Korean, born 1936, based between Japan and Paris. Co-founder and theorist of Mono-ha. Spare encounters of stone and steel plate (the Relatum series) and the From Point / From Line paintings, where the gesture and the space around it carry equal weight.
Provenance - where he pointed
Pointed at by Namjoon.
Namjoon’s own @rkive Instagram post (2022): a Lee Ufan original line drawing, personally inscribed to him (“R M”, top right) and signed by the artist (“L. Ufan … Paris”, lower left). Namjoon tagged @ufanlee (Lee Ufan’s official account) in the post.
Primary source: @rkive Instagram, 2022 (likely archived). Preserved via: @JooniesLibrary / Namjoon’s Library, tweet, Sep 22 2022: the signpost, not the source.
Why it matters - the door
the fragile-ness and toughness evoked by the materials he used, captured via the moment when they collides.
Grows into
- 留白: this is 留白, the loaded blank, the line surrounded by space that does the work.
- Mono-ha: Lee’s own movement; the relation between thing, space, and viewer.
Branches
- Lee Ufan Museum: see the work in the room (phenomenological).
- RM × SFMOMA Between You and Me: confirm whether a Lee Ufan hangs in the show.
Related seeds
- Agnes Martin: same transcendent register; the grid as emptiness.
- Anish Kapoor: the void made physical (his contained, not the edgeless).