The Vilcek Foundation presents Il Lee—Energy and Flow: Abstraction of Movements, a solo exhibition of Korean artist Il Lee (b. 1953). This exhibition is curated by Suzie Kim, PhD, associate professor of art history at the University of Mary Washington. 

Lee is widely acclaimed for his large-scale abstract compositions, created through the intricate use of numerous ballpoint pens on paper and canvas. The explosive, energetic lines sweeping across the canvas continue the tradition of abstract art. It is an invitation to witness, feel, and participate in the continuous, flowing dialogue between artist and viewer, where abstraction transcends its material form and becomes an immersive experience. 

Born in Seoul, Lee studied painting in the 1960s and 1970s with seminal figures at the forefront of the abstract monochrome movement (Dansaekhwa). After immigrating to New York in 1977, Lee forged his unique artistic approach by pushing and pulling his pen, activating the entangled lines on the surface.

He became captivated by the profound depth of the black and blue ink as he layered his lines upon one another. His ballpoint pen works underscore the interconnectedness of nature and art. For inspiration, Lee draws from the rich backgrounds of portraits by the Dutch Golden Age master Rembrandt van Rijn (1606–69) and the subtle gradations of ink found in ancient Chinese and Korean ink landscape paintings. Much like Rembrandt, who mixes various dark colors to achieve the perfect tonal balance, or a literati painter who combines diverse brushstrokes to express the perfect gradation of mountain peaks, Lee’s meticulous process of overlapping his curvilinear lines results in dominant, fluid forms of black and blue that envelop the bottom, middle, or both sides of the canvas. 

When presented on a grand scale, his energetic pen work allows viewers to experience the raw force of nature, abstracted and distilled through the precision of his lines.

After using black and blue ballpoint pens on paper and canvas throughout his career, Lee began experimenting with a different medium in the late 2000s: empty ballpoint pens on acrylic and oil on canvas. Lee’s organic lines, scored through the canvas layered with acrylic and oil paint, create a visual language of entanglement. Lines and forms intersect, overlap, and evolve, drawing parallels between the physical and spiritual forces that govern both human experience and the natural world. 

Although the artist has no specific subject in mind when creating his paintings, when looking at the canvas with entangled lines one might feel as if standing in the middle of a reed field in winter or in the midst of a wood.

The clustered bright or dark spots scattered across the expansive canvas resemble the vibrant, pulsating lights of New York City at night. This fusion of natural and urban imagery embodies the nature of dualities such as stillness and movement, darkness and light, silence and clamor, and expansion and contraction. 

Tracing the medium, scale, and line techniques that Lee cultivated and refined over his more-than-40-year career, this exhibition offers an expanded view of his distinctive artistic approach. It provides a broader perspective on his oeuvre, highlighting the dynamic interplay between spontaneous, intuitive expression and the deliberate composition of various forms.