KYU-HAK LEE
FROM MASTERPIECE TO NEW MEDIA: KYU-HAK LEE and THE TRADITIONS OF ART For millennia, artists have sought inspiration from nature, other artists, and works of art from previous eras. Renaissance artists were indebted to Greek, Roman, and Byzantine painters, while the late-19th century impressionist painters Manet, Monet, Renoir, and Toulouse-Lautrec sought inspiration in the works of 17th, 18th, and 19th century artworks from the Spanish, Flemish, Dutch, and French schools (all accessible for study by those artists at the Musée du Louvre). The South Korean artist Kyu-Hak Lee has been attracted to and influenced by the important historical painting traditions of Western art. He utilizes an innovative mixedmedia mosaic “painting” process wherein brushstroke-shaped pieces of Styrofoam—the most exemplar material of modernity for Lee—are wrapped in strips of hand-dyed paper from newsprint and magazines, or traditional Korean hanji paper. For Lee, the plasticity of the Styrofoam is analogous to the bold, gestural brushwork of artists to whom he is attracted: Monet, van Gogh, Degas; or acts as a uniquely innovative foil to the smooth facture of the artist Vermeer. Each new work by Lee is a unique interpretation of an iconic work of art created through a time-consuming process, involving hundreds of hours (10 to 12 hours a day for up to 30 days) and tens of thousands of pieces of individually shaped, cut, and wrapped “strokes” of Styrofoam.