Lee Dong Youb
b. 1946, South KoreaLee Dong Youb is considered one of the founders of the Dansaekhwa movement and one of Lee U-fan’s most prominent students. In 1975, he was the youngest participant of the seminal group show titled Five Korean Artists, Five Kinds of White at Tokyo Gallery, which has often been cited as the turning point when ‘Dansaekhwa’ was formally canonised in art history.
Across Lee’s oeuvre of over 50 years, his works are characterised by gestural strokes of white on white. The colour ‘Hinsek 白’ (white) has been a constant fixture for him, symbolising a void for consciousness and a vessel for thought. He has referred to it as ‘a zone of nothingness’ or ‘void of consciousness’ beyond visibility and material world. Some works verge on being pure fields of white, with light washes of gray that barely register through the numerous layers of paint. His canvases invite the viewer to fill the work with their own original thoughts and interpretations.
Lee is noted for having participated in many significant exhibitions, including the 1st Independent Exhibition and His artwork is a part of public collections at Tokyo National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo, The National Museum of Contemporary Art, Gwacheon, Korea. Lee Dong Youb created white Dansaekhwa paintings for over fifty years until his death in 2013.
Text courtesy The Columns Gallery.
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