b. 1941, South Korea
d. 1990
A pioneer of Korean geometric Abstract painting, Lee Seung Jio occupies an unparalleled position in the history of Korean modern art. With the debut of his trademark series Nucleus in 1967, he paved the way for Korean geometric abstractionism and thereafter rigorously formulated a unique and original formal language in an unceasing manner for over 20 years before his early death. Since the latter half of the 1970s, Lee expanded his artistic oeuvre in relation to the Dansaekhwa movement, pursuing monochrome paintings of neutral colors and adopting Korean traditional paper, hanji, as an artistic medium. Characterized by cylindrical forms reminiscent of “pipes,” his paintings not only symbolize modern civilization but also challenge the notion of opticality, evoking a sensory illusion that oscillates between the two-dimensional flatness and three-dimensional structure as well as the abstract and the figurative. Sharing the title of “Nucleus”—meaning core—Lee’s works are a crystallization of his life-long contemplation and pursuit of the truly pictorial, demonstrating the essence of modernist abstract painting.
Lee Seung Jio was born in Yongchon, North Korea in 1941 and passed away in Seoul, Korea, in 1990, at the age of 49. He studied painting at Hong-Ik University and was a professor at Joongang University of Arts. While acting as a founding member of the avant-garde art organization “Origin” and “AG (Korean Avant-Garde Association),” he received multiple awards at the National Art Exhibition, playing a vital role as an intermediary between the avant- garde and mainstream art. He further participated in major group exhibitions led by Dansaekhwa artists, which established him as one of the most representative Korean abstract painters. His works have been widely exhibited around the world, including the large-scale retrospective, Lee Seung Jio: Advancing Columns at the National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Korea in 2020, and other solo exhibitions at Perrotin Gallery, Hong Kong (2016) and Tina Kim Gallery, New York (2020). His works are in the collection of prominent institutions worldwide, including the National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Korea; Seoul Museum of Art, Seoul; Leeum Museum of Art, Seoul; and Deutsche Bank, Frankfurt, among others.