Lee Kun-Yong’s Water Torture (1987) on a wall in Leeahn Gallery’s booth. Photo by Andrew Russeth

Lee Kun-Yong’s Poignant Patinting at Leeahn Gallery

Lee Kun-Yong, 82 this year and a star of the Guggenheim’s recent survey of Experimental Art from 1960s–’70s South Korea, is best known for loose paintings that chart the limits of his body. Lee picks up a brush and traces his wingspan reach, creating images that recall cartoon hearts or ghostly figures—angels, perhaps. You can see one of the latter on the right side of a chilling 1987 work that Leeahn Gallery brought to the fair. The artist painted it following the waterboarding of activist Park Jong-chul by government forces, which spurred on the movement to replace the ruling military dictatorship with a democratic system. Here, a man is near death, paint is streaking down the canvas, and an artist is looking on, bearing witness. South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol’s bizarre, botched declaration of martial law earlier this week lends this unflinching work even more potency.

https://news.artnet.com/market/art-basel-miami-beach-standout-works-2581042

Andrew Russet