The sound of People Resonant in Primary Colors

Vivid primary colors dance in  Man-ik Lee? paintings. The images in simplified and moderate lines, give an intense impression. They are also familiar to us, as they are about candid stories of our people. Deployed themes are various stories ranging from legendary tales of the past to everyday scenes of the present time. This exemplifies the unique world of Lee? art with a feast of primary colors and legends, tinged with Korean aesthetics, which are not so common even in the art circles of Korea.

Below left: Family (as flowers bloom, the moon rises), oil on canvas, 46x53cm, 2007. Below right: Towards a blooming town, oil on canvas, 112x162cm, 2006.

Man-ik Lee holds a belief that good paintings represent not the voice of individuals, but that of the society and humankind. He has been trying to capture the frustrations and dreams of the Koreans in his painting. In addition, he has been endeavoring to represent our faces. This was realized by appropriating the myths of Goguryo, and Pansori such as Chunhyangga and Simcheongjon. What he has been searching for are the very stories of our national sentiment. In particular, he is trying to avoid being unintelligible or ambiguous. For this reason, he prefers a simple composition to serious gestures.

Of course, this is harmonized with the use of primary colors, beauty of simplification, and organized composition to allow him to create his own type. His works are oil paintings based on western style, however, they can be seen as modern succession of the Korean traditional colored paintings as well as they attempt to broaden the range of fine art audience.

In this respect, I believe Man-ik Lee? work is noteworthy.

Bum-mo Youn Art Critic

Cover of art INASIA May-June 2007: Crossing of the river, oil on canvas, 160x300cm, 2007.

         

Paintings That Speak, Poems with No Sound

His paintings have glaring stars in the night sky, flowers at some corners of the canvas and birds of good omen which predict bright future. Lee overcomes the grief and suffering of humans with the auspicious signs of the universe, the bliss of nature, and human sympathy. Appreciating his art is not a serious task, but a joyful experience. Although his paintings are often regarded as visual decoration, the decoration itself arises from the artist intention that designed to give us pleasure with rhythmic movement of life. In a word, his art world is a positive view and a logic of interpretation of human existence. Lee is a symbolist artist who arranges the world of sentiments logically and who succeeds in establishing the symbolic modes appropriate for him. Like the birth of a new life, the creation of a particular mode bears history in itself. In this respect, those modes he has established have a very close relationship with the already existing modes. But who could dare attribute Lee? symbolic paintings to other artist? Lee stands out as a great artist who has found his identity and improved the artistic standard of our lives.    

Byeuhng-Nam O Aesthetician

Humoristical Visualization of Korean Life and Sentiments

The world of Man-ik Lee? work is literally original, clearly unfolding the admiration or the nostalgia for the folk life by harmonizing detailed explanatory descriptions and formative ways. He uses simple techniques on screens, using distinct strong black outlines to have clear emphasis on the characters and other aspects of the stage, and using flat colors such as red, yellow, blue, purple, light green as decorations. The resulting clarity immediately affects to our senses of popular or general aesthetics. It also has a special meaning in that it consciously handles literal or narrative themes that all modern formalism, including abstractionism has turned their backs on. His works create uniqueness with beautiful emotional and sentimental pictures which has been formed in the history of people? lives. His motifs of tales, songs, and folkways have been selected as very Korean materials that nobody has ever really touched upon. Despite the antiquity and unreality of the story, it creates a novel formative characteristic that comes close to today? views in a humorous way. The typical Korean that can be found in     his pictures is all simple, innocent and peaceful. Many people feel close to his work without feeling burdened due mostly to the unfolding of popular themes, which he emphasizes. Lee? strolls through the past and the present, and his tenacity towards Korean life and sentiments continue endlessly with the originality of the screen.    

Gu-yeol Lee Art Historian

Man-ik Lee was born in Haihjou, Hwang-haih Province, Korea in 1938.

He received his B.F.A. from Seoul National University in 1961.

From 1973 to 1974, he studied at Academic Goetz, Paris. He was an art director of the 24th Olympiad Seoul(1988) and 8th Paralympics Seoul(1988). He is the winner of 5th 'Lee Jeung-Saub Art Prize'.

Currently, his 36th solo exhibition was held in Road to the Musuem, Seoul, from November to December, 2006. He held numerous group and invitation exhibitions at China, Japan, France, U.S.A. and etc.

He is living and working in Seoul.