COLOGNE.- South Korean artist Lee Ufan (born 1936, lives in Kamakura, Japan) has been awarded the 32nd Wolfgang Hahn Prize by the Society for Modern Art at the Museum Ludwig. His art brings together contrasting forces such as emptiness and tension, silence and energy. As co-founder of the Japanese minimalist Mono-ha movement (‘School of Things’), a collective of artists in Tokyo between 1968 and 1975, he continues to seek a harmonious reordering of things. Since the 1970s, his minimalist painting in particular has had a major impact on the international art scene.
Influenced by the Korean Dansaekhwa movement (‘monochrome painting’), known for its monochrome style, Lee works with a broad brush, placing dots, lines and diffuse rectangles on large-format canvases. These elements appear as isolated formal signs, rhythmically structured patterns or in loose, non-narrative figurations. Lee regards the act of painting as ‘a pure and absolute event’ involving an immediate encounter between artist, material and image carrier, detached from rational calculation – a transcendent experience of oneness with the world.
This year's guest juror, Mami Kataoka, director of the Mori Art Museum in Tokyo, explains the jury's decision: ‘Lee Ufan has spoken about how his experiences with several exhibitions in Germany in the 1970s brought his work to the world stage. Over the course of his sixty-year career, he has explored the essential meaning of existence in all relationships that transcend East and West – without following Western modernism or retreating into Eastern spiritual traditions. Our current interest in Lee Ufan's work, which gives us an awareness of holistic perspectives, may stem from our longing for interpersonal relationships that form the basis of our humanity. Lee Ufan's work will be a great addition to the Museum Ludwig's collection and contribute to its global orientation. ‘
‘Lee Ufan's works have been on my personal wish list for the Museum Ludwig collection for a very long time. I am therefore all the more delighted that Lee Ufan has accepted the award,’ says Dr Yilmaz Dziewior, explaining the jury's decision in favour of Lee. ‘The artist, now 90 years old, has close ties to the art scene in Germany, especially in the Rhineland: When the Museum Ludwig opened 50 years ago, his works were on display at the Kunsthalle Düsseldorf, the Glaskasten in Marl, the Galerie m in Bochum and already at the Museum Ludwig itself. Until now, however, the collection lacked a work by the artist. This gap will now be filled with the acquisition of the Wolfgang Hahn Prize.’
Mayen Beckmann, Chair of the Board of the Society for Modern Art: ‘The nomination of Lee Ufan continues a long line of conceptually working Wolfgang Hahn Prize winners since 1994 and, after Haegue Yang, is once again an artistic position from South Korea to expand the collection. Lee's work for the Museum Ludwig collection ties in perfectly with the passion for collecting of Peter and Irene Ludwig, who were interested in Asian art from the very beginning. The acquisition was only possible thanks to the generous cooperation of the prize winner. The Wolfgang Hahn Prize is financed by contributions from our dedicated members.’
Lee Ufan, born in South Korea in 1936, moved to Tokyo at the age of 20, where he graduated in philosophy from Nihon University in 1961. From 1969, he led the Mono-Ha movement and was a professor at Tama Art University in Tokyo from 1973 to 2007. In 2001, he was awarded the 13th Praemium Imperiale for Painting in Tokyo.
The award ceremony will take place on November 6 at 6:30 p.m. The presentation for the 2026 Wolfgang Hahn Prize will be on display at the Museum Ludwig from November 7, 2026, to April 4, 2027.
