Lee Ufan

Lee Ufan was born in Haman, South Gyeongsang Province in 1936 and spent his childhood in Busan. He entered the College of Fine Arts at Seoul National University during the Korean War, but soon after, he went to Japan, where he graduated from the Department of Philosophy at Nihon University. Currently, he is active in the international arena, dividing his time between Korea, Japan, and France.

Having spearheaded the avant-garde art movement of “Mono-ha” (“School of Things” in Japanese) in the late 1960s, Lee Ufan laid a theoretical foundation for the movement intended to present artistic arrangements of raw, untreated natural and industrial materials. The movement remained formally and conceptually contemporary in Japan up until the 1970s, and significantly influenced the Korean art scene.

He was awarded numerous domestic and international art prizes, including the UNESCO Prize and the Praemium Imperiale international art prize in Japan. He was also awarded the Geumgwan (Gold Crown) Order of Cultural Merit by the Korean government in 2013 for his contributions to the development of culture and art in Korea. He has had numerous solo and group exhibitions in the world’s major art museums, including the Royal Museums of Fine Arts of Belgium, the Centre Pompidou in Paris, and Alte Nationalgalerie (Old National Gallery) in Berlin. Invitational exhibitions of his work have also been held at the Guggenheim Museum in New York in 2011 and the Palace of Versailles in France in 2014.

1930’s1970’s

1936: Born in Haman, South Gyeongsang Province (Korea)

1956: Entered College of Fine Arts at Seoul National University, moved to Japan 3 months later

1961: Graduated from Dept. of Philosophy at Nihon University, Tokyo

1967: Solo exhibition, Sato Gallery, Tokyo

1968: “Contemporary Art of Korea” exhibit at Tokyo National Museum of Modern Art Came to know Japanese sculptor Nobuo Sekine in summer of 1968, then started the Mono-ha movement through artistic production and criticism.

1969: Awarded prizes at 10th Sao Paulo Biennale, Tokyo International Youth Artists Art Exhibition, and 9th Contemporary Japanese Art Exhibition. His critical essay “From Object to Being” received an honorable mention.

1971: 7th Paris Youth Biennale. First trip to Europe and the U.S. for 3 months. Published a book of criticism titled The Search for Encounter (Tokyo, Tabata)

1973: Became an instructor at Tama Art University, held professorship through 2007

1977: Kassel Documenta 6 and 3rd Contemporary Japanese Art Exhibition Received art prize from Tokyo National Museum of Modern Art Part of group exhibition titled “Z.B. Skulptur” at the Städel in Frankfurt (with Joseph Beuys, Richard Serra, and Ulrich Rückriem, among others)

1980’s1990’s

1982: “Meister der Zeichnung,” Kunsthalle Nürnberg “Kunst wird Material,” Neue Nationalgalerie Berlin

1986: “Japon des avant gardes, 1910-1970,” Centre Pompidou, Paris

1986: Solo exhibition, Padiglione d' Arte Contemporanea, Milan “Monoha: La scuola delle cose,” Museo Laboratorio di Arte Contemporanea, Rome

1989: “Croisement des Signes,” Institut du Monde Arabe, Paris

1994: Solo exhibition, National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Korea “Japanese Art After 1945: Scream Against the Sky,” Guggenheim Museum SoHo, New York

1995: “Matter and Perception 1970: Mono-ha and the Search for Fundamentals,” Musée d’Arte Moderne de Saint-Étienne Métropole, France

1997: Solo exhibition, Galerie Nationale du Jeu de Paume, Paris Visiting professor at Ecole Nationale Supérieure des Beaux-Arts, Paris

1998: Solo exhibition, the Städel, Frankfurt

1999: “Kunstwelten im Dialog,” Museum Ludwig, Cologne, Germany

2000’s2010’s

2000: Awarded prizes at 3rd Shanghai Biennale (from UNESCO) and at Gwangju Biennale Published “Art of the Empty Space”

2001: “Century City: Art and Culture in the Modern Metropolis,” Tate Modern, London “Mono-ha,” Kettle’s Yard, Cambridge
Solo exhibition, Kunstmuseum, Bonn, Germany Awarded 11th Ho-Am Prize in the Arts and 13th Praemium Imperiale for Painting, Tokyo

2003: “Happiness,” Mori Art Museum, Tokyo, Japan.
Solo exhibition, Ho-Am Gallery, Samsung Museum of Contemporary Art

2005: “Reconsidering Mono-ha,” National Museum of Contemporary Art, Osaka Solo exhibitions, Musée d’Arte Moderne de Saint-Étienne Métropole, France, and Yokohama Museum of Art

2006: 6th Gwangju Biennale, “Dansaekhwa (monochrome painting) and Mono-ha”

2007: Solo exhibition, Palazzo Palumbo Fossati, 52nd Venice Biennale Awarded French Medal of the Legion of Honor

2008: Solo exhibitions at Royal Museums of Fine Arts of Belgium and Dahlem Museums, Berlin

2010: Lee Ufan Museum opened in Kagawa, Naoshima, in collaboration with Fukutake Art Museum Foundation, Japan

2011: Solo exhibition, Guggenheim Museum, New York 54th Venice Biennale, “Personal Structures,” Palazzo Bembo and “The World Belongs to You,” Palazzo Grassi

2012: “Requiem for the Sun: The Art of Mono-ha,” Blum & Poe, Los Angeles “Tokyo 1955–1970: A New Avant-Garde,” Museum of Modern Art, New York

2013: “Prima Materia,” Punta della Dogana, Venice

2014: Solo exhibition, Palace of Versailles “Dansaekhwa,” Blum & Poe, Los Angeles and Kukje Gallery, Seoul Awarded Geumgwan (Gold Crown) Order of Cultural Merit by Korean government

2015: Solo exhibition, Pace Gallery, New York, London, Hong Kong

2016: Solo exhibition, The State Hermitage Museum, St. Petersburg, Russia