Lee Ufan

signed in English and dated 78; signed and titled in English on the reverse, framed

Acquired directly from the artist
Private Asian Collection
Acquired by the present owner from the above
Private Japanese Collection

This work is generally in good condition. There is some minor paint loss at the three top tips of the lines, measuring ca. 1 cm. wide. Having examined the work under ultraviolet light, there appears to be no evidence of restoration.
"In response to your inquiry, we are pleased to provide you with a general report of the condition of the property described above. Since we are not professional conservators or restorers, we urge you to consult with a restorer or conservator of your choice who will be better able to provide a detailed, professional report. Prospective buyers should inspect each lot to satisfy themselves as to condition and must understand that any statement made by Sotheby's is merely a subjective, qualified opinion. Prospective buyers should also refer to any Important Notices regarding this sale, which are printed in the Sale Catalogue.
NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF BUSINESS PRINTED IN THE SALE CATALOGUE."

On Time and Beyond
Lee Ufan

At the end of the Second World War, Abstract Expressionism was being developed in New York, crowning the city as the artistic centre of the West. At the heart of this critical movement was Jackson Pollock, who, by taking his canvas off the easel and onto the floor, removed the conventional boundaries that had limited artists for generations, thus expanding the possibilities for innovation and creation. This ground-breaking act redefined artistic creation and highlighted the importance of the process of art production. In contrast, in Asia, Lee Ufan also revolutionised the Contemporary art world, by instead emphasising the journey of creating a work of art. Placing his canvases on the floor, his whole body was engaged in the process, allowing him to enter into a far more intimate relationship with both the process and materials involved. Using traditionally Eastern materials to paint on a distinctly Western surface, Lee further expanded the opportunities for creation, shattering the traditional limitations that confined classically trained Asian artists. An inspirational figure in the Contemporary art world to this day, Lee became the fourth guest artist selected for the Contemporary Art Programme of the Palace of Versailles and has works collected by the Museum of Modern Art New York, as well as the Musée National d'Art Moderne in Paris. It is from this influential artist’s oeuvre that Sotheby’s is pleased to offer two important works of art.

Originating from his two seminal painting series, From Line and From Point, the current works on offer are essential representatives of Lee’s oeuvre. They reflect the artist’s recurrent themes—the painting process and the inherent, unadulterated beauty of materials; the passage of time; and infinity.

Lee’s choice to use coarse canvases and transparent animal glue as binders for the mineral pigment in the works on offer shows his desire to enhance the natural characteristics of the materials. This desire hints at his leadership of Mono-ha (literally meaning, "School of Things") in the 1960s, a Japanese movement that propagated the idea of the fundamental beauty of materials and their careful arrangement, which was to merely enhance this beauty without altering its original allure. Thus, his painting style is subtle and humble, with simple lines or dabs of paint brushed across a white canvas. However, though at first glance similar, each stroke is actually unique, varying in the pressure applied and the amount of glue added. Committed to what he calls yohaku or “The Art of Emptiness”, Lee rarely touches the surface more than three times and applies the paint in a disciplined manner, allowing the paint to form a thick ridge where his brush first makes contact with the canvas before letting it  fade gradually into lighter tones.

From the the loose gusts of paint across the canvas of From Point (Lot 1052), to the vertical uniform lines that fade in From Line (Lot 1053), the works on offer in the present sale represent the artist's unrestricted Abstract motion.

In Lee’s oeuvre, the slow fading of paint highlights the importance of negative and positive space. His philosophy extends to equality between the painted and the unpainted, which share a non-hierarchical relationship in which the blank areas are just as important in contributing to the overall aesthetic of the painting as the painted areas. Similar to Lucio Fontana in their shared emphasis on this relationship, Lee differs in that he identifies the blank canvas as the negative space, whereas Fontana saw the canvas as the positive and his deep slashes the negative.

Like many Korean artists of his generation, Lee emphasised the importance of the singular brushstroke and the transience of time. By repeating such strokes on the canvas, he explores the passage of time as multiple instances of fleeting moments, sometimes similar but never the same, unique in the memory it represents and preserves. Thus, the current work on offer, From Line, can be considered as a record of time, a diary of Lee’s search for new methods to highlight the beauty of his materials and exploration with the process of painting.

Another theme that is often present in Lee’s work is infinity. As he states in his essay On Infinity, “the outside world enters deeply into my work… Infinity begins with the self but is only manifested fully when connected with something beyond the self”. From Point contains such a reference to infinity. Like his From Line series, the paint in the work on offer is applied to a gradual fade, signifying the artist’s search for infinity, with the self represented as the dark blue pigment, slowly disappearing into the infinite void of the canvas background. The rows of small squares are reminiscent of Donald Judd’s “stacks”, which are set against a stark white backdrop. However, while Judd’s pieces are similar to Lee’s in their minimalism, they differ in that Judd’s work is concerned with technology and the future, whereas Lee’s work is concerned with eastern philosophical notions of eternity and time. In addition, Lee’s painting conveys a sense of movement that is lacking in Judd’s. This is due to the fact that Lee reapplies paint onto his brush as the paint runs out, making three or four rows of brushmarks rather than one single row. The multiple lines suggest endless movement in one direction, perhaps signifying the infinite passage of time, which, like the lines, moves only in one direction.

Unlike his thematic treatment of time, however, Lee often looks to both the future and his past for inspiration, with his Asian heritage and training playing a pivotal role in his art production. Born in southern Korea in 1936, Lee moved to Japan in 1956 and graduated from Nihon University with a degree in philosophy in 1961. He spent his first working years as an art critic, philosopher and artist, which exposed him to the wider Western world, giving him access to international audiences. These Japanese experiences prompted him to reject his traditional Nihonga style of painting and embrace the Abstract movement that was sweeping through the world. By using a traditionally Eastern paint on a distinctly Western material, Lee triggered a breakthrough that would serve as inspiration to many of his contemporaries. The melding of East and West perhaps signifies his desire to highlight the natural relationship between materials and practices that existed side by side but were to people totally different. This international combination of practices and materials was to define not only his work, but his generation of Korean abstract artists.

In 2010, the Lee Ufan Museum, a museum completely dedicated to his work and designed by Tadao Ando, opened on the island of Naoshima, Japan. Coupled with a decoration by the Japanese government for having "contributed to the development of contemporary art in Japan” in 2009, it highlights Lee’s pivotal role in the world of Contemporary art. With an illustrious career spanning over four decades, Lee’s work opened new doors on the international art scene for Korean artists of his own, as well as future generations. He demonstrated the classic maxim that the journey is just as important as the destination through his eloquent lines and brushstrokes. His work simple yet complex, Lee continues to astound as the Korean at the forefront of Japanese contemporary art, an outsider on the inside, searching for a connection between the self and the world that surrounds it.