Lee Ufan Arles

This book, accompanied by a text by Jean-Marie Gallais and an interview between Jessica Morgan and the artist, highlights works by Lee Ufan that act as revealers. They draw attention to materials, to emptiness, or to the distance between two elements, to reflections and shadows : everything we may not have noticed at first glance which nonetheless contributes to the artwork. The collection held at the Lee Ufan Arles Center, combining sculptures as well as paintings and drawings, bears witness to a practice at the crossroads of three cultures (Korea, where he was born; Japan, where he studied and lives; and France, where he also lives part of the year), aiming to be universal. His sculptures result from encounters between natural materials (stones, linen, etc.), industrial materials (steel plates, glass, etc.), and a given space; they invite us to meditate on the relationship between humans and nature. His paintings, developed in series sometimes over several decades, also serve as a ground for reflections on time, gesture, and the relationship between fullness and emptiness. Personal expression has faded in favor of a continually renewed quest for the infinite.