For the past 40 years, Lee Ufan has developed his minimalist art practice in Japan and is recognised as a pivotal figure in the School of 'Mono-ha'. Through his writings, as well as his art, he has provided its theoretical impetus. On 'Mono-ha' he wrote '... that it sought to recapture the site where the communion between the individual and the world was possible, and embraced the task of making art that was free from notions of subject and object...'¹

The work Kikochi (A port of call) no. 4 is one of a series of four lithographs that employ the tusche wash effect to imitate spare calligraphic brushstrokes. It illustrates the artist's sentiments in his essay 'On infinity', 'I like artworks that drift on feelings of infinity.'²

Note: The artist has spelt his name both as Lee Ufan and Lee U-fan.

Endnotes

1. Lee Ufan [exhibition catalogue], Hara Museum ARC, Gunma, Japan, 1991.
2. Ufan, Lee in Lee Ufan [exhibition catalogue], Museum of Modern Art, Kamakura, 1993, p.85. Tusche is a media used for drawing or brush painting on a lithographic stone or plate.