The bowl has been significant for Young-Jae Lee since the beginning. Spindle vases – essentially more object than vase – live from their volume. Their forms are characterized by expansion and contraction, soft contours and sharp edges. Positioned with their broadest points next to each other, two bowls can be installed in various ways. The spindle vases are an amalgam of Korean ceramics, the so-called moon jars, and artificial design typical of the western world. With the spinach bowls, Lee has emancipated herself from formal precedents and her experiences and attitudes towards the reception of Korean art, whether in Europe, Japan, or in Korea itself. Her love is for the ceramics of the Joseon dynasty (1392-1910, influenced by Confucianism). Thus, her spindle vases are akin to the unique white porcelain of the period, her spinach bowls a distant echo of the spirit of the Buncheong ware of that time, an unpretentious yet powerful type of ceramics that broke with the conventions of its noble predecessors, the celadons of the Goryeo dynasty (918-1392, influenced by Buddhism). Read More
Young-Jae Lee came to Germany in 1972 after studying at the University of Art Education in Seoul from 1968 to 1972. In Germany she studied under the ceramist Christine Tappermann, and from 1973 to 1978 she studied ceramics at the University of Applied Sciences Wiesbaden under Margot Münster and design under Erwin Schutzbach. Moreover, she completed an internship with Ralf Busz in 1976/77. She opened her first workshop in 1978 in Sandhausen near Heidelberg. From 1984 she was an artistic research assistant at the University of Kassel until she took over the Margaretenhöhe Ceramics Workshop in Essen in 1987. In addition to her individual pieces, the bowls and vases, she has developed an extensive range of tableware that can be combined in many ways in terms of shape and, above all, color according to individual tastes and needs. Young-Jae Lee has exhibited in museums and private galleries in Europe, America, Korea, and Japan. Since 1988, Galerie Fred Jahn has regularly hosted exhibitions of Young-Jae Lee's own pieces as well as tea ceramics and the dishes produced by the Margaretenhöhe Ceramics Workshop.
