Dong-Soon Lee

Dong-Soon Lee				Main Gallery			December 1, 2007 - January 2, 2008

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	Dong-Soon Lee: Games, Memory, and Art Dong-Soon Lee makes compelling mixed-media paintings from a vocabulary based upon children’s games: tak-ji or paper cards, the mostly forgotten Korean game in which children try to match images on cards; and si-cha-gi, in which children use a drawing on the ground, following it as part of the game. From this lexicon of images, he paints varied abstract paintings that appear to be modern geometric art, at least to the Western viewer. Lee’s inspiration may come from memory, in the sense that he played these games himself; however, the results are anything but childish, in that the paintings demonstrate a wealth of sophistication that turns to the tradition of abstraction and modernity for its strength. At the same time, the spirit of play is central to the artist’s paintings, which do not forego the fun children experience in recreation. The combined effect of artistic sophistication and childlike appeal results in an art that transcends its boundaries of origin, producing effects that are both complicated and naïve. It is important to remember that play is central to art, because it induces a state in which experimental exploration takes precedent, enabling the artist to add, whimsically or not, to the language he or she uses in painting. Indeed, controlled play is what the artist strives toward, so that bringing in imagery based on children’s games makes more sense than it might at first seem. Lee very deftly handles his paintings, using the folds of the paper cards and the lines of the street drawings to create fanciful compositions, usually in pastel blues, off whites, and pinks that balance his geometrical forms. The delicate colors seem to recollect childhood memories without referring to specific events, and the carefully considered geometrical pieces of the paintings’ arrangements, coupled with simply written numbers—the evidence of a child’s game—provide the artist with a straightforward presentation of a certain kind of innocence, which play illustrates and art depends upon. The paintings are mostly, but not completely, abstract in their effects. In one work, there is a diptych effect: on the left half there is a highly skilled presentation of diamond squares painted in white, with many of the squares having line bisecting them, while the right half shows a series of multicolored stripes and a broad blue plane, between which is a scarecrow figure who wears a wide-brimmed hat, a black-and-white striped shirt, and white shorts. The figure stands on the edge of a grass-green plane, with white strokes falling as a kind of rain above and onto him. The composition is mysterious but seems to refer to both the slap-card game and to a state of childlike purity; in the case of the scarecrow figure, which increasingly turns up in Lee’s paintings, we see a symbol, according to the artist, of selflessness in regard to other. The notion of nostalgia and the purity of the child’s imagination regularly occurs in Lee’s paintings, which provide the viewer with imageries that complement each other more than competing with each other. In another characteristic work, we can see a horizontally aligned composition, in which two squares, three triangles, and a semicircle creae something very much like a hopscotch image, with a dark-blue diamond pointing toward but not completely filling the open space left by the three triangles’ placement. On the dark-blue form Lee has painted water-drop imagery, and there are lightly drawn lines in the geometric planes that reaffirm Lee’s interest in the offhand sketches of children. The two works I have mentioned are representative of Lee’s inquiring art, which beautifully combines the effects of childhood and the beauty of abstraction, along with offering a sense of purity and sacrifice. Jonathan Goodman Jonathan Goodman is a freelance writer and critic who specializes in contemporary Asian art. He has written for such publications as Art in America, Art on Paper, and Yishu. Based in New York, he also teaches at Pratt Institute and the Parsons School of Design.