Lee Ufan wins 2026 Wolfgang Hahn Prize
Lee Ufan has been awarded the 32nd Wolfgang Hahn Prize by the Society for Modern Art at the Museum Ludwig, Cologne. His work will be acquired by and exhibited at the Museum Ludwig in 2026.
The South Korean artist Lee Ufan is known for his broad-brush paintings influenced by the Dansaekhwa movement and his sculptural installations featuring round stones and iron plates. The artist came to prominence in the late 1960s as co-founder of the Japanese minimalist Mono-ha movement, which moved away from representation and focused on the exploration of materials.
‘Lee Ufan has spoken about how his experiences with several exhibitions in Germany in the 1970s brought his work to the world stage’, said Mami Kataoka, director of the Mori Art Museum in Tokyo and this year’s guest juror. ‘Over the course of his sixty-year career, he has explored the essential meaning of existence in all relationships that transcend East and West – without following Western modernism or retreating into Easter spiritual traditions.’
The Wolfgang Hahn Prize is awarded annually by the Society for Modern Art at the Museum Ludwig and aims to honour internationally recognised contemporary artists who are not yet as well known in Germany. Previous winners include Evelyn Taocheng Wang (2025), Francis Alys (2023) and Haegue Yang (2018).
Main Image: Portrait of Lee Ufan in "Silentium", 2025. Photo: JeaAn Lee. Courtesy of Hoam Museum of Art.