Lee Dai-Won 1921-2005

李大源 Mountain

Footnotes

Provenance
Private Collection, New York
Thence by descent to the present owner

山岳
油彩畫布
1963年作

背面簽名：Mountain Lee Dai Won 1963

來源
紐約私人收藏
現由其家屬繼承

Lee Dai-won was a renowned and influential modernist in Korean 20th Century painting. Trained as a lawyer, Lee was inspired by the French modernists, including especially the inventive Fauvist colorists such as Henri Matisse and Andre Derain. While his paintings may at first recall pointillism and related movements, his hatchwork forms, often calligraphic brushwork, and sensitive color palette equally suggest the reduced, elemental forms of traditional landscape painting.

Lee was born Seoul and graduated from law school in 1945. His first solo exhibition was held in Dong Wha Gallery in Seoul in 1957, followed by another solo exhibition at the Asian Center in Tokyo in 1960. This work then stems from his earliest, formative years. Mountain from 1960 displays seemingly rapidly constructed forms, shaped by blunt calligraphic strokes and the impressionistic application of warm, steely blues and sea greens. A tangle of trees emerges in the foreground, executed in brief, efficient strokes, highlighted by buoyant green foliage, rapid strokes that are then echoed and repeated energetically around the mountain tops and in the sky. Light splashes of black paint give further texture and dynamism to looming forms. A light shock of cadmium red sparkles on the tree trunks, a precursor to the full colouristic fantasia that would be found in his works in years to come. The placement of the trees themselves reference traditional landscape compositions. Normally a passage of misty would separate the foreground and the lofty mountains. Here however Lee has collapsed the space into a surface play of paint and pigment.

The formidable and influential French critic and curator, Pierre Restany, praised Lee's paintings, writing, "That deep nature of the universe which is the unique theme of his art and which beautifully projects the plentitude of joie de vivre. Such a message does not know any frontier. It is the basic affidavit of a universal emotion". Many of Lee's earliest works are held in museum collections, and the present lot is a rare early work to emerge from private hands. Collected by an American working overseas in the 1960s, it has been in her family collection for nearly 60 years. Its offering here is its first time publicly available since its original purchase, representing a rare and exceptional opportunity to appreciate the adventure and invention of this modern master's earliest exploration into colouristic abstraction.

李大源是韓國19世紀現代繪畫史上重要並有深遠影響力的藝術家。原本為律師出身，後受到法國現代藝術家尤其是亨利・馬蒂斯（Henri Matisse）和安德烈・德朗（Andre Derain）等開創性野獸派藝術家的啟發，從此踏上繪畫的道路。李大源的作品在乍看之下可歸類於點描畫或相關的派別，實則上他用毛筆繪製的影線造型和敏銳的選色亦帶有傳統山水畫中簡化、簡約的特質。

李大源於首爾出生，於1954年畢業於法律學院。他的首展在1957年於首爾東華畫廊（Dong Wha Gallery）舉辦，爾後於1960年在東京亞洲中心再次舉辦了個展。此拍品《山岳》為1960年之作，是他較早期關注造型的作品。從畫面中的造型看來，藝術家似乎是以毛筆快速留下鈍挫的筆觸，在色彩上則多採用暖色系、鋼青色和海綠色等印象派常見的顏色。在他快意大筆之下，前景的老樹拔地而起，樹枝有活潑的綠葉點綴，並以同樣的手法迅速勾勒出山峰和天空，讓各個元素彼此呼應。靈活機敏的黑顏料賦予高聳的山形豐富的質感和活力；樹幹上巧妙的鎘紅點預示了他後來作品中頻頻出現的繽紛色彩。樹的安排透露出傳統風景的構圖。前景和遠山多以流動的霧氣加以區隔，然而在此李大源將空間瓦解成顏料和色彩交鋒的舞台。

地位崇高顯赫的重要法國藝評人與策展人皮耶・雷斯塔尼（Pierre Restany）對李大源的作品讚譽有加，如此寫道：「他獨一無二的創作主題是關乎宇宙深奧的本質，傳達出宇宙中盈滿的生命之樂。這樣的探討是無邊無界的，因為那是人類共同情感的基本證明。」李大源最早期的作品多半為美術館館藏，此拍品是少數的私人收藏。一名在海外工作的美國人在1960年代買下此作之後，她的家族便保存此作長達60年之久。這是作品在首次購藏之後初次公開亮相，我們才得以一探這名現代大師早期大膽而富有創造力的抽象色彩，機會實為難能可貴。