Lee Ufan’s Dialogue series have remarkable simplicity. Only one, two or three brushstrokes leave their clear mark in the vast, white canvas and the rest of the large canvas is empty without any trace of painting; the space is, nevertheless, filled with a certain kind of tension.

Since his Correspondance series began in the early 90s, Lee has been seeking the harmony between the touched and untouched space, thus the canvas’s compositional elements themselves are not wholly new. However, his recent works demonstrate that Lee has taken a major step forward after unyielding experiments carried out in the past two decades. According to the art historian Henri Focillon, the artistic style has its own life as does organic growth; it constantly explores ways to define itself during the initial experimental stage, enters into a classic period which manifests a sense of order and stability, then follows the daring and purer period of refinement. In Lee’s Dialogue series are to be found this kind of stability and boldness.