"Zen Buddhism’s emphasis on simplicity and the importance of the natural world generated a distinctive aesthetic, which is expressed by the terms wabi and sabi. These two amorphous concepts are used to express a sense of rusticity, melancholy, loneliness, naturalness, and age, so that a misshapen, worn peasant’s jar is considered more beautiful than a pristine, carefully crafted dish. While the latter pleases the senses, the former stimulates the mind and emotions to contemplate the essence of reality. This artistic sensibility has had an enormous impact on Japanese culture up to modern times."Zen had a huge influence on Japanese art, as we'll see. It meshes very well with the Shinto aesthetic. But the best place to begin is with paintings like the one above by Sesshu Toyo, a Buddhist monk, using the Haboku (or "Broken Ink") style.
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| Ai Weiwei "Sunflower Seeds" |
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| Fan Kuan. "Travelers amid Mountains & Streams" |
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| Zang Zeduan Detail: "Along the River During the Qingming Festival" (Song dynasty): Bridge |
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| Zang Zeduan "Along the River During the Qingming Festival" (Song dynasty) [Please click HERE to examine the entire scroll] |
To "read" a Chinese painting is to enter into a dialogue with the past; the act of unrolling a scroll or leafing through an album provides a further, physical connection to the work. An intimate experience, it is one that has been shared and repeated over the centuries. And it is through such readings, enjoyed alone or in the company of friends, that meaning is gradually revealed.
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| Liang Kai: Poet Strolling by a Marshy Bank |
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| Zhao Mengfu: Four Anecdotes from the Life of Wang Xizhi |
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| Han Gan. Night-Shining White. Tang Dynasty . ca. 750 |
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| Seated Buddha from Gandhara (Victoria & Albert Museum) |
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| Shiva Nataraja (Cleveland Museum of Art) |
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| Chola Period Shiva Nataraja (Met) |
Other useful links:
