Lee Ufan (Korean, born 1936), 李禹煥
From Point No.770108 1977signed; signed and titled on the reverse; signed and titled in Japanese on the stretchermineral pigment and glue on canvas130 x 162.3 cm (51 3/16 x 63 7/8 in)
注脚
ProvenancePrivate Collection, KoreaAcquired directly from the above by the present owner李禹煥從點770108號礦物顏料 膠水畫布1977年作簽名:L.UFAN 77背面簽名: From point (in paris) No.770108, Lee Ufan.背面木架簽名: 点より 七七〇一〇八 李禹煥 パリにて來源韓國私人收藏現藏家直接得自上述收藏From Point No. 770108 comes from Lee Ufan's early seminal series, From Point, an important body of works that spanned from 1972 to 1984, which along with his From Line series, led Lee to gain international recognition as one of Korea's most important contemporary artists.Born in 1936, Lee received formal training during the height of the Korean War, studying at the College of Fine Arts in Seoul in 1956, and moved to Japan shortly after to complete his studies in Philosophy at Nihon University. Having lived in France, Japan, and Korea, Lee has exhibited extensively throughout his career, including a monumental retrospective at the Guggenheim Museum in New York in 2011. A philosopher as well as an artist, Lee published leading articles on aesthetics and contemporary art that are fundamentally driven by a desire for spiritual reconciliation amidst political unrest in the region. He is an influential figure of Dansaekwa ("monochrome" painting) in Korea, and a key-theorist of the Mono-Ha movement ("The School of Things") in Japan, which are two of the most important post-war art developments in Asia. In his works, Lee emphasizes the concept of "onceness," relativity between medium, materials and space, viewing his creative process as a meditative act of self-cultivation.Works from Lee's From Point series are characterized by the use of a cobalt blue ground pigment mixed with animal-skin glue. The artist once described his choice of colors and mineral pigments as "purified substances" that lead our vision to a more essential world. In the present work, Lee consciously loads his brush with the pigment mixture once and dabs vertically, then moves along horizontally from left to right, continually without layering until the color has exhausted into an infinite end on the canvas. Lee repeats the action four times, each touch revealing a unique pattern, highlighting the power of a single brushstroke in the passage of time. The canvas is a vital part of the painting, in which it brings the pigment to life, then allows the color to gradually disappear, suggesting a transition from existence to non-existence that translates into infinite harmonious cycle.The seriality and repetition of mark-making draws connections to the monochromatic works of American painter Robert Ryman. In a similar awareness to materiality, Ryman used various combinations of paint and binding support to experiment with each work's texture, temperature, and thickness. Through covering and uncovering the support with layers of paint, Ryman distills his gestures into a thoughtful and orderly manner. In Lee's oeuvre, his repetition is rooted in what is essentially a philosophical and spiritual practice, which traces back to his early education in East Asian ink brushwork, heavily versed in Daoist and Buddhist principles about the existence of oneself against the cosmos. Interested in the interrelationship between object and space, Lee once stated "when the white space on a canvas is made to vibrate by the slight touch of a brush using a refined technique, people can perceive it as the real nature of painting. Paintings without a frame take on a relationship with the wall, and painterly reverberations spread out from them into the surrounding space." The present work becomes a continuous dialogue from one point to another, in accordance and resonance with the surrounding natural surface of the canvas.Encapsulating Lee's fundamental intention to express infinity as a concept of repetition with unlimited variations in only a single line of conclusive brushstrokes, From Point No. 770108 radiates a sense of tranquility, serving as the epitome of Lee's rhythmic accordance, and is a rare and iconographic composition to appear on the market.《從點770108號》屬於李禹煥早期深具開創性的系列「從點」,此一重要創作系列從1972年開始進行至1984年,與藝術家的「從線」系列同時並進,為李禹煥帶來極高的國際聲望,奠定其作為韓國最重要藝術家之一的地位。生於1936年,李禹煥在韓戰正熾之際接受正規學業,之後在1956年,他中斷在首爾大學美術學院的學業前往日本,並於1961年自東京的日本大學哲學系畢業。曾居住於法國、日本與韓國,李禹煥在全世界的展歷輝煌,其中包含2011年於紐約古根漢美術館舉辦的大型回顧展。即便區域政治的不安定,身兼哲學家與藝術家雙重身份的李禹煥依然基於追求精神和諧的渴望,針對美學與當代藝術發表引領思潮的重要文章。他是影響韓國「單色畫」發展的重要人物,亦是日本「物派」的主要理論家,而「單色畫」與「物派」堪稱是亞洲戰後最重要的兩個藝術運動。對於創作,李禹煥強調即刻性的概念,以及媒介、材料和空間之間的相互關聯,並將其創作過程視為一種自我修練的冥思。「從點」系列的作品特別以研磨的鈷藍顏料與動物皮膠混合繪成。李禹煥曾形容作品選用的色調和礦物顏料為一種能引領我們看見更深層精神世界的「純物質」。此次呈現的作品裡,李禹煥有意識地一次將他的畫筆沾滿顏料,由上至下、左至右持續而不重疊地點塗,直至色彩在畫布上耗盡為一個無止盡的終點。李禹煥重複這個動作四次,每次的觸及都產生一個獨一無二的圖樣,突顯了時間之流裡,單一筆觸的力量。畫布是畫作重要的一部分,它賦予顏料生命,然後讓色彩慢慢消失,締造出一個從存在到不存在的過渡,而且和諧的無止境循環。如此以連續性與重復性動作留下記號的創作手法,與美國畫家羅伯.萊曼(Robert Ryman)的單色繪畫創作形成某種聯結。對於物質性有著相似的領悟,萊曼藉由不同顏料與基材的組合,為每件作品進行肌理、溫度與厚度的實驗。透過在基材上塗覆與移除顏料層,萊曼將他的姿態提煉成一種深思且有序的風格。在李禹煥的創作裡,重覆基本上是根植於哲學及精神性的實踐,這可以追溯至藝術家早期所接受的東亞水墨訓練,以及他所精通的關於個人相對於宇宙之存在的道家與佛學思想。李禹煥關注物體與空間彼此之間的關聯,他曾說道:「當畫布上的白色空間因為筆刷極為精巧的輕觸而震動,人們可以感知到那樣的震動即是繪畫的真實本質。沒有畫框的繪畫與牆面構成一種關係,繪畫性的迴響從而擴散至周圍的空間。」本次呈現之作品,遂成為由一個點開始而接續到另一個點的持續對話,與畫布周邊的自然表面共振和共鳴。李禹煥透過不斷重覆單一筆觸的描繪揭示了無限的千變萬化,而蘊藏此一初心的《從點770108號》散發著一股靜定的力量,是李禹煥藝術實踐的經典之作,此作構圖亦在市場上相當罕見。