Lee Quede
Korean artist (1913–1965)
Lee Quede (Korean: 이쾌대; Hanja: 李快大; 1913 – February 2, 1965), also known as Lee Qoede, Lee Kwae-dae, and Yi Kwae-dae., was a North Korean modernist painter, known for his figurative oil paintings. He was among the earliest adopters of modern Western style painting in Korea.
Toward the end of the Korean War Lee defected to North Korea, leading to the prohibition of his artwork in South Korea. In 1988, the South Korean government lifted the ban and allowed the exploration and study of his art.
Early life
Lee Quede was born in 1913, on the eastern side of colonial Korea in Chilgok, Keishōhoku-dō. At an early age, Lee was inspired by his brother, Yeoseon, an art student at Rikkyo University in Japan, and his activism toward the social role of art in Korea within the colonial context. He studied painting under the artist Chang Bal. When Lee graduated from Whimoon High School, he went to Japan to study art at Teikoku Art School from 1933 to 1938, which is currently called Musashino Art University, and began learning art techniques based on Western still-life and figures. During his studies in Japan, Lee took part in the White Ox Society, a Korean art group in Japan that promoted national consciousness by using the ox as a metaphor of Korean agriculture. After their group was dismissed and rejected by the Japanese police, they changed their name to the Artists' Society in 1938 and continued their activities and exhibitions.
The public source identifies “Lee Quede” as korean artist (1913–1965). This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Quede, Korean and artist.
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Biographical claims are most persuasive when dates, appointments and relationships can be traced to records created close to the events described. The source revision retrieved here is dated Mar 11, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q12612956. VIAF identifies the subject as 73761086. The Library of Congress control number is nr97023748. 5 of 5 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 1 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1913, 1965, 1988 and 1933.
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This entry incorporates text from “Lee Quede” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.