Lee Ufan Kyongsangnamdo, Korea, b. 1936

Painter, sculptor, writer and philosopher, Lee Ufan came to prominence in the late 1960s as one of the major theoretical and practical proponents of the avant-garde Mono-ha (Object School) group.

Mono-ha was Japan’s first internationally recognized contemporary art movement which rejected Western notions of representation. The artists of Mono-ha focused on the relationships between materials and perceptions rather than expression or intervention, presenting works made of raw physical materials with minimal manipulation.

Lee Ufan’s installations exist in a space that is simultaneously untouched and engaged, always exploring the balance between doing and non-doing. The core of his practice lies in the relationship between painted, unpainted, occupied, and empty spaces. He believes that true expression is not about creating something from nothing but about nudging something that already exists to reveal its vividness in the world.

Since his early Mono-ha period, Lee Ufan has limited his choice of sculptural materials to steel plates and stones, emphasizing their precise conceptual and spatial juxtaposition. The heavy and solid steel plates, commonly used in modern construction, are juxtaposed with natural stones, which “belong to an unknown outer world” beyond artificial shapes and modernity.

“If a heavy stone happens to hit glass, the glass breaks. That happens as a matter of course. But if an artist’s ability to act as a mediator is weak, there will be more to see than a trivial physical accident. Then again, if the breakage conforms too closely to the intention of the artist, the result will be dull. It will also be devoid of interest if the mediation of the artist is haphazard. Something has to come out of the relationship of tension represented by the artist, the glass, the stone. It is only when a fissure results from the cross-permeation of the three elements in this triangular relationship that, for the first time, the glass becomes an object of art.” – Lee Ufan