Lee Ufan's Quietly Groundbreaking Five-Decade Career

By Robert Sullivan

The artist Lee Ufan has pushed the boundaries of painting and sculpture. Now a flurry of major solo exhibitions honor the man of steel.

"As a sculptor, [Lee] constructs what can be called environments using a combination of natural materials—boulders or stones or wood that he finds out in the world—and completely man-made pieces, like forged steel. As a painter, he is known for works of almost maximal minimalism: for instance, a series of large canvases, each painted over the course of several weeks, each consisting of one or two intentionally confined brush strokes. He paints with a long broom-like brush, holding his breath for the duration of the brush’s movement. Think of him as the pen-like instrument that draws out an earthquake’s tremors on a seismograph; each of his concise brush strokes reports on the vibrations of the world."

Read the full story in (opens in a new window) WSJ Magazine.