The Fourth Asia Pacific Triennial of Contemporary Art

LEE U-FAN - CORRESPONDENCES Lee U-fan is one of a cluster of artists from East Asia whose work over the past 30-40 years has received enduring international acclaim. His is a career with many contradictions. On the one hand we can recognise his particular radicalism through his contribution to the Mono-Ha movement, and the 'Relatum' sculptures that began in the late 1960s. On the other hand, we see a respect for the traditional values that underpin his gestural and calligraphic paintings. Overall, there is the temptation to construe his work as a reconfigured Modernism; a natural consequence of his engagement with Europe and America; a kind of mirror reflecting the avant-garde's permutations into a new and exotic sensitivity. Such interpretations perpetuate the source/influence argument central to Modernism's proclaimed value. However, Lee's art is not a consequence of Modernism picked up on the rebound . His work emerges from an individually developed philosophical stance related to specific intellectual and cultural circumstances . Attempting to form a fixed view of an art where elusiveness and flux are at the heart might be seen as a predicament. From a 'Western' perspective this is compounded by the fact that Lee's art symbolises nothing, but nevertheless seeks to engage us w ith universal precepts. Representation and symbolism, those long-held foundations of Western art, are the antithes is of Lee's work. Lee's involvement in the Mono-Ha ('the school of things') movement of the late 1960s and 1970s serves not only as a critical beginning to understanding his art, but also as a marker to everything that followed. Mono-Ha was as much reactive to contemporary circumstances in Japan as it was prescriptive in its decisions about how art should be made and seen. The movement confronted Japanese traditions and challenged Western Modernism, resisting the proposition that the artist is principal or equal to or even potentially transcends the materials, their application and expressive potential. Lee's often-cited observation underpins his entire career: 'the highest level of expression is not to create something from nothing, but rather to nudge something which already exists so that the world shows up more vividly'. For Lee, notions of infinity, nothingness and incompleteness are indivisible. The problem for us is that we might view this as a Zen-l ike configuration, where anti-theory and the discarding of all intellectual clutter are essential to a full understanding of Lee's intention . Lee U-fan came to art through an initial engagement with ph ilosophy. As a painter, sculptor, w riter and philosopher he has found none of these interests mutually exclusive, and all have preoccupied him throughout his adult life. The ideas and concepts that inform Lee's art are reasoned, coherently articulated and evolve from a rational base, not an 'empty mindedness' or independent intuition . It is possible to view Lee's art as a succession of acts, gestures and sequences - frequently repeated - where the subtleties within the use of each variation of a materia l or gesture are as important as any newly introduced material or context. 62 APT2002 • Top: Kikochi (A port of call) no. 4 1991 Lithograph on Sanders paper Purchased 1996 w ith a special allocation from the Queensland Government Celebrating the Queensland Art Gallery's Centenary 1895-1995 Collection : Queensland Art Gallery Centre:The artist's studio in Paris, 1997 Photograph: Kim Sungsoon Courtesy: Tokyo Gallery, Tokyo Below The artist's studio in Kamakura, Japan, 2001 Photograph: Suhanya Raffel Lee U-fan South Korea/Japan b.1936 With winds 1990 Oil on canvas 2275 x 182cm The Kenneth and Yasuko Myer Collection of Contemporary Asian Art Purchased 1998, Michael Myer and Ann Gamble Myer through and w ith the assistance of the Queensland Art Gallery Foundation Collection: Queensland Art Gallery