LEEUFAN

In 1956, the year he turned 20, he went to Japan about two months after entering the painting department at Seoul National University. In 1961, he graduated from the philosophy department at Nihon University. In 1967, the year he turned 31, he began his career as an artist with a first solo show at Sato Gallery in Tokyo.

The breakthrough yearThe year he turned 33, he won an honorable mention in the criticism contest of the Japanese art magazine Bijutsu Techo and began writing criticism. In Japan he became known first for his criticism rather than his works, and the essays he published around then became the theoretical foundation of Mono-ha.

In 1971, he showed work at the Paris Biennale but received no prize because he did not hold Japanese nationality. In 1973, he became a lecturer at Tama Art University in Tokyo. In 1974, his work was shown at the Kunsthalle Düsseldorf in Germany, which he cites as the decisive occasion for his leap onto the world stage.

In 1977, he took part in documenta in Kassel, Germany. In 1978, he held solo shows at the municipal art museum in Düsseldorf and the Louisiana Museum of Modern Art. In 1988, he held a solo show at the Civic Museum of Contemporary Art in Milan. In 1995, he held a solo show at the National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art in Korea.

In 1997, he held a solo show at the Jeu de Paume in Paris and served as a visiting professor at the École nationale supérieure des Beaux-Arts. In 1998, he held a solo show at the Städel Museum in Germany. In 2000, he received the UNESCO Prize. In 2001, he held a solo show at the Kunstmuseum Bonn. In 2003, he held a solo show at Samsung Museum of Art Leeum in Seoul. In 2005, he held a solo show at the Yokohama Museum of Art. In 2007, he received the French Legion of Honour. In 2008, he held a solo show at the Royal Museums of Fine Arts of Belgium.

In 2010, the Lee Ufan Museum, made with Tadao Ando, opened on the island of Naoshima in Japan. In 2011, the year he turned 75, he held a large retrospective at the Guggenheim Museum in New York. He was the second Korean artist to have a solo show there, after Nam June Paik. In 2012, he took part in the “Dansaekhwa” exhibition at the National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art.

In 2013, he received the Geumgwan Order of Cultural Merit and installed a new work, Discussion, in the outdoor garden of Busan Museum of Art. In 2014, he held a solo show in the gardens of the Palace of Versailles. In 2015, Space Lee Ufan opened in Busan, where he spent his teens. He was involved in its design himself.

In 2016, he held a solo show at the Hermitage Museum in Russia. That year he also appeared before police and claimed that all 13 works under forgery dispute were genuine. In 2019, he showed work at Dia Beacon in the U.S. and at the Centre Pompidou-Metz in France. In 2021, East Winds sold for 3.1 billion won, the first work by a living Korean artist to pass 3 billion won. In 2022, Lee Ufan Arles opened in France, and he held a retrospective at the National Art Center, Tokyo.

In 2023, he held his first solo show in 14 years at Kukje Gallery in Seoul and a retrospective at Hamburger Bahnhof in Berlin. In 2024, he held an outdoor installation show at the Rijksmuseum in the Netherlands and a two-person show with Mark Rothko at Pace Gallery Seoul. In 2025, new sculptures and a permanent space, Silentium, were added at Ho-Am Art Museum, and he received the Wolfgang Hahn Prize in Germany. In 2026, he held a retrospective for his 90th birthday as an official parallel exhibition of the Venice Biennale, and an exhibition of paintings at Dia Beacon.

Lee Ufan (born Jun 1936) debuted in 1967, the year he turned 31, with a first solo show at Sato Gallery in Tokyo, and became known in 1969, the year he turned 33, when he began writing criticism after winning an honorable mention in the Japanese magazine Bijutsu Techo’s criticism contest. In 2011, the year he turned 75, he held a retrospective at the Guggenheim Museum in New York.

Ages are by calendar year (the year minus the birth year), birthdays aside.