Chung Sang-Hwa was born in Yeongdeok, Gyeongsangbuk-do, and spent his childhood in Masan. In 1953 in the midst of the Korean War, he enrolled in the Painting department at the College of Fine Arts in Seoul National University despite opposition from his family. After graduating in 1957, he participated in multiple group exhibitions such as The 4th Contemporary Artists Exhibition (1960), Actual (1962), and The 2nd Invitation Exhibition of the Congress for Cultural Freedom (1963).
Having first started his professional life as an instructor at Incheon Teacher’s School at the recommendation of Chang Bal, dean of the College of Fine Arts in Seoul National University, Chung Sang-Hwa soon became an active member of Contemporary Artists Association and Actuel that led the wave of the Korean Avant-garde at the time. During this time, he concentrated on expressing the pain of the Korean War through informel-style Avant-garde art. Through turbulent acts of throwing, spraying, inflating, twisting, and ripping out paint of intense colors, he transferred the gloomy social atmosphere upon canvas. As he was selected to participate in The 4th Biennale de Paris, Biennale de Paris (1965) and The 9th São Paulo Biennial (1967), Chung started gaining acclaim in the international art world. After opening an exhibition and experiencing life in Paris for a year, his style still generally remained in the informel direction – but one starts to see the emergence of flat paintings.
In 1968, upon returning from a relatively short stay in France, Chung decided to firmly plant himself within international art currents instead of remaining in the comforts of Korea – which motivated his move to Kobe, Japan, in 1969. After moving, he sought transformation by departing from the previous informel-style paintings characterized by bold colors and rough matière, instead seeking depth within flat surface. He maintained the methodology of peeling off and filling in, but newly added a method of lifting canvas from its frame and folding as if to pleat. In this period, Chung Sang-Hwa restricted his use of color and limits the style strictly to flat painting – and from 1973, monochromatic grid paintings would emerge. His works have taken on grid-like forms and grammar since the mid 1970s, and this repetitive method appear consistently through the present day.