Past Exhibitions
In 1964, Lee Ungno began teaching
courses in Paris on calligraphy and ink-and-wash painting with the support of Vadime
Elisseeff, then-director of Musée Cernuschi. Lee’s accomplishments as an
educator during his Paris years are, however, relatively unknown in relation to
their value. As such, this exhibition focuses on reenacting the historical
backdrop of Lee’s teaching—France in the 1960s and 1970s—through photographs
and newspaper articles on his courses (in 2015, the Lee Ungno Museum
spotlighted Lee’s activities as an instructor of Eastern painting in France
through “École de Lee Ungno: Académie de Peinture Orientale de Paris”).
“India Ink with Blue Eyes,” which began
from one question (How did Lee’s role in the Académie de Peinture Orientale de
Paris affect the French art community?), explores the role and significance of
the Académie de Peinture Orientale de Paris through the creations of 11 French
students who studied under Lee and his wife, Park Inkyung. After Lee’s death,
teaching continued through his students as well as Park and the couple’s son, Lee
Young-sé. Everyone featured in this exhibition (Jacki & Martine Perrin, Christine
Dadadie-Fabreguettes, Claire Kito, Elisabeth Burgun, Florence Schrobiltgen,
Françoise George Ploteau, Ines Egelnick, Jean Villeroux, Noëlle Samé, Sybille
Friedel, and Virginie Cadart Travadel) studied calligraphy and
ink-and-wash painting at Académie de Peinture Orientale de Paris and are
currently artists/educators in their own right.
Lee taught locals how to use
inkstone and brush at a time of burgeoning intersections between Eastern and
Western art in France. Given the absence of institutions that taught Eastern
art, the fact that one could learn such things at all in Paris was itself
noteworthy, described as “revolutionary” by esteemed French art historian
Danielle Elisseeff. According to a January 31, 1964 article in Tribune de Lausanne, “Students have
finished registering [for Lee’s course], with the first class scheduled for
February. The course is endorsed not only by Asian painters currently based in
France, such as Tsuguharu Foujita and Zao Wouki, but also European artists such
as Pierre Soulages and Hans Hartung.” The diversity of nationality of the
school’s sponsors—French, Chinese, Japanese—suggests a causality between the
school’s founding and the wide-scale experimentation being done in Paris on
abstract art. Western artists were using inspiration from Eastern art to
broaden the territory of abstract art. Asian artists in Europe, for their part,
were using their cultural identities to give rise to a new genre of modernist
painting.
Within this cultural environment,
Lee’s art courses served as a crossroad for Eastern and Western art. They began
with proper holding of a brush and were tailored to students’ skill level,
ranging from beginner to advanced. Lee also frequently hosted exhibitions of
student artworks. Every summer, he and his students would go to the mountains
or the ocean to learn how to depict nature with a brush and India ink (in 2009,
a summer training program was held in Daejeon for the 20th
anniversary of Lee’s death.). In 2013, two former students, Christine
Dadadie-Fabreguettes and Claire Kito, commemorated their teacher by publishing Dialogues de l’encre et du pinceau, an
introductory textbook on Eastern painting. Over the years, Académie de Peinture
Orientale de Paris has produced over 3,000 graduates.
Since the age of modernity, Korea
has assessed itself and done its best to fit into the rules of Western
modernism. Lee, on the other hand, is unique in that he impacted a West-centric
culture as an outsider to French society. He absorbed France’s contemporary art
while simultaneously teaching them Eastern traditions, using those traditions
as the foundation for pioneering new modes of abstract expression and cultivating
disciples to continue his artistic legacy. The works by the 11 students on
display are individualistic, including creative adaptations of Chinese
characters and calligraphy, watercolor expressions of the rhythm of brush
calligraphy, and paintings of Korean poetry. They also, however, all bear
traces of Lee Ungno in their materials, composition, and manner of wielding ink
and brush. From within the context of the influence Western and Eastern arts
have on each other, the creations by Lee’s students are an example of post-Western-centricism
as well as a legacy of Lee Ungno, who forged a genre of contemporary Eastern
art that was acknowledged as an equal to its Western counterpart. “India Ink
with Blue Eyes” can hopefully, through its 11 featured French artists, serve as
an invaluable opportunity to reflect on Lee Ungno’s desire for peace and a
convergence of Eastern and Western art.