U-fan LEE

1936

The Korean artist Lee Ufan was born on June 24, 1936 in the Haman-gun district of South Korea. In 1956 he began studying art at the College of Fine Arts in Seoul, but dropped out after two months and moved to Japan. In Tokyo, he studied philosophy at Nihon University in Tokyo until 1961, studying both Asian and European philosophy. In 1967 Lee Ufan's first solo exhibition takes place at the Sato Gallery in Tokyo. In the same year Lee Ufan's first theoretical work "The Aesthetics of Self-Contradiction" was published, the artist's critical investigation of aesthetics, cultural production and national identity. In it, he formulates thoughts on the self-image of the artist in a time in which a work of art can no longer be seen as functioning as a representation of the world and the artist must find new ways. In 1968, Lee Ufan first became known as co-founder and theoretical mastermind of the artist group "Mono-ha" ("School of Things"), to which the Japanese artist Nobuo Sekine also belonged. Similar to the artists of "Arte Povera", the "Mono-ha" artists focus their attention on the material itself. Their quest is to make visible the perception and relationship of space and matter.

Rank

295

181 offers (in the last 12 months)

Watercolor / Drawing: 24
Prints: 96
Photography: 1
Sculpture / Object: 3
Painting: 50

U-fan LEE has won the following awards :

Praemium Imperiale, 2001, Painting