Lee Ungno (Yi EUNGRO) (1904–1989) - Abstract Composition

Original and rare lithograph from 1969 by Korean artist/painter Lee Ungno, with signature and numbering (limited to 420 copies) printed on beautifully preserved handmade Rives paper. Excellent condition of the paper and of the artwork!

Lithographs were issued by Lion (Paris) under the portfolio (1967-1974): Correspondances, Editions des Nouvelles Images, in Lombreuil (Loiret, France).

The work is signed in the print edition and numbered on the back – see photos.
This work is a limited edition of 420 copies.

Dimensions of the lithography:
* Abstract
- Paper size: 32.5 x 24 cm
- Signature in print
- Paper: Rives paper
- Numbered in ink - limited edition of 420 copies
- Condition: excellent condition - never framed - A+ condition

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EXTRA INFO ARTIST: Lee Ungno (January 12, 1904 – January 10, 1989) was a Korean-born French painter and printmaker whose work was mainly focused on paintings in Eastern and Korean styles.

After training in traditional ink painting in Korea from the 1920s to the 1930s, Lee gradually experimented with Western painting techniques in Japan. His works from the 1950s show creative attempts to combine Eastern media and brushstrokes with Western perspectives and forms.

After returning to Korea for liberation and developing his early quasi-abstract ink painting style, Lee Ungno moved to France in 1958, where he fully established his reputation as an abstract artist. He is best known for his series of ink-and-paper collages, abstract letters, and crowd paintings that developed during his stay in France.

In addition to his work as a painter, after the liberation Lee Ungno worked as an art teacher at Hongik University, he founded Goam Misul Yeonguso (Goam Art Research Institute) and in 1956 published a Korean art book (동양화감상기법, The Impression and the Techniques of Oriental Painting), and in the 1960s also founded an Oriental art academy, the Académie de Peinture Orientale de Paris.

Lee Ungno Museum opened in 2007 in Daejeon, South Korea, to preserve, exhibit, and promote artworks and materials related to the artist. He is praised for being part of the first generation of Korean abstract artists and for his contribution to the diversification in the use of Eastern materials in modern and contemporary art.

After he had decided to pursue a career as an artist and realized that he had to overcome traditional conventions to make progress in his artistic endeavours, Lee Ungno moved to Seoul in 1922 and became a pupil of the famous calligrapher-painter-photographer Haegang Kim Gyu-jin (해강 김규진, 海岡 金圭鎭, 1868–1933) from 1923.

In the twenties, Lee Ungno mainly learned to paint the Four Gentlemen in the 'Haegang style'. In 1924 his ink-wash painting of a bamboo, Mukjuk (묵죽, 墨竹, Ink Bamboo), won a prize at the 3rd annual Joseon Art Exhibition (조선미술전람회, 朝鮮美術展覽會) in the category of the Four Gentlemen. [8] However, he soon faced a number of years of disappointing results at the annual exhibition prizes. In the meantime he earned his living by making various shop signs and other calligraphic work, and in 1931 he finally won prizes for Cheongjuk (청죽, 靑竹, Blue Bamboo) and Pungjuk (풍죽, 風竹, Bamboo in the Wind) at the 10th annual Joseon Art Exhibition in 1931.

Lee Ungno consecutively won prizes in the 11th, 12th, and 13th Joseon Art Exhibitions in the category Eastern painting after the abolition of the categories Calligraphy and the Four Gentlemen, and continued to submit works and win prizes in the Joseon Art Exhibition during the colonial period. However, Lee Ungno believed that Eastern ink painters should take the Four Gentlemen as a foundational skill to build on and modernize. It was in the early 1930s that Lee Ungno departed from imitating Kim Gyu-jin's style of painting the traditional Four Gentlemen, and began producing ink-washed landscapes influenced by new, modern Eastern ink painting styles and naturalistic depictions found in Western paintings.

Other related artists:
Wassily Kandinsky Piet Mondriaan Paul Klee Mark Rothko Barnett Newman Ad Reinhardt Ellsworth Kelly Sol LeWitt Frank Stella Robert Mangold Bridget Riley Victor Vasarely Richard Anuszkiewicz Kenneth Noland Sean Scully Carmen Herrera Lygia Clark Anni Albers (Josef Albers' wife) László Moholy-Nagy Kazimir Malevich Theo van Doesburg Josef's pupils at the Bauhaus, such as Gunta Stölzl and Oskar Schlemmer Max Bill Yaacov Agam Jesús Rafael Soto Julio Le Parc Carlos Cruz-Diez Gerhard Richter Robert Ryman Agnes Martin Georges Vantongerloo Victor Servranckx Jozef Peeters Marthe Donas Gaston Bertrand Pol Bury Paul Van Hoeydonck Serge Vandercam Louis Van Lint Guy Vandenbranden Paul Delvaux René Magritte Constant Permeke Pierre Alechinsky Paul Joostens Floris Jespers Roger Somville Félix Labisse Roger Raveel Pierre Cordier Marcel Broodthaers Raoul De Keyser Panamarenko Jan Fabre Wim Delvoye Léon Spilliaert James Ensor Emile Claus Rik Wouters Luc Tuymans Bart van der Leck Willem Hussem Jan Schoonhoven Ad Dekkers Carel Visser Nelly van Doesburg Karel Appel Constant Nieuwenhuys Jan Henderikse Ger van Elk Herman de Vries Peter Struycken Jan Dibbets Ellsworth Kelly Wassily Kandinsky Paul Klee Kasimir Malevich (although not German, but influential in Germany) Josef Albers Max Bill Gerhard Richter Anni Albers Kurt Schwitters Otto Freundlich Hans Arp Günther Uecker Heinz Mack Otto Piene Joseph Beuys Pierre Alechinsky Bram Bogart Karel Appel Asger Jorn Corneille Lucio Fontana Pierre Soulages Hans Hartung Antoni Tàpies Alberto Burri Willem de Kooning Jackson Pollock Sam Francis Hans Hofmann Mark Rothko Barnett Newman Leonardo da Vinci Michelangelo Buonarroti Vincent van Gogh Pablo Picasso Claude Monet Rembrandt van Rijn Johannes Vermeer Salvador Dalí Andy Warhol Jackson Pollock Henri Matisse Paul Cézanne Auguste Rodin Edgar Degas Edvard Munch Frida Kahlo Gustav Klimt Georgia O'Keeffe Joan Miró Piet Mondriaan Marc Chagall René Magritte Wassily Kandinsky Albrecht Dürer Egon Schiele Pierre-Auguste Renoir Amedeo Modigliani Hieronymus Bosch Gustave Courbet Yayoi Kusama Ansel Adams Keith Haring Jean-Michel Basquiat Barbara Hepworth Antoni Gaudí Marcel Duchamp Caravaggio Francisco Goya David Hockney Cindy Sherman Roy Lichtenstein Lucian Freud Diego Rivera Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec Rene Lalique El Greco Mary Cassatt Kara Walker Giorgio de Chirico Louise Bourgeois Nicolas De Staël Henri Matisse Raoul Ubac Sonia Delaunay Jean Arp Paul Klee Ung No Lee Elvire Jan Kumi Sugaï Henri Laurens Zao Wou-Ki Philippe Touvay Sam Francis Malévich George Braque Giorgio Morandi Kandinsky Emile Gilioli