“Relatum―Dialogue” (2009) is one of the aesthetic, philosophical sculptures that Lee has continued to work on for over 40 years, with stone and iron plates as main material. By corresponding unprocessed natural stone with iron plates, representative of the industrial society, in a specific space, the “Relatum” is embodied. If relationships mean networks as a self-contained being, “relatum” indicates an individual element of relationship that is no longer physically present. By selecting the word as the title, he shows interest in a process of open relationships, and newly arranges the status of objects within a context that is constantly shifting. Stone is natural itself, and iron is a byproduct of industrialization. But iron is extracted from stone, which makes iron artificial and natural at the same time. Thus, in a wider context, stone and iron plates are related. Lee tries to find the self and the world in such a relationship of different kinds of elements. Also, the feature of embracing ambiguity―between the made and the unmade, nature and civilization, inside and outside of thought― penetrates his works.

Lee Ufan (b. 1936) stopped studying at the College of Art at Seoul National University in 1956, moved to Japan, and graduated from the Department of Philosophy, College of Humanities and Sciences at Nihon University in 1961. He is a writer, philosopher, and art critic, who laid a theoretical foundation of the Mono-ha (School of Things) movement, a pioneering art movement that emerged in Tokyo, Japan in the 1960s. With his article on “From Object to Being,” he won an art critic award from Japanese Art Publishers. He was also the recipient of the UNESCO Prize, Praemium Imperiale, and the Order of Legion d’Honneur. He participated in international exhibitions including the Biennale de Paris and Documenta in Kassel. He also held numerous solo exhibitions at renowned venues such as Versailles Project, the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum New York, the Louisiana Museum of Modern Art, the Galerie nationale du Jeu de Paume in Paris and the Museum of Modern Art, Kamakura & Hayama. Lee Ufan established his artistic world based on his exploration of the major ideologies of the East and West. Around 1968, he led Mono-ha, a movement in which artists intervened as little as possible in Mono, which means things and objects, such as a tree, a stone, and earth, and instead focused on the relationship among them. Lee criticized the Western modern thought that dichotomously divided the world and humans, insisting that the existence of the self can be identified through the relationship with others, and the world could be understood through this relationship. In his sculpture based on this idea, stones and iron plates are essential elements. In the relationship between things with different aspects, Lee tried to find himself and the world. From 1973, he began painting and his style changed over time: in the beginning, the series “From Point” and “From Line” render repeated points and lines; brushstrokes freely fill the canvas in the series “From the Winds” painted in the 1980s; and empty space is the focus in the series “Correspondence” from the 1990s. Such painting works can be interpreted as an attempt to find a connection between humans and the world through the process of production rather than plasticity.