Oil on canvas

72 x 100 cm.28 3/8 x 39 3/8 in.

PROVENANCE Acquired directly from the artist；

Important Japanese private collection.

NOTE This work is authenticated by the artist.

Lee Ufan b. 1936

Born in Korea，Lee Ufan has been impacted by the oriental traditional ideas since young. He went to Japan to study philosophy in 1956 and later settled in Japan. He is recognized as the pioneer in Japanese Mono-ha movement and Korean Dansaekhwa between 1960 and 1980. After World War II，the re-consideration of the relation between human existence and object contributed to the rise of western abstract expressionism and minimalism. Lee Ufan sensed the issues of the time and believed in “understanding the nature of this world to avoid confrontation between people.” He became the most powerful elaborator among the members of Japanese avant-garde art “Mono-ha” based on his remarkable philosophical analysis capacity.

As the mater for Mona-ha art，Lee Ufan’s early work mostly present installation works with strong concepts. He developed a minimal art approach full of oriental style，which not only profoundly reflected the anti-form appealed by Mona-ha but remotely corresponded with the Daoism doctrines on oriental philosophy. After the “Mona-ha，” Lee’s art works started to focus on paper painting. In 1974，he created the most representative painting series such as “From Point” and “From Line，” which he expected to inspire new vitality to abstract art and to develop a creation path for avant-garde artists of Korea . In particular，the promotion of “Dansaekhwa” made a great contribution to the creation process of contemporary artists of Korea between 1960 and 1970.In June 2011，The Guggenheim Museums and Foundation held the first retrospect exhibition for Lee Ufan，“Marking Infinity.” Lee became the third Asian artists，following Bai Nan-Zhuan and Cai Guo-Qiang，to hold solo exhibition at the museum，which highlights his artistic achievement without a doubt.

The painting styles of Lee Ufan are simplistic yet full of profound implications. The sequence of his art creation is as below：“Accumulation” and “From Cut” starting in 1960 unveiled the beginning to his representative work “From” series. “From Point” and “From Line” created between 1972 and 1984 were applied with the regular alignment of lines and points as well as color arrangement to presents the order and changes in nature. He began creating “From Wind，” “Company From Wind，” “Correspondence，” “Narration” and other series between 1980-1990，based on the spacious concept of “empty” and adopting different jumping，rotation，dancing brushes as well as minimal color blocks to analyze the completely-different existence between motion，static，falsification and emptiness.

During Lee Ufan’s solo exhibition held by Guggenheim Museums and Foundation in 2011，his representative style from the 60s “From Cuts” is exhibited. Viewers were able to review the complete artistic development of Lee Ufan. The “From Cuts：Untitled” presented in this auction is one of the rare paintings painted by the artist in 1965. The forms and brush of this painting already reveal the core thinking and elements of Lee Ufan in his art career：the tribute to nature and infinite repetition built up foundation for the “From Point” and “From Line” that are widely known later. Thick impasto is applied to this painting by crating layers of semi-circle brush，presenting a centrifugal leaping. The pure and subtle colors used for the painting remind people of the “Titled” painted by minimalist artists Robert Ryman of the same period. Both were monochrome abstract works that bring visual tempo to the painting through redundant brush and rich context. In terms of form，the painting contrasts to the composition of Mark Rothko’s religion-based Color-Field Painting. Nonetheless Lee Ufan has considerably surpassed the framework of western minimalism based on his own oriental culture，granting different contexts to the painting.

“From Cuts：Untitled” presents Lee Ufan’s worship for nature and Zen in early art style via his painting language. The painting shows some vital power implicitly moving in red soil while the bottom of canvas preserve the original colors of linen to compose a primitive and sincere atmosphere with the strong orange-red paints.

Lee Ufan once described his works as “occasional art” and he believed that “it would be most ideal for a piece of art work to transform into a ‘Empty world.’” The other paper work by Lee Ufan，“Untitled，” has “served as an intermediary effect by vacuuming the surrounding and bringing certain transcendence for the space it exists，” as exactly described by Lee UFan. “Untitled” was created in 1994，whose composition seems to be more minimal and only outlines few number of T-shaped structure on the bottom of the painting with a charcoal stick，forming mutually symmetrical arches that highlight the rich oriental quality of the context. The handling of virtual and real relation coincides with the “blank” of Chinese painting. Lee Ufan is also frank about his appreciation for the paintings by Bada Shanren. Moreover，this work comes with the signature endorsed by London Lisson Gallery for authentic origin. The gallery has been the agent for Lee Ufan’s works since 1990 and launched a variety of his solo exhibitions.

Price estimate:
HKD：2,000,000 - 2,500,000
USD：258,000 - 322,600

Auction Result:
--