Zane Bennett Contemporary Art is pleased to present Lee Ufan’s From Line 3 (1977), a lithograph from the seminal portfolio, From Point From Line. An impression of this print is held in the collection of the Museum of Contemporary Art, Tokyo. Form Line 3 is hors commerce in the edition, adding value to the print.
Composed of seventeen vertical bands of horizontal brushstrokes, From Line 3 forms a rhythmic constellation of marks that vary in depth and density. Within the larger portfolio, the work reads like a score: repetition begets rhythm, and variation creates breadth. While these lines were created with repetition, they are not simply repetitive. Lee’s mark-making in this lithograph is highly nuanced in directionality, depth, and texture.
Published in 1977 by Tokyo’s Shirota Gallery, From Point From Line distilled Lee’s most essential gestures into print. Though modest in scale, the portfolio represents one of the clearest articulations of his lifelong preoccupation: the aesthetics of repetition.
“Rather than the universe being infinite, I think infinity is the universe, so that the universe is a longing which we cannot satisfy,” wrote Lee. “My works are pictorial methods for seeking passage into that infinity. Infinity has always been my motif: in the series From Point and From Line in terms of conceptual repetitions; in that of With Winds in terms of locational developments, where place and an act call forth each other.”
Lee Ufan’s paintings from the early 1970s were rigorous exercises in limitation: a brush dipped once into pigment, then allowed to fade through repetition. Translating that meditative process into lithography required both discipline and trust. Working closely with Shirota’s printers, Lee’s treated each plate not as an image to reproduce but as a new field of interaction—between hand, ink, stone, and paper.
Shirota Gallery has championed printmaking as a contemporary art form since 1966. This collaboration affirmed the role of the gallery as both publisher and philosophical partner. For Lee Ufan, it marked a rare moment for concept and craft to align perfectly—the act of printing as another way to measure silence, duration, and the passage of time.
Nearly half a century later, From Point From Line (1977) is a portfolio of meditation made visible—with this particular print among the eight quiet demonstrations of how thought becomes matter, and how matter, handled with care, can approach infinity itself.
About the Artist
Lee Ufan (b. 1936, Korea) studied philosophy at Nihon University in Tokyo and became a central figure in Japan’s postwar art scene as a founder of the Mono-ha movement. His work has been the subject of major retrospectives at institutions including the Guggenheim Museum in New York (2011) and the Château de Versailles (2014), and he has collaborated closely with architect Tadao Ando on museum projects in Naoshima and Arles. In 2025, Lee extended his reach into design through a collaboration with Bulgari on the Octo Finissimo limited edition watch, reaffirming his international influence and continuing legacy across art, architecture, and design.
LEE UFAN | (Detail) From Line 3, 1977. Lithograph. Frame: 24 3/4 x 29 3/4 x 1 1/2 in (62.87 x 75.57 cm)
LEE UFAN | (Detail) From Line 3, 1977. Lithograph. Frame: 24 3/4 x 29 3/4 x 1 1/2 in (62.87 x 75.57 cm)
LEE UFAN | (Detail) From Line 3, 1977. Lithograph. Frame: 24 3/4 x 29 3/4 x 1 1/2 in (62.87 x 75.57 cm)
Please email info@zanebennettgallery.com to inquire.
