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Lot Essay
'The ideal for a work of art is to be a 'place of nothingness.' This does not mean that it is desirable to criminate the existential, objective or conceptual qualities of art work of art. However, works of art that have a grandiose presence, make an exaggerated display of the physical properties are often limited texts of human consciousness or self-expressions that impose themselves on the viewer. Resonance and encounter are factors that make looking at a work of art interesting. Therefore, one would hope that the work of art will have a mediating effect that empties out its surroundings and brings some kind of transcendence to the place where it is. The ambiguity of seeing created by encounters between passivity and activity implies asite of implies a site spatial perception transcends objectivity, and this can definitely be identified as a place of nothingness.' (Lee quoted in The Art of Encounter, Lisson Gallery, London, 2004, unpaged).
As one of the foremost figures in breaking conventions as a painter, sculptor and philosopher in Korea, Japan and Europe, Lee marked his status as one of the leading advocates of Japanese avant-garde antiformalist 'Mono-ha' and the Monochrome movement (Dansaekhwa) of Korea in the 1960s-80s by effectively banishing imagery and materialization and instead opting for reductive elements that echo the Eastern philosophical paradigm of Taoism.
Dating from the height of the Mono-ha movement in the 1970s, From Line, 76045 is among one of the impressive epitomes of Lee Ufan's oeuvres. Across a metre-wide canvas, From Line, 76045 is comprised of temporal accumulation of identical units of brush stroke, lending a fine degree of stability to the canvas with continuous mark-making and absorbing the saturation of the paint into brittle fragility. The cascading effect of the repeated blue instantly lends the work a sense of calm and transcendent poetry through the subtly calculated fading of the palette. Masterfully rendered in From Line, 76045, Lee's austere yet symphonic brushwork can been seen here as the artist's reflection of the meditative condition of eastern literati paintings, as a way to channel spiritual cleansing and self-negation. What is more, in From Line, 76045 Lee has brilliantly emanated notions of hope, spirit and meditation while at the same time metaphorically embracing his ideal of nothingness.
As one of the foremost figures in breaking conventions as a painter, sculptor and philosopher in Korea, Japan and Europe, Lee marked his status as one of the leading advocates of Japanese avant-garde antiformalist 'Mono-ha' and the Monochrome movement (Dansaekhwa) of Korea in the 1960s-80s by effectively banishing imagery and materialization and instead opting for reductive elements that echo the Eastern philosophical paradigm of Taoism.
Dating from the height of the Mono-ha movement in the 1970s, From Line, 76045 is among one of the impressive epitomes of Lee Ufan's oeuvres. Across a metre-wide canvas, From Line, 76045 is comprised of temporal accumulation of identical units of brush stroke, lending a fine degree of stability to the canvas with continuous mark-making and absorbing the saturation of the paint into brittle fragility. The cascading effect of the repeated blue instantly lends the work a sense of calm and transcendent poetry through the subtly calculated fading of the palette. Masterfully rendered in From Line, 76045, Lee's austere yet symphonic brushwork can been seen here as the artist's reflection of the meditative condition of eastern literati paintings, as a way to channel spiritual cleansing and self-negation. What is more, in From Line, 76045 Lee has brilliantly emanated notions of hope, spirit and meditation while at the same time metaphorically embracing his ideal of nothingness.