Lee Bae
Born 1956 in Cheong-do, South Korea.
In 1979 he started the M.F.A. Department of Fine Arts, Hongik University Graduate School of Art, Seoul, Korea.
Since 1990 he works and lives between Paris, France and Seoul, Korea
The pictorial and abstract universe of LEE Bae, a Korean artist, concentrates on one evocative power: the material. He creates with perfect alchemy an essential equilibrium between charcoal’s profound black for his abstract forms, and the milky white color obtained thanks to resin and the successive layers of acrylic paint, extremely smooth, that make the real skin of his paintings. These gracious lines are like shadows in weightlessness; without references, they are mental images that the artist repeats on canvas in a methodic way in order to give them life and reveal this striking contrast between force and lightness. This abstract form is self-sufficient without an anecdotal or narrative aspect. It demonstrates its real nature, its essence, offering to the painting a zone of energy, purity and spirituality.
Awards and honours
2018 Chevalier de l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres, France
2013 Lee Bae receives the National Association Price of Art Critics, Korea
2009 Artist of the Year, Korean Cultural Center, Paris
2000 Artist of the Year, National Museum of Contemporary Art, Gwacheon, Korea
