'Tree and Woman,' Once Displayed in Park Soo-keun Patron’s Home, to Hit the Market After 40 Years

K Auction to Hold August 26 Auction: 102 Works Worth 6.5 Billion Won
Park Soo-keun's "Tree and Woman" Owned by American Collector Margaret Miller Expected to Fetch 400–800 Million Won
From Lee Daewon, Chun Kyungja, and Kim Whanki to Everyday Obj

Park Soo-keun’s “Tree and Woman,” which once hung on the wall of American collector Margaret Miller’s home in the 1960s, is returning to the auction market for the first time in about 40 years. As a piece formerly owned by Miller—one of Park’s key supporters and collectors—it carries an estimated price of 400 million to 800 million won.

Park Soo-keun's 1950s work "Tree and Woman." It is one of Park Soo-keun's representative series featuring an old tree and a woman together, and was held in the Margaret Miller Collection in the 1960s. K-Auction

K Auction announced on August 14 that it will hold its August auction at its headquarters in Sinsa-dong, Gangnam-gu, Seoul, at 4 p.m. on the 26th. A total of 102 works will be on offer, with an estimated combined value of about 6.5 billion won. Featured artists include Park Soo-keun, Lee Dae-won, Chun Kyung Ja, Kim Whanki, and Lee Jung-seop among notable Korean modern and contemporary artists and Dansaekhwa (monochrome) painters, as well as international artists such as Takashi Murakami and David Hockney.

The centerpiece of this auction, “Tree and Woman,” is an oil painting from the 1950s, measuring 26.5 by 18.5 centimeters. As part of his recurring “Tree and Woman” series, Park Soo-keun often depicted an old tree at the center of the canvas with a woman beneath it—a motif he revisited repeatedly from the mid-1950s until his death. As of now, about ten works from this series are known to exist. One piece was exhibited at the National Art Exhibition in 1956, and another work with the same motif was used as the cover of Park Wan-suh’s novel “The Naked Tree.”

Interior of the home of American collector Margaret Miller in the 1960s. The artwork marked in red is Park Soo-keun's "Tree and Woman," which will be auctioned at K Auction on the 26th. K Auction

Miller, the former owner of the auction piece, consistently collected Park Soo-keun’s works and worked to promote his art internationally, including efforts to organize a solo exhibition in the United States. In an archival photo of Miller’s home released by K Auction, the auctioned piece is shown displayed alongside other Park Soo-keun works. After its time in the Miller collection, the piece was exhibited at Korean art exhibitions including the “Korean Portraits Painting Exhibition” at the Korea Art Museum in 1983, the “20th Anniversary Memorial Exhibition of Park Soo-keun” at Hyundai Gallery in 1985, and the “30th Anniversary Memorial Exhibition of Park Soo-keun” at Gallery Hyundai in 1995, and it has also been featured in major catalogues of his work.

Three works by Lee Dae-won, whose retrospective is currently on view at the National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art Deoksugung, will also be auctioned. “Pine Tree” (1976) is estimated at 30 million to 60 million won, “Farm” (1999) at 55 million to 100 million won, and “Tree” at 14 million to 30 million won. Chun Kyung Ja’s “Bird and Woman” carries an estimate of 290 million to 500 million won, and Kim Whanki’s 1967 work “Untitled” is expected to sell for 60 million to 150 million won.

Lee Dae-won’s 1976 work "Pine Tree." It is a piece that reconstructs nature using primary color dots and free brushstrokes. K-Auction

A special section called “Re:Place” will shine a spotlight on vintage household items. Among them, a set of four bronze Dangdong tea utensils made by the Joseon Artifacts Workshop will be offered at an estimated 8 million to 15 million won, while a turtle-shaped gunpowder flask made of pear wood is set to auction for 2 million to 6 million won. Other items include wooden furniture such as medicine cabinets, document chests, and folding chests from Yangsan, as well as Goryeo celadon and Joseon white porcelain.

Dansaekhwa works such as Yun Hyong-keun’s “Umber-Blue,” Lee Ufan’s “With the Wind,” and Park Seo-bo’s “Ecriture No. 060730” will also go under the hammer. Among international artists, Takashi Murakami’s “An Homage to Yves Klein” is estimated at 450 million to 800 million won, and David Hockney’s “Untitled No.13: The Yosemite Suite” at 200 million to 300 million won.

The auctioned works will be on view free of charge at K Auction’s exhibition hall from August 15 through the auction day on the 26th.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.