Who is Korean painter Sea Hyun Lee?

Sea Hyun Lee - Between Red_101, 2010, oil on linen, 300x300cm
Sea Hyun Lee – Between Red_101, 2010, oil on linen, 300 x 300 cm

Sea Hyun Lee’s Between the Red

South Korea’s traditional illustrative and art history is immovable; however, cultural and artistic experimentation will always be relentless. Sea Hyun Lee demonstrates his understanding of just how true the above statement is through his art. He manages to join the two forces of past and present together to create Between the Red.

Sea Hyun Lee - Between Red_46, 2008, oil on canvas, 200x200cm
Sea Hyun Lee – Between Red_46, 2008, oil on canvas, 200 x 200 cm
Sea Hyun Lee - Between Red_067, 2008, oil on linen, 150x150cm
Sea Hyun Lee – Between Red_067, 2008, oil on linen, 150 x 150 cm
Sea Hyun Lee - Between Red_069, 2008, oil on linen, 200x100cm
Sea Hyun Lee – Between Red_069, 2008, oil on linen, 200 x 100 cm

Inspiration

Sea Hyun Lee drew and painted the landscapes from his memories of his time in military service where his primary responsibility was to survey the Korean Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) at night through infrared glasses.

This explains why these paintings appear to have the shadow-like and ethereal quality of faded film stock. The patchy images summon thoughts of a lost natural world that remains pure and untouched by human civilization or urban development.

Sea Hyun Lee - Between Red_071, 2008, oil on linen, 200x250cm
Sea Hyun Lee – Between Red_071, 2008, oil on linen, 200 x 250 cm
Sea Hyun Lee - Between Red_072, 2008, oil on linen, 200x200cm
Sea Hyun Lee – Between Red_072, 2008, oil on linen, 200 x 200 cm

Analysis of his paintings

When you first look at the series, the images appear overpoweringly simple; the series features a range of landscape paintings rendered in subtle washes of red. Large strips and rows of unmarked and unpainted territories meander between the islands of red land.

These empty spaces are set harshly against the commanding red fragments, making the series more compelling. It is the fragments of the paintings that bring to mind compound dualities and a vast landscape characterized by inconsistencies and fissures, which are fascinating both aesthetically and conceptually.

Sea Hyun Lee - Between Red_076 (Detail), 2008, oil on linen, 150x100cm
Sea Hyun Lee – Between Red_076 (detail), 2008, oil on linen, 150 x 100 cm
Sea Hyun Lee - Between Red_079, 2009, oil on linen, 150x110cm
Sea Hyun Lee – Between Red_079, 2009, oil on linen, 150 x 110 cm
Sea Hyun Lee - Between Red_84, 2009, oil on linen, 200x600cm
Sea Hyun Lee – Between Red_84, 2009, oil on linen, 200 x 600 cm

North and South Korean elements combined

The paintings combine critical elements of North and South Korean mountains and the symbolic red color works to pass across Lee’s intended message. While the paintings may appear to communicate a political statement, the paintings are not politically driven. Instead, Lee uses them to express his sense of the past and the losses that have occurred in his lifetime.

As such, they are deeply personal pieces that reference two main ideas, utopia and melancholy. Lee avoids separating the two, managing to infuse a sense of nostalgia and utopia in equal measure so that one is not shining brightly than the other.

Sea Hyun Lee - Between Red_091, 2009, oil on linen, 70x250cm
Sea Hyun Lee – Between Red_091, 2009, oil on linen, 70 x 250 cm
Sea Hyun Lee - Between Red_099, 2009, oil on linen, 300x300cm
Sea Hyun Lee – Between Red_099, 2009, oil on linen, 300 x 300 cm
Sea Hyun Lee - Between Red_100 (Detail), 2009, oil on linen, 300x300cm
Sea Hyun Lee – Between Red_100 (detail), 2009, oil on linen, 300 x 300 cm

Conclusion

When Lee started the process, he was concerned about the disappearing landscapes and eroding memories, and since the landscapes he knew once no longer existed as he knew them before, he opted to paint them. The paintings are. However, not all centered on the past. They also focus on reconstitution and the endless attempts by people to review and recover the mistakes of the past.

Sea Hyun Lee - Between Red_101 (Detail), 2010, oil on linen, 300x300cm
Sea Hyun Lee – Between Red_101 (detail), 2010, oil on linen, 300 x 300 cm
Sea Hyun Lee - Between Red_162, 2012 Oil on linen 200x300cm
Sea Hyun Lee – Between Red_162, 2012, oil on linen, 200 x 300 cm
Sea Hyun Lee - Between Red-015JUN01, 2015, oil on linen, 250x250cm
Sea Hyun Lee – Between Red-015JUN01, 2015, oil on linen, 250 x 250 cm

All images by Sea Hyun Lee unless otherwise noted.

 

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