Lee Ufan
Born in 1936 in Haman-gun (Korea), LEE UFAN lives and works in Paris (France) and Kamakura (Japan). He is the main theorist and artist of the Mono-ha (« School of Things ») theory in Japan. His paintings greatly contribute to « Korean Monotone Art ». Kamel Mennour and Lee Ufan have been working together since 2013.
His work has been seen around the world, at institutions including the State Hermitage Museum in St Petersburg, the Guggenheim Museum and the Dia:Beacon in New York, the Royal Museums of Fine Arts of Belgium in Brussels, the Yokohama Museum of Art, the Jeu de Paume in Paris, Centre Pompidou-Metz, the Kunstmuseum in Bonn, the Städel Museum in Frankfurt, and the National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art in Seoul; and at events including the Biennales of Venice (2007, 2011), Gwangju, Korea (2000, 2006), Shanghai (2000), Sydney (1976), São Paulo (1973) and Paris (1971). In 2014, Lee Ufan was the guest artist at Louis XIV’s very own park and palace, in Versailles.
He was awarded the Praemium Imperiale for painting in 2001 and the UNESCO Prize in 2000. In 2010, the Lee Ufan Museum opened at Benesse Art Site, in Naoshima, Japan.
In April 2022, the artist inaugurates the new foundation Lee Ufan Arles, housed in the Hôtel Vernon, a seventeenth century building located near the city’s Roman arena, remodelled by the artist’s friend, architect Tadao Ando.
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