Lee Ufan
2026 Wolfgang Hahn Prize

Lee Ufan (b. 1936, lives in Kamakura, Japan) has been awarded the 32nd Wolfgang Hahn Prize by the Society for Modern Art at the Museum Ludwig. The award ceremony will take place on November 6, 2026, at 6:30 p.m. during the Art Cologne art fair at the Museum Ludwig. The entrance is free. 

In his art, opposing forces such as emptiness and tension, stillness and energy come together. As a co-founder of the Japanese minimalist Mono-ha movement (“School of Things”—a collective of artists in Tokyo active between 1968 and 1975), he continues to seek a harmonious reordering of things to this day. Since the 1970s, his minimalist painting in particular has left a lasting mark on the international art scene. In his latest series of paintings, *Response* (2023–2026), Lee continues to work with a broad brush, using it to apply strokes to large-format canvases. These elements appear as isolated formal symbols, rhythmically structured patterns, monochromatic with shades ranging from light white to dark gray. Lee regards the act of painting as “a pure and absolute event” involving an immediate encounter—free from rational calculation—between the artist, the material, and the canvas—a transcendent experience of oneness with the world, an experience he wishes to share with viewers. At the Museum Ludwig, Lee Ufan is exhibiting a room featuring five “Response” paintings, including the work that the Society for Modern Art is acquiring for the Museum Ludwig’s collection. The artist explains: “Around 2015, I began actively applying complex, multicolored strokes using a wide, flat brush. For example, when I paint a blue stroke, I use several shades of blue and do not apply them in a single stroke, but rather in four to five layers, applying one layer each day for four or five days to complete the work. The layering of the brushstrokes gives the canvas a sense of depth, revealing the complexity of time. (…) It is important to me that the powerful strokes of color, in their interplay with the untouched white space, spread out like invisible waves and inaudible resonances, thereby taking on a wondrous painterly quality.”

This year’s guest juror, Mami Kataoka, director of the Mori Art Museum in Tokyo, explains the jury’s decision regarding the Wolfgang Hahn Prize: “Lee Ufan has spoken about how his experiences with several exhibitions in Germany in the 1970s brought his work to the world stage. Over the course of his sixty-year career, he has explored the essential meaning of existence in all contexts that transcend the divide between East and West—without following Western modernism or retreating into Eastern spiritual traditions. Our current interest in Lee Ufan’s work, which fosters an awareness of holistic perspectives, may stem from our longing for interpersonal relationships that form the foundation of our humanity. Lee Ufan’s work will be a magnificent addition to the Museum Ludwig’s collection and will contribute to its global orientation.”

“Lee Ufan’s works have been on my personal wish list for the Museum Ludwig’s collection for a very long time. I am all the more delighted that Lee Ufan is accepting the award,” says Dr. Yilmaz Dziewior, explaining the jury’s decision to honor Lee. “The artist, now 90 years old, maintains close ties to the art scene in Germany, especially in the Rhineland: At the opening of the Museum Ludwig 50 years ago, his works were on view at the Kunsthalle Düsseldorf, the Glaskasten in Marl, the Galerie m in Bochum, and even at the Museum Ludwig itself. Until now, however, the collection lacked a work by the artist. This gap is now being filled with the acquisition made possible by the Wolfgang Hahn Prize.”

Mayen Beckmann, Chair of the Board of the Society for Modern Art: ‘The nomination of Lee Ufan continues a long line of conceptually working Wolfgang Hahn Prize winners since 1994 and, after Haegue Yang, is once again an artistic position from South Korea to expand the collection. Lee's work for the Museum Ludwig collection ties in perfectly with the passion for collecting of Peter and Irene Ludwig, who were interested in Asian art from the very beginning. The acquisition was only possible thanks to the generous cooperation of the prize winner. The Wolfgang Hahn Prize is financed by contributions from our dedicated members.’

Lee Ufan, born in South Korea in 1936, moved to Tokyo at the age of 20, where he graduated in philosophy from Nihon University in 1961. From 1969, he led the Mono-Ha movement and was a professor at Tama Art University in Tokyo from 1973 to 2007. In 2001, he was awarded the 13th Praemium Imperiale for Painting in Tokyo. 

The Wolfgang Hahn Prize is awarded annually by the Gesellschaft für Moderne Kunst am Museum Ludwig, in 2026 for the 32st time. The award is primarily intended to honour contemporary artists who have already made a name for themselves in the art world through an internationally recognised oeuvre, but who are not yet as well known in Germany as they deserve to be. The prize money of a maximum of 100,000 euros is funded by the members’ contributions and goes towards the acquisition of a work or group of works by the artists for the collection of the Museum Ludwig. Linked to the prize is an exhibition organised by the Museum Ludwig of the acquired works by the awardee, as well as an accompanying publication.

The name of the prize honours the memory of the passionate Cologne-based collector and painting conservator Wolfgang Hahn (1924–1987), who was committed to the art of the European and American avant-garde in Cologne in many ways. The Gesellschaft für Moderne Kunst feels indebted to his exemplary work as a collector, as a founding member of the Gesellschaft, and as head of the restoration workshops of the Wallraf-Richartz-Museum and the Museum Ludwig.

The previous awardees can be found here.