Kim Whan-ki's "March of April" (1961) / Courtesy of Seoul Auction



By Kwon Mee-yoo



As COVID-19 is shaking up the world's art market, many art fairs and exhibitions are being canceled or rescheduled. Despite the low number of people going to museums and art fairs, Korean auction houses decided to continue their spring auctions, with some online extras.



Seoul Auction will put up 127 art pieces, collectively worth around 10 billion won, for their 155th auction at the Seoul Auction Gangnam Center on March 24, which was postponed from the original date of March 11.



The auction house is taking extra care to prevent the spread of COVID-19 by offering an e-book version of the auction catalogue and a virtual reality preview exhibition for those who want to take a closer look at auction lots but cannot attend the preview event.



The highlight of this auction will be a special section featuring paintings of people by Korean master painters.



"March of April" (1961) by Kim Whan-ki, the most expensive Korean artist, is not one of the artist's signature abstract dot paintings, but a more figurative one. Inspired by the April 19 Revolution, which happened the year before the painting was created, Kim used blue paint to depict a group of demonstrators marching together.



A similar version of the painting was created by the artist as an illustration for magazine Sasanggye right after the April 19 Revolution in 1960, a year before the oil painting was created.





Lee Ung-no's "People" (1987) / Courtesy of Seoul Auction