Lee-Yil is an art critic who made a significant contribution to recognizing and establishing the concept of art criticism and review in the Korean art world from the 1960s to the 1990s. Born in 1932 in Gangseo, South Pyongan Province, Lee was a student at Seoul National University, where he was active as a literary youth, organizing the ‘Literature and Literature Society’ and appearing as a poet. After dropping out of college, he studied abroad in France in 1956, where he completed his studies in the history of French literature and art at the Sorbonne University and worked as a Paris correspondent for the Chosun Ilbo. In 1966, he returned to Korea and was appointed as a professor at Hongik University, and in 1968, he was appointed as a dedicated art writer for the Dong-A Ilbo. In 1969, he founded AG as a founding member of the Korean Avant-garde Association, and in 1970, in the preface to the exhibition AG Exhibition he gave a lucid interpretation of Korean contemporary art by proposing the theme of expansion and reduction which was later changed to reduction and diffusion and became a conceptual term representative of Lee-Yil’s art criticism.
He served as an international jury member of the International Printmaking Biennale in Tokyo (1972), Korean commissioner of the Paris Biennale (1975), international jury member of the Cagnes International Painting Festival in France (1977), Korean commissioner of the Venice Biennale (1995), steering committee member and jury member of the Seoul International Printmaking Biennale, Taipei International Printmaking Biennale, and Seoul International Art Festival, and president of the Korean Art Critics Association (1986-1992). He is the author of Trajectory of Contemporary Art (Donghwa Publishing Corporation, 1974), Genealogy of Western Art (API, 1992), Korean Art, Its Present Face (Spatial History, 1982), Perspectives on Contemporary Art (Mijin Book Company, 1985), Return and Diffusion in Contemporary Art (YeolhwaDang, 1991), The Adventure of Abstract Art (by Michel Lagong, Culture and Education Publishing House, 1965), The Birth of New Art (by Michel Lagong, Jeongneumsa, 1974), History of World Painting (by Louis Urtig, Joongang Ilbo Publishing House, 1974), History of Western Art (by H. W. Janson, Mijinsha, 1985). In 1986, he participated in the founding of the magazine Art Criticism (published by the Korean Art Critics Association), and in 1990, he was awarded the Order of Culture by the French Ministry of Culture. He passed away in January 1997, and was honored with the Order of the Archival Culture in 1999 and the Special Achievement Award of the International Art Critics Association (AICA) in 2014.