Lee Ufan

Lee Ufan is a painter, sculptor, writer, and philosopher who is widely recognized for his unconventional artistic processes which emphasize the relationship between the viewer, the work, and the spaces that they inhabit. He rose to prominence in the late 1960s as a leading practical and theoretical proponent of the avant-garde Mono-ha (Object School) with Nobuo Sekine, Takamatsu Jirō, and Kishio Suga. Being part of the first Japanese contemporary art movement to gain international recognition, Mono-ha utilized raw physical materials that had been minimally manipulated, which was representative of rejecting Western ideas, and emphasized the relationships between materials and perceptions rather than expression or intervention. In 1991, Lee began his Correspondance paintings, consisting of works that featured one or two grey-blue brushstrokes made of oil and crushed stone pigment applied to a large white surface. His equally minimal sculpture series, Relatum, consisted of one or more light-colored round stones and dark, rectangular iron plates. The dialectical relationship between the brushstroke and canvas is echoed in the relationship between the stone and iron plate. In Lee's installations, the core of his practice is occupied space and empty space, which is seen through untouched and engaged elements, representing the doing, non-doing, and the connection between the painted and the unpainted. ...

Founded in 1926 by Christian Zervos at 14, rue du Dragon in the heart of Saint-Germain-des-Prés, Cahiers d’Art encompasses a publishing house, a gallery, and a revue. The Cahiers d’Art Revue was entirely unique when it was introduced, and it still is: a revue of contemporary art defined by its combination of striking typography and layout, abundant photography, and juxtaposition of ancient and modern art. Between the 1920s and the mid-1970s, Cahiers d’Art published ninety-seven issues of the Revue and more than fifty books on fine art and architecture, as well as the thirty-three volume catalogue raisonné of Pablo Picasso. After its acquisition and relaunch in 2012 by Staffan Ahrenberg, an editorial board comprised of Sam Keller, Hans Ulrich Obrist, Isabela Mora, and Staffan Ahrenberg was created. Cahiers d’Art has since published several new Revues and art books devoted to Ellsworth Kelly, Rosemarie Trockel, Hiroshi Sugimoto, Alexander Calder, Pablo Picasso, Thomas Schütte, Gabriel Orozco, Joan Miró, Lucas Arruda, Ai Weiwei, Arthur Jafa, Frank Gehry, Christo, and others. From the 1920s till today, Cahiers d’Art has maintained a gallery, exhibiting the artists it publishes. Cahiers d’Art continues to fulfill its mission to be the cultural bridge between the avant-garde of Picasso, Duchamp, and Le Corbusier, and the leading artists and architects of our time. ...