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Buddhisms
Review Essays of Academic, Professional & Technical Books in the Humanities & Sciences
Zen Art
see Zen, Buddhist Art, Mandala
Zen Art in Cultural ContextTHE ART OF TWENTIETH CENTURY ZEN
: Paintings andCalligraphy by Japanese by Audrey Yoshiko Seo, Stephen Addiss, Matt Welch ($65.00, hardcover, 240 pages, Shambhala, ISBN: 1570623589
For centuries, many Zen Masters have also been artists: brush painters and calligraphers who created artworks as a form of "visual Dharma" to express Zen insights in a powerful, direct way. The authors chronicle some of the major representatives of Zen practice who are currently renowned for their brush work and other forms of art. The provide profiles of some artists, their lineage and practice, the volume provides information not otherwise available in English. The work is also a fine catalogue of the continuity and innovation within Zen art practice from Japan.
This tradition of Zen arts has long been acknowledged as a priceless legacy of Japanese culture.
THE ART OF TWENTIETH CENTURY ZEN demonstrates how the great Japanese Zen Masters of this century have reaffirmed Zen as a vital, living experience through their personal, dramatic, and often humorous brushwork. The book also reveals the enormous dedication and determination of these monks and nuns, who kept Zen painting and calligraphy robust through one of the most turbulent periods of Japanese history. Adding new subjects, new styles, new humor, and a banquet of personal variations upon traditional themes, they not only reestablished the importance of Zen's role in Japanese culture, but also found a new and eager audience for Zen art in the West. This stunning record of their achievements brings together great masterpieces of calligraphy and painting, many of which are in Japanese temples or in private collections and have rarely been viewed by Westerners.Audrey Yoshiko Seo, Ph.D., teaches Japanese art and culture at the College of William and Mary in Williamsburg, Virginia. She is a specialist in Zen brushwork and twentieth century Japanese art. Stephen Addiss, Ph.D., is an artist and art historian who serves as Tucker Boatwright Professor at the University of Richmond, Virginia. Among his books are The Art of Zen and How to Look at Japanese Art, co-authored with Audrey Yoshiko Seo. Matthew Welch, Ph.D., is curator of Japanese and Korean art at the Minneapolis Institute of Arts.
THE ART OF ZEN: Paintings and Calligraphy by Japanese Monks, 1600-1925 by Stephen Addiss ($24.95, paperback, 224 pages, 117 illustrations, including 73 in-full-color, bibliography, notes, index, Harry N. Abrams, ISBN: 081092774)
Long regarded as one of the best introductions to Zen art the work is now available in a fine paper edition. Addiss' text illuminates the esthetics in the art without straying far the representation at hand. he teaches how to see and imaginatively reach into the intentions of the monk artists. THE ART OF ZEN brings together the great masterpieces of painting and calligraphy created by Japanese monks, who turned to visual imagery as an aid to meditation, as an expression of enlightenment, and as the purest form of transmitting Zen principles.
Created spontaneously, Zen art ranges from intensely brushed calligraphic poems and emphatically gesture abstract shapes to roughly hewn, often humorous portraits of the Zen patriarch and his famous followers, all shown here to full advantage and many published for the first time. The accompanying text explains the fundamentals of Zen culture and includes numerous translations of Zen prose, poetry, and sayings.
STEVEN ADDISS is Tucker Boatwright Professor in the Humanities at the University of Richmond, Virginia, and a specialist in East Asian art. he has also written the well received How to Look at Japanese Art with Audrey Yoshiko Seo (Harry N. Abrams) and Haiga: Takebe Socho and the Haiku-Painting Tradition with Fumiko Y. Yamamoto, (University of Hawaii Press)
THE ZEN OF CREATIVE PAINTING: An Elegant Design for Revealing Your Muse by Jeanne Carbonetti ($19.95, paperback, 112 pages, Watson-Guptill, ISBN: 0823059731)
In this ispirational title is designed for the working artist. Carbonetti provides an
integral introduction to the art of water colors inspired by Zen painting techniques and
in a radical but simple self- acceptance. Merging the best of Eastern philosophy with the
best of Western technique,
the creative process is put into practice through exercises designed to unite body, mind,
and spirit in a Zen approach. Illustrated with 100 of the author's lushly colored
paintings. A true delight.
Heaven & Earth, an excerpt:
All of nature was called to a conference by the Great One. They were to decide
if humankind should remain within the Sacred Cosmos Society. It was Sky, a very good
mediator, who spoke first.
"As you know, the question is whether humankind is worth the trouble. On the one
hand, humans do some good things, especially in science and sometimes in art. On the other
hand, they often forget about the rest of us and our wellbeing. Since each of us has a
special part to play within the great order, we must consider humankind’s purpose. In
short, do we really need humans?"
"No," said Sun, rising aggressively from his end of the table. "We
don’t need them at all. We did perfectly well for millions of years before they
arrived. I surely have done my part! I’ve never forgotten to usher in each new day
and provide the light the rest of you need. If you ask me, it’s not logical to waste
time on them."
Sun was known for putting up a good argument, and all were quite impressed.
"I tend to agree with Sun," said Earth. "Look at what I must put up with.
They divide me into little pieces and sell me off to the highest bidder. They crowd and
pollute me so, I can hardly breathe at times." Earth was pretty upset now.
"And what’s more, my name is Earth. Why do they call me ‘dirt’?"
Then Rain spoke. "Let us think about our true purpose. As we each play a unique part
in the universe and together balance one another, don’t we alone make the whole? You,
Sun, and you, sweet Earth, you have the powers of creation, so human beings can claim that
as their purpose."
"And we help with that creation," Wind puffed.
"That’s right," said Rain, "and when need be, Wind and I can destroy
as well."
"Yes" said Wind, all puffed up again, "so we have the powers of creation
and destruction. We can do everything! We don’t need humankind!"
It seemed that humans offered nothing special, and soon a chant rose up, "Humans are
good for nothing, good for nothing."
"Except for one thing," said a clear voice on the other side of the table. It
was Moon, whose strong yet quiet way made the others listen. "You are right, my
friends, when you say that we are powerful and always fulfill our purpose in the great
scheme. Yes, it is we who hold the secrets of Beauty and Truth. Yet with all our majesty,
we do not have the power the third secret. Only humans have that power. Only with them is
the Triad complete."
And in a still quieter voice Moon said, "They can love." And all of nature sat
in quiet wonder at the thought, for they knew Moon was right.
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