Ha Chong Hyun is the first generation of Danseakhwa art movement. Born in 1935 in Korea, he graduated from Hongik University in 1958 and after he was appointed as a professor at the same university for 40 years. In 2001, he has retired and made ‘Ha Chong Hyun Art Award’ with his severance pay. Every year, he chooses an artist and offers the prize. 

He creates unique abstractive art by using ma-dae; the basket used for carrying potatoes or grains in traditional Korean society. His representative series, 'Jeop-Hap' has been his masterpiece since 1975. It has broken the stereotype that paintings must be done with a paintbrush on the front side of canvas. Instead, he creates unique method in which he pushes paint on the back of the canvas, and then smashes the paint from the front. Through the opened or closed structure of ma-dae, it brings the relaxed looseness and releases the tight tension at the same time. Prominent art critic Edward Lucie-Smith said that Ha actualized the remarkably different art style from the west.   

Ha was the chairman of Korean avant-garde association from 1964 to 1974. After, he was appointed as a commissioner for 24^th Cagnes International Painting Festival and 43th Venice Biennale. From 2001 to 2006, he was the director of Seoul Museum of Art and worked actively to promote Korean art internationally. His work has showcased at the Mudima Foundation for Contemporary Art in 2003 and Gyeongnam Art Museum in 2004. In 2012, the National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art in Korea had a grand retrospective of his works.