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Lot Essay
Outstanding artists, regardless of whether the circumstances are favorable or adverse, always find ways of challenging themselves and finding new creative directions.
As a child, Lee was educated in traditional East Asian philosophy - the intrinsic element that later came to define his artistic success. After establishing himself as a key theorist and artist of the Mono-ha in the 1960s, he gained insight into the interactive nature of media, subject matter, and surrounding spaces. For three months in 1971, Lee exhibited and traveled in Europe, during which time he came across works by Lucio Fontana and Yves Klein in Paris, while engaging intellectually with other artists and philosophers. From these experiences he drew the conclusion that art should be a means of connecting the self and the outside world, empowered by reasonably limiting the creator's or artist's ego. This concept, together with the notion of 'repetition of the infinite,' gave birth to the pivotal series in Lee Ufan's career - From Point and From Line.
SEARCHING FOR SELF; CREATING BEYOND THE SELF
For a work of art to establish a relationship with a viewer or its external surroundings, the artist must first forge a link between the concept (the existence of the self) and external materials. Lee once said: 'The presence of things is the product of consciousness objectifying the world, which forges a unity between the represented idea and a physical substance.' In exploring these ideas, he once found a starting point in something akin to a Minimalist form (Fig. 1), and he also came to a conclusion: that works such as the light sculptures of Donald Judd, and even Dan Flavin, were only kinds of neutral vehicles which, while they might interact to some degree with their surrounding spaces, were incapable of resonating with other objects in the external world (Fig. 2). Painted in 1979, From Point (Lot 54) is a prime example of the last great works of this series created by Lee Ufan. Here the repetition of the point is not just a geometric figure or pattern-it has become a living, organic entity, possessing a rhythmic motion and its own direction, from which derives the natural grace of its interrelation and resonance with the outside world.
The East and the West see the self in fundamentally different ways. Lee believes that in Western society, mutual recognition between self and other is often defined as taking place in human relationships, while in the East there is a tendency to find otherness in relationships with natural objects like plants, animals, stones, or even with the Earth. Having made this connection, in his creative work Lee strove to reduce the element of 'ego' to its lowest possible level and to thereby achieve a sense of the boundless. From this, the element of 'marking the infinite' by means of repetition was born.
HOLD YOUR BREATH AND SEE THE SKIES
The reason that Lee limits the expression of the ego in the creative process is that, while a work may belong to its creator, the meaning and value of the work do not derive from that fact. Lee stated that 'I do not want to possess the world with my ego, but to enter into a relationship with the world that gives me the ability to perceive.' Thus for Lee, an artwork can communicate with the viewer, despite not being a real language. In From Point, the artist reduces the element of personal ego to its lowest level, arranging repetitions of a point, which he felt was the most basic unit or element common to all things. The interstices between the points unfold like a series of doors, letting the viewer into the work, and letting the outer world enter into and inform the entire pictorial space.
This process of 'entering into' at the same time allows Lee's points to store up unlimited energy, and in their progressive movement, to create a vast boundlessness. What fascinates Lee about 'marking infinity' is the interactive relationship between the space inside the frame and the surrounding environment. He believes that the feeling of limitlessness that bursts from Tang and Song dynasty landscape paintings comes from the interaction of their painted and unpainted spaces. The same can be said of the Belvedere Torso, in the manner in which its broken limbs both extend space outwards, while penetrating the space striding powerfully into it (Fig. 3). The mechanism through which Lee's repetitions 'mark out infinity' relies in great part on empty, unpainted space that enables the creation of depth and a spatial sense. Another prominent Monochrome artist, Park Seo-Bo, sees unpainted space as a mechanism, similar to breathing and pausing, to avoid the potential visual fatigue caused by repetitive lines (Fig. 4). In executing From Point, Lee loaded his brush with pigment and dabbed from left to right until no more paint was left on the brush. The points disappear, marking their existence, and from the order and regularity of their trajectories he derives a richly layered and boundless universe. Western critics have compared Lee's From Point series with the works of American artist Robert Ryman. But while Ryman's work similarly has order and repetition, it lacks the element of motion. His colour blocks fill nearly the entire canvas, and perhaps the customary 'additive' concepts of Western culture result in the tendency for the pictorial space to be so visually full (Fig. 5). In contrast, the gradated textures of Lee's works, and their interaction with the empty spaces of the canvas, create a flowing cycle of energy and air. Viewers can almost see the speed of the wind or feel the texture of water - and in this he begins to anticipate the later development of his From Wind series. In From Point, Lee's thoughtful and philosophical outlook is transformed on the canvas, with the inevitable naturalness of water seeking its own channel, into pulsating rhythms that reach out to the viewer and communicate a state of mind. In this lies all the mystery of Lee Ufan's art and its fascination.
As a child, Lee was educated in traditional East Asian philosophy - the intrinsic element that later came to define his artistic success. After establishing himself as a key theorist and artist of the Mono-ha in the 1960s, he gained insight into the interactive nature of media, subject matter, and surrounding spaces. For three months in 1971, Lee exhibited and traveled in Europe, during which time he came across works by Lucio Fontana and Yves Klein in Paris, while engaging intellectually with other artists and philosophers. From these experiences he drew the conclusion that art should be a means of connecting the self and the outside world, empowered by reasonably limiting the creator's or artist's ego. This concept, together with the notion of 'repetition of the infinite,' gave birth to the pivotal series in Lee Ufan's career - From Point and From Line.
SEARCHING FOR SELF; CREATING BEYOND THE SELF
For a work of art to establish a relationship with a viewer or its external surroundings, the artist must first forge a link between the concept (the existence of the self) and external materials. Lee once said: 'The presence of things is the product of consciousness objectifying the world, which forges a unity between the represented idea and a physical substance.' In exploring these ideas, he once found a starting point in something akin to a Minimalist form (Fig. 1), and he also came to a conclusion: that works such as the light sculptures of Donald Judd, and even Dan Flavin, were only kinds of neutral vehicles which, while they might interact to some degree with their surrounding spaces, were incapable of resonating with other objects in the external world (Fig. 2). Painted in 1979, From Point (Lot 54) is a prime example of the last great works of this series created by Lee Ufan. Here the repetition of the point is not just a geometric figure or pattern-it has become a living, organic entity, possessing a rhythmic motion and its own direction, from which derives the natural grace of its interrelation and resonance with the outside world.
The East and the West see the self in fundamentally different ways. Lee believes that in Western society, mutual recognition between self and other is often defined as taking place in human relationships, while in the East there is a tendency to find otherness in relationships with natural objects like plants, animals, stones, or even with the Earth. Having made this connection, in his creative work Lee strove to reduce the element of 'ego' to its lowest possible level and to thereby achieve a sense of the boundless. From this, the element of 'marking the infinite' by means of repetition was born.
HOLD YOUR BREATH AND SEE THE SKIES
The reason that Lee limits the expression of the ego in the creative process is that, while a work may belong to its creator, the meaning and value of the work do not derive from that fact. Lee stated that 'I do not want to possess the world with my ego, but to enter into a relationship with the world that gives me the ability to perceive.' Thus for Lee, an artwork can communicate with the viewer, despite not being a real language. In From Point, the artist reduces the element of personal ego to its lowest level, arranging repetitions of a point, which he felt was the most basic unit or element common to all things. The interstices between the points unfold like a series of doors, letting the viewer into the work, and letting the outer world enter into and inform the entire pictorial space.
This process of 'entering into' at the same time allows Lee's points to store up unlimited energy, and in their progressive movement, to create a vast boundlessness. What fascinates Lee about 'marking infinity' is the interactive relationship between the space inside the frame and the surrounding environment. He believes that the feeling of limitlessness that bursts from Tang and Song dynasty landscape paintings comes from the interaction of their painted and unpainted spaces. The same can be said of the Belvedere Torso, in the manner in which its broken limbs both extend space outwards, while penetrating the space striding powerfully into it (Fig. 3). The mechanism through which Lee's repetitions 'mark out infinity' relies in great part on empty, unpainted space that enables the creation of depth and a spatial sense. Another prominent Monochrome artist, Park Seo-Bo, sees unpainted space as a mechanism, similar to breathing and pausing, to avoid the potential visual fatigue caused by repetitive lines (Fig. 4). In executing From Point, Lee loaded his brush with pigment and dabbed from left to right until no more paint was left on the brush. The points disappear, marking their existence, and from the order and regularity of their trajectories he derives a richly layered and boundless universe. Western critics have compared Lee's From Point series with the works of American artist Robert Ryman. But while Ryman's work similarly has order and repetition, it lacks the element of motion. His colour blocks fill nearly the entire canvas, and perhaps the customary 'additive' concepts of Western culture result in the tendency for the pictorial space to be so visually full (Fig. 5). In contrast, the gradated textures of Lee's works, and their interaction with the empty spaces of the canvas, create a flowing cycle of energy and air. Viewers can almost see the speed of the wind or feel the texture of water - and in this he begins to anticipate the later development of his From Wind series. In From Point, Lee's thoughtful and philosophical outlook is transformed on the canvas, with the inevitable naturalness of water seeking its own channel, into pulsating rhythms that reach out to the viewer and communicate a state of mind. In this lies all the mystery of Lee Ufan's art and its fascination.