Nothing might seem more antinomical than these two works: one minimalist, conducive to meditation; the other prosaic, inspired to an obsessive degree by the female nude, mingling with two still lifes in overabundant, exuberant colours. And yet these artists – the former with a background in philosophy, the latter with a degree in psychology – were both reacting to the excessive enticements of modern society. While Wesselmann used advertising codes to decry a futile, dehumanised world, Lee Ufan appropriated a space and focused on the essential: the search for harmony between humankind and its environment. His “Dialogue” series is characterised by a single brushstroke on an empty monochrome background. Executed slowly and precisely, the concentrated gesture seems like a spiritual exercise extending the artist's thought. The Korean artist was involved in the Mono-ha movement that arose in Japan during the 1960s and 1970s, echoing Western Minimalism. This “school of things” encouraged artists to step aside in favour of the technical act.
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