With spare materials from his Sydney exhibit, this international artist-superstar made a whole new work

Lee Ufan is not a household name in Australia. But Art Gallery of NSW director Michael Brand thinks he should be.

Three world museums – in Japan, France and his native Korea – are dedicated to the 88-year-old sculptor (and philosopher and poet)’s work. His monumental sculptures are found in the grounds of Versailles, and in London’s Kensington Gardens and Tate Modern.

Korean Contemporary artist and philosopher Lee Ufan.Credit: James Brickwood

Sydney is his current focus. The artist’s first solo exhibition at the Art Gallery of NSW opened on Saturday. Next year, he will also create a singular sculptural work for the gallery, the first by Lee to enter its $1.9 billion collection.

This coup was announced in the same week Lee surprised the gallery with a third project: a stone circle installed overnight near its forecourt from granite boulders left over from his current exhibition.

Lee’s temporary work, Relatum – stone family, was assembled with help of a forklift on Thursday. Curious onlookers applauded after the white-gloved artist placed and chiselled rock surfaces transforming a section of gallery forecourt into a temporary art space within 24 hours.

“I can’t think of a single example where an artist has come and created a work from scratch,” curator Melanie Eastburn said.

“It’s rare, even for a leading artist like Mr Lee. Even big wall drawings are planned. He thought about it, and we got the drawing yesterday of what he wanted to do, and here we are.”

In contrast to contemporary art’s modern superstars like Jeff Koons, who is flashy and conceptual, Lee is known for his minimalism. He uses deceptively simple materials like stone, steel and canvas to invoke moments of profound contemplation.

“The stones are really beautiful and friendly, and I came to the thought that have to use these stones I found,” he told this masthead.

“We’re living in a very busy era, where there are too many creations, too many thinkings, and it can be quite overwhelming, and it’s not resonant with nature. I want people to take a deep breath, stop for a moment, and gaze at each other. I want to create that in-between space where you can step back, and think, and reflect.”

When Lee debuted at the art gallery in 1976, he showed a single lightbulb suspended over a bare canvas.

An example of Lee Ufan’s installation at the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden in Washington DC. Credit: Cathy Carver

In his latest exhibition, Quiet Resonance, he presents a version of that work with a lightbulb suspended over a boulder to create shadows that encourage contemplation. The sense is one of solitude and weightlessness.

Eastburn said Lee’s show comprises eight entirely new works, including four paintings in saturated colours and four new sculptures that are a continuation of the Relatum series the artist began six decades ago. He designed the exhibition spaces and selected the imposing granite stones from regional NSW.

Lee was co-founder of the Mono-ha group, a Japanese contemporary art movement that rejects Western notions of representation, focusing on the relationships between materials and perceptions rather than on expression or intervention.

Brand said Lee had inspired prominent artists such as Anish Kapoor and Park Seo-Bo, and Pritzker Prize-winning architect Tadao Ando.

He compared his international status to celebrated Japanese artist Yayoi Kusama, whose sunny spotted flowers stand on the roof terrace of the new gallery building, Naala Badu.

The gallery said it did not disclose the costs of its privately funded art commissions, but it had been made possible by a generous bequest by the late James Brownlow and Doug Small, who worked as architects and loved the beauty of restraint, especially in Asian art.

A cultural guide to going out and loving your city. Sign up to our Culture Fix newsletter here.