be means of production for the subject—that is, tools for painting—but are, in fact, relational ontological forces that bring about de-subjectification. Ultimately, Choi’s action points to the fact that painting can essentially be an ontological-aesthetic event. In the future, there needs to be not only an explanation of this unique action as an ontological-aesthetic event but also a more in-depth analysis and interpretation of the characteristics it possesses.
Explain
Detail View
Choi Sangchul (b. 1946)
Former Professor, Western Painting Major, College of Fine Arts, Chugye University for the Arts
1969 Graduated from the Department of Painting, College of Fine Arts, Seoul National University
Solo Exhibitions
2025 Baik Art Gallery, Jakarta, Indonesia
2024 Wooson Gallery, Daegu
2024 Art Space 3, Seoul
2024 Baik Art Gallery, Seoul
2021 Art Space 3, Seoul
2020 AV Modern & Contemporary, Geneva, Switzerland
2018 Art Space 3, Seoul
2016 Gurimson Gallery, Seoul
2009 523KunstDoc, Seoul
2007 523KunstDoc, Seoul
2005 Moran Museum of Art, Seoul
2003 Gallery LAMER, Seoul
2001 Gallery Sang, Seoul
1999 Gallery Sang, Seoul
1996 Kisshodo Gallery, Kyoto, Japan
1994 Kumho Museum of Art, Seoul
1990 Korea Culture and Arts Foundation Art Center, Seoul
1986 Kwanhoon Gallery, Seoul
1982 Korea Culture and Arts Foundation Art Center, Seoul
Major Group Exhibitions
2025 Echo: Resonance of Relationships, White Block, Gyeonggi-do
2024 And Still Now, Choi Jung Ah Gallery, Seoul
2023 Geometric Abstraction in Korean Art, National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Korea, Gwacheon, Gyeonggi-do
The Origins of the Stone, SEOHO Museum of Modern Art, Gyeonggi-do
Colorful Korean Painting - From Harmony to Purification, Art Space 3, Seoul
2022 Neither Good nor Evil, Chang Ucchin Museum of Art Yangju, Gyeonggi-do
Seeking passage of Art upon Pandemic - Art Work, Seoul National University Museum of Art, Seoul
2017 Asian Diva: The Muse and The Monster, Buk-Seoul Museum of Art, SeMA, Seoul
Black’n Black - Color of Abyss, Emu Art Space, Seoul
2016 Transition of movement, SOMA, Seoul
Black, Gallery 3, Seoul
2015 From Line, Gallery 3, Seoul
2013 Who Are You, SAMTAN ART MINE, Gangwon-do
International Contemporary Art Gwangju Art Vision, Garden of Confession, Gwangju Biennale Hall, Gwangju
2012 Korea Drawing 50 years, Seoul Arts Center, Seoul
Experimental Art Project - Manner & Scene, Daegu Art Factory, Daegu
2009 Kim Whanki International Art Festival: Resonance and Preservation of the Ecosystem - Eco Zone, LOTTE GALLERY / Iang Gallery, Gwangju/Seoul
2008 Kim Whanki International Art Festival: Islands Rhapsody, Gallery Light / LOTTE GALLERY, Seoul/Gwangju
Hangaram Museum of Art Collection Exhibition: Artist’s 30 Years, The Beautiful Change, Seoul Arts Center, Seoul
Korea-Middle East Forum “The beauty of Korea” Special Exhibition, Cairo Opera House, Cairo, Egypt
2007 1970s Korean Art: National Exhibition and People’s Exhibition, Seoul Arts Center, Seoul
2005-18 PAGO, TopoHouse, Gyoha Art Center, Paju Civic Center, Gyeonggi-do (not listed in biography file)
2005 Seoul Art Exhibition - Painting, Seoul Museum of Art, Seoul
2003 The Opening Exhibition of Gail Art Museum, Gail Art Museum, Gyeonggi-do
Yadang-ri · Field · Wild Flower, Jungle Book Art Gallery, Gyeonggi-do
The Exhibition Invited by Pocheon Art Association, Pocheon Banwol Arts Hall, Gyeonggi-do
2002 Overcome of Korean Contemporary Art, Gallery LAMER, Seoul
Golden Wings - Painting and Sculpture of North Gyeonggi, Gyeonggi Provincial Government Complex 2, Gyeonggi-do
Age of Philosophy and Aesthetics, National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Korea, Gwacheon, Gyeonggi-do
2001 Decade of Transition and Dynamics, National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Korea, Gwacheon, Gyeonggi-do
Another Situation - Contemporary Characteristic of Korean Contemporary Art, Hanwon Museum of Art, Seoul
2000 50th Anniversary of Seoul National University of Fine Arts Alumni Association: Seoul National University and the New Millennium 1950-2000, Seoul Museum of Art, Seoul
Picture Diaries[日記]. Reading Pictures, Gallery Sang, Seoul
1999 Exhibition of 90’ Situation, Ellen Kim Murphy Gallery, Seoul
1998 Spirit of 2000 Era, Daejeon Museum of Art, Daejeon
1997 DOTS, Kumho Museum of Art, Seoul
1996 50th Anniversary of Seoul National University of Fine Arts Alumni Association, Gongpyeong Artcenter, Seoul
1994-97 Seoul Grand Art Festival, Seoul Museum of Art, Seoul
1993 Korean Contemporary Artists Dual exhibition - Oriental Eyes, Oriental Spirit, Saihaku Gallery, Osaka, Japan
1992 5th Japan-Korea Contemporary Artist Exchange Exhibition, Seoul Arts Center, Seoul
From Concept to Essence, Kumho Museum of Art, Seoul
Seoul-Sapporo, Seoul Museum of Art, Seoul
Life – Phenomena, Gallery Midopa, Seoul
1991 ‘In the Forest of Chaos’, Zahamun Museum of Art, Seoul
1990 90 - New Spirit, Kumho Museum of Art Spring Exhibition, Seoul
Common & Discommons on Korean-Japanese Modern Arts, Korea Culture and Arts Foundation Art Center, Seoul
Korean Art: Today’s Situation, Seoul Arts Center, Seoul
1989-97 Abstract, 63 Gallery, Seoul (listed as Gallery Seomi in 1989)
1989 Asia Modern Exhibition, Fukuoka Art Museum, Fukuoka, Japan
'89 Seoul – Kyoto 37 Artists, Kyoto Municipal Museum of Art, Kyoto, Japan
Invited 89 Artists by 10th Anniversary of Kwanhoon Gallery, Kwanhoon Gallery
1988 International Asian – European Art Biennale, Ankara, Turkey
1988-91 International Impact Art Festival, Kyoto Municipal Museum of Art, Kyoto, Japan
1986 Seoul National University and Korean Art, Seoul National University Museum, Seoul
1984-2007 Com-Generation, Kwanhoon Gallery, Seoul
1982 Contemporary Art View – Incheon, Montmartre Gallery, Incheon
1981-89 Artist of the Year, Korea Culture and Arts Foundation Art Center, Seoul
1981 Sao Paulo Biennale, São Paulo, Brazil
1980-88 Process, Korea Culture and Arts Foundation Art Center, Seoul
1980 Paintings by Seven Artists, Korea Culture and Arts Foundation Art Center, Seoul
Korea-Arab Art Exchange, Arab Cultural Center, Seoul
1979 Seoul Painting by 15 Artists, Korea Culture and Arts Foundation Art Center, Seoul
1978-79 Exhibition by 6 Artists in Their 30s, Korea Culture and Arts Foundation Art Center, Seoul
1978 Asian Contemporary Art, Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo, Tokyo, Japan
Busan Contemporary Art Festival, Busan Citizen’s Hall, Busan
1977-79 Seoul Modern Art Festival, National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Korea, Seoul
1975-78 Daegu Contemporary Art Festival, Keimyung University, Daegu
1974 Art Center Opening Commemorative Invitational Exhibition, Korea Culture and Arts Foundation Art Center, Seoul
Exhibition of Korea Experimental Artists, Daegu Department Store Gallery, Daegu
1973-76 6th Shincheje Group Exhibition, Myeongdong Gallery, Seoul
1971-89 Korean Fine Arts Association Exhibition, National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Korea, Seoul
1970 1st Grand Art Exhibition of Korea Organized by Hankookilbo, National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Korea, Seoul
1968 Dong-A International Art Exhibition, Dong-A University, Busan
Awards
1970 1st Grand Art Exhibition of Korea, Seoul Mayor Award, Hankook Ilbo
Collections
2024 National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Korea
2007 Seoul Arts Center Hangaram Art Museum
2002 National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Korea
2001 National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Korea
1999 Daejeon Museum of Art
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