Acclaimed performance artist Lee Wen, best known for his Yellow Man series, died of a lung infection yesterday. He was 61.
The Cultural Medallion recipient, who also had Parkinson's disease, is survived by his wife, Japanese artist Satoko Lee, 57, and son Lee Masatoshi, 19.Lee worked as a logistics officer, computer operator and bank officer before he quit his day job in 1987 to pursue art full-time. He graduated from the then Lasalle-SIA College of the Arts, and was an early member of seminal artists' colony The Artists Village.
His Yellow Man series, which addresses cultural stereotypes, began in the early 1990s and includes works where he is featured stripped to his briefs and covered in yellow paint. His biographer Chan Li Shan observed:"At the heart of it was Lee Wen's dream of a society that overcomes stereotyping and superficiality. Can we understand differences and the concept of the Other? What does it mean to create a world with less prejudice, and more tolerance?"