Lee Kun-Yong
Bodyscape 76-1
2021
This striking abstract painting by Korean artist Lee Kun-Yong features rhythmic, gestural white brushstrokes applied in cascading vertical sweeps across a deep navy ground. The work belongs to the artist's celebrated Bodyscape series, in which the physical movement and reach of the body directly determine the mark and composition on the canvas. A museum accessioned piece gifted to an institution in 2022, it represents a rare contemporary iteration of one of the most significant conceptual painting series in Korean art history. Collectors will find this work highly desirable as an example of the intersection of performance, action, and abstraction.
- Medium
- Acrylic on canvas
Notes
Museum accession number: M.2022.176. Acquired by institution in 2022 as a gift from Susan Baik and Prem Manjooran. Work is part of the Bodyscape series.
Spotted works by Lee Kun-Yong
Artists in conversation
Franz Kline
American · b. 1910
Kline built his reputation on bold gestural brushstrokes in black and white against contrasting grounds, creating rhythmic abstract compositions that share the same monochromatic drama and sweeping mark-making energy seen in this Bodyscape work.
Kazuo Shiraga
Japanese · b. 1924
Shiraga was a Gutai artist whose paintings were generated directly through physical body movement, embedding performative action into gestural abstract mark-making on canvas in a conceptual practice that mirrors Lee Kun-Yong's body-determined composition method precisely.
Cy Twombly
American · b. 1928
Twombly applied looping, cascading gestural marks across dark grounds in rhythmic repetitive sequences, producing large format abstract works where the physical act of inscription becomes the subject, closely paralleling the conceptual and visual logic of this Bodyscape painting.
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