Lee Qoede, a major Korean figure painter mostly active from the 1930s through the 1950s, was best known for paintings that responded to Korea’s colonisation by Japan. Lee’s Self-portrait in a Long Blue Coat (1948–1949) shows the artist wearing a blue durumagi, a men’s overcoat and component of traditional Korean dress. One of four self-portraits that still exist of the many Lee realised, the work is considered his masterpiece and exemplary of his hybridisation of Western and East Asian painting. This is visible in the inclusion of diverse visual signifiers. Lee’s Korean attire is complemented by a fedora – a Western hat worn by the upper classes, referencing his status. Lee also depicts himself holding a palette with European oil paints and an East Asian ink brush called mopil. He proudly stands with a confident gaze in front of a rural landscape with women wearing the tradition hanbok in the background. Bright-coloured and innovative, Lee’s portrait endows the artist with the role and power to imagine the future of Korea and Korean arts.
This is the first time the work of Lee Qoede Lee is presented at Biennale Arte.
—Adeena Mey
