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Art Critics Around the World
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Former Director of Venice Biennale (1980 & 1993), Prof. Achille Bonito Oliva His art is not only rooted in abstract art in the strictest sense, since it extends to other sources of inspiration and includes Balla, Kandinskij, Klee, Arp, Miro and Matisse. His artistic research therefore has many references that are also symptoms of an extremely broad cultural horizon. The work of Lee Sun-Don creates its own original and distinctive style through the combination of several philosophies in a language that escapes its formal order. Form is the threshold through which imagination declines its attitudes. In his case, painting is the tool that directs a linguistic universe not according a freezing project, but rather according to a bias for taking away, a subtle discipline based on the subtraction of certainty to the benefit of a rigorously structured probability. |
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IL Tempo Roma Newspaper, Italy Master Lee is the "Modern Oriental Picasso." |
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LA Splash Magazine, USA |
| Master Lee is...the first to ever incorporate...Buddhist ideologies with contemporary western art in oil painting. Master Lee has been dubbed the "Pioneer of Totemic Energy Oil Painting." His approach is both innovative and thought-provoking. |
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| Eleanor Heartney, Former President of AICA-USA, the American Section of the International Art Critics Association. |
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His loose, gestural works provide lyrical representations of states of ecstasy, harmony and contemplation while literally embodying the transformative energies of the universe...... Both the brushstrokes and the colors express various aspects of the Dharma. Each [painting] contains a "totem", a symbol of universal energy and harmony, apprehended in the process of deep meditation. Each totem is designed to spark a sense of enlightenment and transcendence in the viewer. |
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Marcello Cazzaniga, Art Director, Camaver Kunsthaus International, Italy We are pleased to announce that Lee Sun-Don has been selected by Camaver Kunsthaus International as the Top Artist of the world. He is the fifth artist in the whole world who has been awarded this highest honor since the 1940s. To recognize his achievement, we will provide all our global resources, including providing professional evaluations and criticisms on his artwork, to help fulfill his exhibition plans around the world. |
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Denise Williams, Art Director of Santa Fe Art World I see many things, many powerful messages in these works. Yes, not only are they the prizes we were looking for in their execution, but the message is more vibrant as a result as they are cast from the spirit on a clear day uninterrupted...... You touch my heart. It is important for the artist to lay their soul on canvas, Master Lee achieves this. This is why his work is a conduit of energy, why it heals, why it is more than telling a well executed visual story and exactly why the work comes to life for it is a living entity from his hand, his soul. |
| Jim Feast, Art Critic, USA |
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The paintings are not detailed, verging on late Matisse in how they highlight shape and brilliant color effect to carry the theme. However, unlike the works of the French painter, Lee uses imperceptibility for key effects. One of the abiding motifs of Lee's work: Even the humblest implements form relationships that are imbued with spiritual value. It is a truth and mystery Lee makes clear, using his formidable skill and fluency with color and composition. |
| Gaetano Ricco, Retired Professor in World Art, Italy |
| Through his paintings, he tells of finding a method of enlightenment, in which it seems to give him the understanding of the essence of the universe. He understands that the essence of the universe could be translated onto his canvas. Instead of worrying about how Westerners perceive art, it becomes a medium to transmit to others the sense of mystery towards the universe. This should help his students and maybe others in the future to find themselves with the cosmic understanding that reigns over us. |
| Aldo Carrozza, Art Critic, Italy |
| The art that the Zen Master wishes to bring is a path that allows us to better understand the teachings of Buddha through certain symbolism. And in order to free one's spirit and collect the true sense of everything, we might take the path of meditation. Through the paintings, we... see the semantics, the meanings of the symbols. |
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Antonio Miniaci, Art Connoisseur, Dealer, and Owner of Galleries Worldwide, Italy Totemic representation, bold colour coordination, and harmonious structure collectively make Master Lee's artwork truly unique and comparable to Western painting masters. |
| Huang Cheng-Chi, Curator/Director, Chan Liu Art Museum, Taiwan |
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As the pioneer of Totemic Energy Oil Painting, Lee Sun-Don spent only one year to achieve what most artists would have spent their lifetime to accomplish. Lee has grasped the pulse of and created new concepts for modern painting art. Among contemporary Taiwanese artists, Lee Sun-Don is one of the very few who possess originality. His artwork is uniquely characterized by the totems of the universe in conjunction with the gist of Buddhist sutras and stories. Different from traditional religious paintings and Tibetan Thangka, his artworks reveal distinctive styles, expressions, and techniques, including using the painting tools designed by himself. More importantly, he always comes up with inestimable new thinking, and accordingly, new subject matters for painting and creative forms of presentation. While demonstrating the spirit and scope of Zen paintings, he transcends the limitations of overly-simplistic and rugged styles of the traditional Chinese Zen master painters such as Mu Xi and Liang Kai. In Lee's art, one can also see the fusion of motions and passions of Van Gogh, the sentiments and sensuality of Kandinsky's abstract expressionism, Picasso's Cubism, Chagall's dream-like qualities, Dali's surrealism, Miro's naivety and romance, and Zhao Wuji's mysterious power. Coupled with the totems of the universe he has witnessed, Lee was able to represent the basic patterns of all energies with simple line structures and mystical colors. His complete art performance is truly breathtaking! Art is the work of talents, not learning--Lee's performance testifies to this truth once again. |
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Mao Daizong, Dean, The School of Fine Arts of Shandong College of Arts, China A painting artist is to receive and respond to all the phenomena and to directly face all the manifestations of the world with the mind as a bright mirror that never rejects but takes, reflects, and embraces all existences. That is the so-called "Great Dao goes through; it reaches and manifests. The clouds shy away and the sun shines; the waters are clear and the mountains are green". With such a mind in concord with the great universe, Mr. Lee lets his respect and humility toward the Buddhas outshine his skills and techniques in painting. He simply forgets about the techniques: he is just like an innocent kid, enthusiastically picking a bouquet of wildflowers for his mother -- without any sense of nobleness or lowliness, goodness or evil, but pure love. When we are guided by Lee's artworks to get in touch with the glory of the Buddha, will we still care about the techniques of his painting at all? Colors and lines all become the paths to and manifestations of Great Dao. |
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Zhang Liping, Chair, Department of Fine Arts, Art College of Xiamen University, China I know not much about Buddhism, but I enjoy Sun-Don's works very much. My instinct tells me that his works are simple and yet inspiring; his employments of colors are bold and powerful and yet his brushstrokes are neither obsequious nor overbearing but balanced and proportioned. It is as if he is preaching within, leisurely, trying to share with us something behind a schema and beyond the paints and brushes. Neither the painting style, the charm of the brushstrokes, or the gist of his works is common. His artworks reveal the aura of serenity and composure, and the languages of his expression are crisp and clean. I believe that for those who study or practice Buddhism, they should be able to perceive and experience even more profound meanings from his works. |
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Wang Di, Art Critic, China The artist endeavors to demonstrate the open-mindedness, positive thinking, and esprit of Zen aesthetics in painting. In one sense, his endeavor is in succession to the Chinese literati's tradition of "Zen contemplation" prevailing during the Tang-Song period (618-1279); in another sense, he adventures to explore the frontier of the modern art. The motifs of his artwork capture the sense and sensibility of the modern time and the gist furthermore brings spiritual resonance and awakening to the viewers - What Lee accomplishes has already transcended beyond the domain of religion. |
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Yang Zhipeng, Editor-in-Chief, Qingdao Communication Center for Chinese Culture and Art, China He dismantles the gap between geniuses and the ordinary and transcends the arrogance resulting from surpassing painting techniques. He instead demonstrates a path that everyone can take part in and through which everyone can achieve the other shore, the shore of enlightenment: he develops painting into an embodiment of the true reality of life and of cosmos. While viewing at Lee's artworks, one finds that painting concerns no longer the showoff of skills nor the expression of passion toward life, but the manifestation of self, the colorful manifestations of the innate nature -- it is the dharma that leads the viewers to experience the sense of transcendence and the ultimate truth of the universe. |
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