Untitled, 2008

Ungno LEE  

In 1922, Lee Ungno began studying painting under Kim Gyujin (nicknamed Haegang), a literati painter prominent in Korea from the late nineteenth to the early twentieth century. In 1924, Lee made his debut with the painting Blue Bamboo, which was selected for the third Joseon Art Exhibition.

In 1935, Lee sailed to Japan, where he joined the Denko Painting Workshop, run by Matsubayashi Keigetsu, one of the foremost Nanga School artists of the twentieth century. He also studied nihonga and Western painting techniques at the Kawabata Painting School and Hongo Painting Studio, respectively. Then, in 1945, he returned to Seoul and co-founded the art collective Danku in partnership with other young artists, including Jang Woosung, Lee Yutae, and Kim Young-ki. Together, they aimed to revive Korean art, breaking away from Japanese influence. The paintings Lee produced during this period, such as Drunken Night and Street Girls, suggested a modern form of Korean painting.

In addition to his work as an artist, Lee was a devoted teacher. He opened Goam Studio in Seoul to teach painting, and he lectured regularly at Hong-ik University and the Seorabol University of Art. In 1956, he wrote the book Oriental Painting Techniques & Its Appreciation, which contained the principal techniques of Eastern painting. He emphasized drawing or painting based on the painter’s own vision of an object or landscape, as opposed to copying the conventional idealized formats of traditional painting. In the 1950s, he began to produce semi-abstract or abstract paintings.