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Lot Essay
Executed in 1979, the present work stems from Lee Ufan’s celebrated series From Point. Loading his brush with paint, the artist would mark the canvas with rhythmic dabs, working from left to right until no colour remained on the bristles. The points proceed in quiet, methodical order, beginning a new row when the edge of the canvas is reached mid-sequence. Lee hand-mixed the paint himself, dissolving powdered ground mineral pigment in animal glue skin. The present work uses cobalt blue, intended to invoke the colour of the sky. Along with the related series From Line, these works were some of the most important creations to emerge from Asia during the post-war period, and were responsible for propelling Lee to international acclaim. He is currently the subject of a major solo exhibition organised by the Dia Art Foundation to celebrate his ninetieth birthday this June: the show opened at the San Marco Art Centre as a collateral event of the 2026 Venice Biennale.
Lee was born in South Korea in 1936, initially studying painting in Seoul before moving to Japan to study philosophy. He came to prominence in the late 1960s as a founder of the avant-garde group Mono-ha (‘School of Things’), which became one of the first Japanese contemporary art movements to achieve global recognition. Closely related to Arte Povera, which flourished in Italy during this period, the group espoused a return to simplicity and raw materials, exploring ideas relating to physical experience. Lee was also a prominent figure in the Korean movement known as Dansaekhwa—translating literally as ‘monochrome painting’—who used repetitive, minimal gestures to record the passage of time and the trace of the body. Created largely between 1973 and 1984, the From Line and From Point works represent some of the most important expressions of this aesthetic, and marked Lee’s return to painting after his site-specific sculptural works of the 1960s. They brought about a period of great professional triumph: 1977 saw his inclusion in documenta 6 in Kassel, Germany, followed the next year by his first major solo museum exhibitions at the Louisiana Museum of Modern Art, Humlebæk and the Kunsthalle Düsseldorf.
Much of Lee’s practice can be traced to his early life. ‘I had the idea that all things come from the point and return to the point,’ he explains. ‘From childhood, I was acquainted with the idea of appearing and disappearing; a dominant idea in Eastern philosophy’ (L. Ufan, quoted in Lee Ufan, Arles 2013, p. 137). In classical calligraphy classes in South Korea, children were taught to draw dots or lines until the ink vanished. At his Confucian school he was also exposed to a particular method of repetitive learning, in which the whole class would chant the same phrases in chorus. Echoes of these processes are found in From Point, which seems to embody the very rhythms of breathing itself. Lee came to view painting as an act of intense discipline and ritual, conceiving each brushstroke as means of progressively removing his own physical presence from the work. While the serial, systematic nature of his works seemed to share much in common with Minimalist thought and practice, he was ultimately guided by a deeper sense of philosophical purpose. From Point is a measure of existence, and an appeal to the forces of infinity.
Lee was born in South Korea in 1936, initially studying painting in Seoul before moving to Japan to study philosophy. He came to prominence in the late 1960s as a founder of the avant-garde group Mono-ha (‘School of Things’), which became one of the first Japanese contemporary art movements to achieve global recognition. Closely related to Arte Povera, which flourished in Italy during this period, the group espoused a return to simplicity and raw materials, exploring ideas relating to physical experience. Lee was also a prominent figure in the Korean movement known as Dansaekhwa—translating literally as ‘monochrome painting’—who used repetitive, minimal gestures to record the passage of time and the trace of the body. Created largely between 1973 and 1984, the From Line and From Point works represent some of the most important expressions of this aesthetic, and marked Lee’s return to painting after his site-specific sculptural works of the 1960s. They brought about a period of great professional triumph: 1977 saw his inclusion in documenta 6 in Kassel, Germany, followed the next year by his first major solo museum exhibitions at the Louisiana Museum of Modern Art, Humlebæk and the Kunsthalle Düsseldorf.
Much of Lee’s practice can be traced to his early life. ‘I had the idea that all things come from the point and return to the point,’ he explains. ‘From childhood, I was acquainted with the idea of appearing and disappearing; a dominant idea in Eastern philosophy’ (L. Ufan, quoted in Lee Ufan, Arles 2013, p. 137). In classical calligraphy classes in South Korea, children were taught to draw dots or lines until the ink vanished. At his Confucian school he was also exposed to a particular method of repetitive learning, in which the whole class would chant the same phrases in chorus. Echoes of these processes are found in From Point, which seems to embody the very rhythms of breathing itself. Lee came to view painting as an act of intense discipline and ritual, conceiving each brushstroke as means of progressively removing his own physical presence from the work. While the serial, systematic nature of his works seemed to share much in common with Minimalist thought and practice, he was ultimately guided by a deeper sense of philosophical purpose. From Point is a measure of existence, and an appeal to the forces of infinity.