Lee Ufan

in the Rijksmuseum Gardens 

28 May to 27 October 2024

Lee Ufan in the Rijksmuseum Gardens. Photo: Rijksmuseum/Albertine Dijkema

 

This summer the gardens of the Rijksmuseum are to be the setting for the first solo exhibition in the Netherlands of Korean artist Lee Ufan. All nine exhibits are part of Lee’s Relatum series, which he has been working on continuously since the 1970s. The stone and metal sculptures will engage in a visual dialogue with the surrounding nature and the museum architecture.

 

Seven sculptures will be displayed in the gardens that surround the Rijksmuseum, and two will be installed at special locations inside the museum. These minimalist works are outcomes of Lee Ufan’s explorations into what he calls ‘the Art of Encounter'. They are invitations to contemplate, to find a moment of quiet and calm on the museum square.

 

Lee Ufan in the Rijksmuseum Gardens runs from 28 May to 27 October 2024. Entrance to the gardens is free. The exhibition is made possible in part by the Don Quixote Foundation/Rijksmuseum Fund, Pon and the Rijksmuseum Club.

 

 

Lee Ufan in the Rijksmuseum Gardens. Photo: Rijksmuseum/Albertine Dijkema

 

NEW CONTEXT

Lee has recreated several of his key works especially for this Rijksmuseum exhibition, which juxtaposes recent and older works in the new context of the gardens. The sculptures invite reflection and stillness in a rapidly changing world.

 

LEE UFAN

Korean artist Lee Ufan (b. 1936) works in Japan and France. As well as being a sculptor, he is a painter, poet and philosopher. Work by Lee Ufan is held in the collections of renowned museums all over the world, including Benesse Art Site Naoshima, Japan; MoMA and the Guggenheim Museum, New York; Centre Pompidou, Paris; the Tate, London; and the Kröller-Müller Museum, the Netherlands.

 

Lee is one of the founders of the Japanese avant-garde art movement Mono-ha (‘School of Things’), whose exponents use raw materials and components such as stone, iron and water to explore the relationship between objects and space. Lee was also a central figure in the South Korean art movement Dansaekhwa, which saw artists experimenting with abstraction and materiality primarily through monochrome painting. Distinctive features of these two movements and Lee Ufan’s oeuvre as a whole include minimalism, abstraction and a focus on the material, with a central role for dialogue between the viewer, the surroundings and the sometimes contrasting materials.

 

 

Lee Ufan in the Rijksmuseum Gardens. Photo: Rijksmuseum/Albertine Dijkema

 

ELEVENTH EDITION

Lee Ufan in the Rijksmuseum Gardens is the 11th exhibition in the public gardens of the Rijksmuseum. Previous editions were devoted to the work of Henry Moore (2013), Alexander Calder (2014), Joan Miró (2015), Giuseppe Penone (2016), Jean Dubuffet (2017), Eduardo Chillida (2018), Louise Bourgeois (2019), Ellsworth Kelly (2021), Barbara Hepworth (2022) and Richard Long (2023).

 

CURATORS

The curators of this exhibition are independent curator and former director of Centre Pompidou, Paris, Alfred Pacquement, and the Rijksmuseum’s curator of 20th-century art, Mels Evers. Alfred Pacquement has been involved in all the annual outdoor sculpture exhibitions since the reopening of the Rijksmuseum and the restored museum gardens in 2013.

 

BOOK

The Rijksmuseum is releasing a catalogue to accompany the exhibition with contributions from Lee Ufan, Alfred Pacquement and Mels Evers.

 

VITAL SUPPORT

The Rijksmuseum is grateful for all the forms of support it receives. Government funding, contributions from the business sector and funding organisations, as well as gifts, bequests and Friends are all of vital importance to the Rijksmuseum. 

 

 

*이우환 Open Dimention@허쉬혼뮤지엄, DC, 2019

 

 

 

한류를 이해하는 33가지 코드

#29 K-Art 단색화 부활하다 The Revival of the Korean Monochrome Painting  

2010년대 세계 미술계는 한국의 모노크롬 추상화 '단색화(Dansaekhwa)'를 재발견했다. 1970년대 독재 지하에서 시작한 박서보, 윤형근, 정상화, 정창섭, 하종현 화백 등 단색화가들은 작고했거나, 이제 황혼의 나이에 전성기를 맞고 있다. 메트로폴리탄뮤지엄, 구겐하임뮤지엄, 필라델피아뮤지엄 등 미국의 주요 미술관에서 한국 미술 특별전이 이어지고 있으며, 서울은 이제 세계 미술의 메카로 발돋움했다.  

https://www.nyculturebeat.com/index.php?mid=Focus&document_srl=4089137  

 

33 Keys ro Decoding the Korean Wave

#29 K-Art: The Revival of the Korean Monochrome Painting  

In the 2010s, the global art community experienced a renaissance in Korean monochrome abstraction known as 'Dansaekhwa.' Monochromatic painters, who emerged during Korea's era of dictatorship in the 1970s, now find themselves in their prime during the twilight of their careers. I explored the history of Dansaekhwa and the masters such as the late Yun Hyong-keun, late Chung Chang-sup, late Park Seo-Bo and Chung Sang-Hwa, Ha Chong Hyun. Special exhibitions of Korean art are continuing at major art museums in the United States such as the Metropolitan Museum, the Guggenheim Museum, and the Philadelphia Museum. Furthermore, Seoul has now emerged as a global art mecca.  

https://www.nyculturebeat.com/index.php?mid=Zoom&document_srl=4124933