Suiô Genro (Japanese, 1716-1789), Japanese, Edo period, 18th century, Seated Bodhidharma, Hanging scroll; ink on paper, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, Gitter-Yelen Collection, Courtesy, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. |
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Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
Avenue of the Arts
465 Huntington Avenue
617-267-9300
Boston
Second Floor
Japanese Galleries
Zen Mind/Zen Brush: Japanese Ink Paintings From The Gitter-Yelen Collection
October 1, 2008-
January 4, 2009
New Orleans residents Kurt Gitter and Alice Yelen were among the first Westerners to collect later Zen paintings. They began acquiring paintings and calligraphies by Zen monks long before their importance was recognized in Japan. Their collection began in 1965 when Gitter was stationed in Kyushu for two years as a United States Air Force flight surgeon. While there, he came across Zen paintings by monk Sengai Gibon (1750-1837) who had served in a nearby temple and was captivated by the brushwork. Zen Mind/Zen Brush reflects their passions for Japanese art and self-taught art from the 18th to the 20th centuries.
Zen was first introduced to Japan in the late 12th century. Painting and calligraphy were practiced at newly established monasteries which functioned not only as important religious institutions but also as cultural centers. During the sixteenth century a spiritual malaise gradually set in, but the Zen sect was revived and popularized by monks such as Hakuin Ekaku (1685-1768) and Sengai during the 18th and 19th centuries. Critical to their efforts was the production of paintings. These leaders incorporated bold displays of ink with individualistic brushwork giving traditional themes, such as the enso (circle of enlightenment), new forms, and often adding humor, which can be seen in Sengai’s rendition of Hotei Wakes from a Nap. The scroll captures the amusing nature of the big-bellied deity, resting on his mendicant’s sack.
Hakuin devised the famous illogical question, “What is the sound of one hand clapping?” to challenge his students in their quest for enlightenment. To aid his efforts in propagating Buddhism among the populace, he also created highly inventive paintings — some with images of Bodhidharma, the first patriarch of the Zen sect, or of the Seven Gods of Good Fortune. In the powerful painting Two Blind Men Crossing a Log Bridge, Hakuin depicts two figures feeling their way across a bridge over a river chasm that can be interpreted as a poignant analogy to the unenlightened seeking understanding. In order to make his religious teaching more relevant to his students, he depicted a steep ravine that was an actual site near his own rural temple of Shoin-ji at the top of the Izu peninsula in eastern Japan.
Zen Mind/Zen Brush explores the legacy of Hakuin and generations of his disciples, whose works display the distinctive, fluid brushstrokes of Zen painting and calligraphy while transmitting the teachings through images of deities and Zen monks. |
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