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Indepth Arts News:
"Art of Twentieth-Century Zen: Paintings"
1999-09-30 until 2000-01-02
Los Angeles County Museum of Art
Los Angeles, CA,
USA United States of America
This is the first exhibition in the United States to feature
painted and calligraphic works by Japanese Zen masters of
the past 100 years. It will include seventy-one scrolls,
screens, and objects by fourteen of the most prominent
Zen masters of the twentieth century. The art produced by
these Zen masters is both dynamic and functional. There is
a direct connection between painting and calligraphy and
Zen teaching, as seen in the subject matter of the
paintings, such as major Zen figures and scenes of
enlightenment from the past, and the calligraphic
inscriptions of short Zen texts.
It has long been believed in
East Asia that brush and ink reveal the true character of
the artist. Therefore, viewing a painting or calligraphy is a
form of communication with the inner spirit of the person
who created it. Zen masters believe that visual art can
express and transmit what they call Zen Mind in a more
direct manner than words alone. The most important Zen
teachers of this century have all created painting and
calligraphy in order to express their vision to their followers,
and to leave a record of their teachings to future
generations.
Zen art has long been acknowledged as among the
priceless legacies of Japanese culture, but previous studies
and exhibitions have focused upon works from earlier
centuries. Twentieth-century Zen brushwork, however, is of
special interest as a fully traditional form of Japanese visual
art that has continued to flourish to the present day. This
exhibition will reveal why there has been such a steadfast
continuation of past Zen traditions in visual art during a
period when many other forms of art were undergoing major
changes in Japan. It will also focus upon fascinating
variations and transformations of early subjects and styles
in the painting and calligraphy of the most important Zen
monk-artists of this century.
Credit Line: This exhibition, organized by the Marsh Art
Gallery, University of Richmond, and co-curated by Audrey
Yoshiko Seo and Stephen Addiss, is made possible in part
with support from the National Endowment for the
Humanities, a federal agency, and the University of
Richmond Cultural Affairs Committee.
Curators: Robert Singer, curator, and Hollis Goodall,
associate curator of Japanese Art at LACMA
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