PATRICK LEE 李紹榮 b.1948 （Taiwan）Life has presented one adventure after another, some more challenging and energizing than others, but always with positive connotations. The one thing that has remained a source of continual inspiration for Patrick is the power of art.
Patrick takes a unique, creative approach to painting. He lets each work come to life under its own momentum guided by deliberate lines, shadows, and anamorphic figures. His use of silkscreen painting techniques gives his work added richness and definition. He likes to present to the viewer an image that is beyond the everyday experience, one that gives an escape from the ordinary. For Lee, life experience, intuition and a keen imagination influence the choice of his images and the mood that he wants to convey to the viewer. This allows his audience the opportunity to connect with his paintings in their own way, by letting their imagination have free reign, as they make personal associations. This, he believes, is the power of art. Art is not only about presenting “beauty”, but also a sense of national and cultural identity. ------ Patrick Lee AN INTERNATIONALLY COLLECTED ARTIST Throughout the last two decades, Patrick Lee has exhibited highly celebrated works of art across the globe. His first European gallery exhibition (Denmark, 2002) was an immediate success, where all his paintings were sold. In 2015, Lee was invited to display his work at two international exhibitions: the Venice Triennial and the Milan Expo 2015 International Contemporary Art Exhibition. Art critic Alexandra Heartline comments, "His acceptance into these two shows indicates not only Lee's professional success, but also interesting changes in his artistic style. Lee's silk Road is a large silkscreen painting featuring images of bodhisattvas and the Buddha standing closely together, filling the entire canvas. They smile benignly, looking to the left. What is most impressive about this painting is how it changes the longer the viewer stands before it. Because of its silvery quality, the figures appear to be very fluid as they emerge from the canvas and then recede back into it."
Silver moon 160 x 120 cm 2019 Acrylic on canvas Heartline continues, "Silver Planet also contains the silvery background of Silk Road but focuses on a central subject, a pinkish-grey planet gracefully rising above a windswept landscape." Lee's use of singular themes, innovative twists, style, silvery colour scheme with new colour blends, as reflected in his paintings in tribute to the cave art of the Magao Caves (at Dunhuang in western China), have firmly placed him in the international art scene as a contemporary Taiwanese artist to watch. SIMPLY SYMBOLS FROM PATRICK "Simply Symbols" has become a commonly heard phrase used to describe both his oil and silk screenings paintings. In an era of visual transformation, landscape art is widely innovative and diverse, at times containing subtle social commentary. The work of Patrick, however, addresses more than issues of environmental demise, they explore contemporary painting as a means of expressing oneself via realism, metaphor, and abstraction. It is less about the literal representation of scenery and more concentrated on establishing a new vocabulary through techniques, materials, and motifs.
Untitled 120 x 120 cm 2006 Mixed media on wood Patrick pays homage to his ancient masters while exploring present-day culture. His work highlights key artistic practices that have recorded, communicated, and shaped various artist approaches that speak to the diversity and historical traditions of landscape art. Utilizing media that mixes silk screening, painting and collage, his works represent the varied and rich visions of artists from a spectrum of art traditions.
Untitled LEE’S POP ART HUMOR (Time For a Drink, the Art of Reconciliation) The most memorable image in this series is Mao Zedong and Chiang Kai-shek, the leaders of the two sides of the strait, sharing the gold medal Taiwan beer in a shoulder-to-shoulder posture. The cheerful and frank drinking creates this group photo that does not exist in essence. In addition to the sense of humor that seems to be borrowed from the times, the representative faces, and intimate bodies of the two political icons also seem to imply the political situation on both sides of the strait. The dominance and penetration of Taiwan's daily life,
Time for a drink 200 x200cm synthetic polymer and silkscreen inks on canvas 2021 Patrick in addition to being an artist, with his experience and extensive international contacts, produced a keen reading of the situation and current events, which triggered him to capture the resonance of crossstrait relations, and produced this classic series. 、The work "Time for a Drink" does not exist to create more divisions, but a story about reconciliation and the elimination of high walls. Since the debut of "Time for a Drink, " Lee has painted a wide range of subject matter, in different styles that are fascinating for his audience.
Marylin Monroe 100 x 100 cm Acrylic and silkscreen inks on canvas "Some Like It Hot," which pays tribute to Marilyn Monroe and Tony Curtis' 1959 movie. With one image of Marilyn Monroe, Lee made an innovative change, using brushwork over the silkscreen to add texture and variety.
China Strong 120 x 120 cm 2022 Acrylic and Silkscreen ink on canvas Another portrait of Mao Zedong "China Strong" puts him on the "China Strong" brand sneakers that were popular in Taiwan in the early years 70‘s, which is another humorous work by Lee. AN UNEXPECTED GIFT OF TIME The current COVID-19 pandemic has placed uncomfortable but necessary health and security constraints upon people's lives. Daily routines have been altered, accompanied with uncertain speculation about when there will be a "return to the old normal." For Patrick Lee, this "gift of time" will be used to think, practice his art, and reflect on the spiritual and the political.As a contemporary artist, the art from the Magao cave temples offers him a wide variety of genres for inspiration: wall paintings, silk paintings, calligraphy, woodblock printing, architecture and stucco sculpture. It will be exciting to see how the power of art transforms itself in Patrick's future work, as he continues to draw inspiration from the cave temples of Dunhuang.
Three Saints 200x200cm synthetic polymer and silkscreen inks on canvas 2021 THE CAVE TEMPLES OF DUNHUANG From the 4th to the 14th century, Dunhuang was an oasis crossroad town on the western edge of the Gobi Desert. It was also a magnet for religious, cultural, and commercial exchange due to its location on the Silk Road. In fact, it was one of the earliest "global sites," long before people talked about globalism - a crossroads of Greek, Roman, Persian, Middle Eastern, Indian, and Chinese cultures successfully interacting with each other. Just outside the town of Dunhuang, carved into a sandstone cliff, are hundreds of temple caves, known as The Mogao Caves or Caves of the Thousand Buddhas. They are the greatest known repository of early Chinese art, spanning a period of a thousand years.
Horse from Dunhuang Caves in golden color 120 x 180 cm 2020 Acrylic on canvas Inside the temple caves are elaborate wall paintings, small grottos and sculptures depicting important aspects of Buddhism, stories of ruling families, merchants and wealthy monks that lived, worked, and worshiped in the Dunhuang region. Simpler caves, a short distance away, housed cave workers and ordinary monks who were serious about their meditation practice. Three temple caves contain monumental statues of Buddha surrounded by thousands of bodhisattvas in delicately embroidered flowing robes draped with fine jewellery. Buddhist poetry appears against backdrops of vividly painted murals showing Buddha surrounded by a specific number of attendants, disciples, and hundreds of mourners. In 1900, groundbreaking manuscripts were rediscovered in Cave 017, and have been called "the Dead Sea Scrolls of China." These manuscripts contain important information about ancient China's society, law, economy, climatology, religion, culture, music, musical instruments, languages, and diverse forms of art - traditions that have helped to transform present day ideas about early China. |
