ZEN! JAPANESE PAINTINGS
From The Sanso Collection
At Scripps College’s Williamson Gallery
On View from October 31 through December 6, 2009
The Ruth Chandler Williamson Gallery at Scripps College in Claremont
1030 Columbia, Ave., Claremont, CA 91711-3905
The Williamson gallery is located at Eleventh Street and Columbia Avenue, adjacent to Baxter Hall.
During exhibitions, the gallery is open to the public, free of charge,
Wednesday through Sunday, from 1 to 5 p.m.
For more information, contact the gallery at (909) 607-3397.
By Meher McArthur
Asian Art Historian, Author and Educator
Zen! Japanese Paintings from the Sanso Collection is on view at Scripps College's Ruth Chandler Williamson Gallery in Claremont until December 6. The exhibition is a rare opportunity to view exceptional works by such renowned Japanese Zen artists as Hakuin, Sengai and Fugai Enku.
If Claremont seems too far to travel for an exhibition, think of the long drive as an opportunity to empty your mind of daily cares and concerns in preparation for a direct and profound experience with the paintings of some of Japan's great Zen artists.
The exhibition opens with some examples of Buddhist paintings from the esoteric (Shingon) and devotional (Pure Land) schools of Buddhism, for which ornate, colorful paintings of Buddhist deities served as important objects of worship and tools to guide followers towards enlightenment.
In contrast, the Zen tradition of meditational Buddhism, which was brought to Japan from China (where it was called Chan) in the 12th century, rejected the worship of deities and elaborate rituals and instead stressed the practice of meditation and the direct transmission of teachings from teacher to disciple.
Monochrome ink paintings, inspired by Chinese examples, became an important part of this direct transmission. Zen teachers and artists used brush and ink on paper to create abstract, almost philosophical landscapes and images of birds, animals and comical personages which were often visual conundrums created to help enlighten the practitioner.
The Scripps exhibition, which was curated by Bruce Coats, professor of art history and the humanities at Scripps College, features several different types of Zen paintings dating from the 15th through the 19th centuries. The paintings are part of the Sanso collection, one of the country's finest private collections of Japanese paintings.
The collection was amassed over several decades by Peter F. Drucker, who is best known as a management guru, but the number of fine examples of Zen paintings in his collection suggests he himself was greatly drawn to the teachings of Zen teachers and artists.
Some of the earliest and most breathtaking images presented in the exhibition are the monochrome landscape paintings depicting views of nature with a few deftly brushed outlines and graded ink washes.
The rapid brushwork and abbreviation of forms such as mountains and waterfalls to their bare essence reflect the Zen emphasis on simplicity and spontaneity and a sense of oneness with the natural world.
One tiny vertical painting, "Precipice" by Shuko (late 15th to early 16th century), depicts a sheer cliff with a single downward stroke of pale wash, and black ink outlining a temple building at the top, a boat below, and a single rock plunging downwards over the edge. Despite its size, this is a work of great artistic and spiritual power, the precipice and the rock perhaps serving to remind a Zen adept to maintain focus during meditation.
Although images of deities were not used for worship by practitioners of Zen, some were the subject of Zen paintings. The bodhisattva Kannon (Sanskrit: valokiteshvara), a compassionate Buddhist deity who vows to help all other beings, was traditionally depicted as a benevolent figure in a white robe gazing out at the suffering in the world.
Yet, in the hands of some Zen artists, he almost becomes a caricature, as in the delightful painting by Hakuin Ekaku (1685-1768), in which the deity appears to be taking a nap and a break from his altruistic duties.
This comical touch is most apparent in depictions of Daruma (Sanskrit: odhidharma), the Indian monk who is said to have taught meditational Buddhism to Chinese monks and thus founded the Chan/Zen tradition.
It is a treat to be able to compare three very different images of Daruma by Torei Enji (1721-92), Fugai Enku (1568-1650) and Hakuin, all of which depict the monk as a grumpy old monk with bulging eyes and a sullen expression but with a very different touch of the brush.
There are few religious traditions that would allow such seemingly irreverent portraits of their founders. But in the Zen Buddhist tradition, attachment to deities, even the Buddha himself, is strongly discouraged. In fact, the 9th-century Chinese Chan master, Linji Yixuan, (d.866) famously declared, "If you see the Buddha on the road kill him!"
There is much that is didactic about Zen paintings. The works of Sengai Gibon (1750-1837) are wonderfully whimsical examples of this. For instance, his painting of a blind man using a lantern to try to see his way in the dark illustrates the futility of having knowledge without wisdom.
And his depiction of a frog eyeing up a snail, accompanied by the inscription, "The Buddhas of the Three Worlds gobbled up in a single mouthful," superbly illustrates how wit and whimsy can be used to teach profound truths about reality.
Pondering: Enlightenment comes in “Kensu With Shrimp” by Yogetsu (15th century).
(Courtesy of the Ruth Chandler Williamson Gallery)
蜆子和尚図 楊月筆 室町時代
Philosophy: “Frog and Snail” by the Zen master Gibon Sengai (1750-1837) presents a visual metaphor for oneness.
(Courtesy of the Ruth Chandler Williamson Gallery)
蛙図 仙厓義梵（せんがい・ぎぼん）筆 江戸時代
ウィリアムソン・ギャラリーで展示中の「禅画」山荘コレクションの作品紹介
霊照女図 孤月周林筆 室町時代
寒山拾得図 興悦筆 室町時代
達磨・五位鷺・叭々鳥図 文孫筆 室町時代 三幅
寒山拾得図 長沢芦雪 江戸時代
叭々鳥図 雲渓永怡筆 室町時代
平沙落雁図 雲渓永怡筆 室町時代
懸崖図 周耕筆 室町時代
丹霞焼仏・普化振鈴図 久隅守景筆 江戸時代 双幅
蓮池観音図 白隠慧鶴筆 江戸時代
白衣観音図 伝一之筆 室町時代
薬師十二神将図 鎌倉時代
法然上人絵伝断簡 室町時代
春日若宮曼荼羅図 室町時代
CLAREMONT, CA (September 24, 2009)—One of the finest private collections of Japanese paintings in the country, the Sanso Collection, will be on display in “Zen! Japanese Paintings from the Sanso Collection,” at Scripps College’s Ruth Chandler Williamson Gallery. The exhibit runs October 31 through December 6, 2009. An opening reception will be held in the gallery on Monday, November 2, at 7 p.m., offering guests a view of the collection against a background of live, traditional, Japanese Koto music. The events are free and open to the public.
The paintings in the exhibition survey the wide variety of responses to the teachings of Zen Buddhism over hundreds of years. From 15th-century landscapes and portraits of Zen eccentrics to 19th-century images of the Zen Patriarch Bodhidharma and the Bodhisattva of Compassion Kannon, the exhibition explores how Zen ideas were translated into ink paintings by a number of Japan’s prominent Zen masters.
“Since so much of the Zen tradition depends on personal experience, these paintings give students and visitors a direct link to some of Japan’s most famous Zen masters and artists,” remarked Bruce Coats, professor of art history and the humanities at Scripps College. The paintings on display, each chosen by Professor Coats, are shown in conjunction with courses on Japanese arts and culture offered at Scripps College, affording students a wider opportunity to learn about the arts.
In addition to this exhibition, another will be held at Scripps’ Clark Humanities Museum—“Japanese Nō Theater Prints.” Woodblock prints depicting actors and scenes from famous Nō dramas have been selected from among 200 such works in the Scripps College collection.
Three complementary lectures about Japanese arts take place in November and December: From the University of Pittsburgh, Dr. Mae Smethurst, professor of classics, and Dr. Richard Smethurst, professor of history, will speak on November 5, at 4:15 p.m., and 8 p.m., respectively.
Dr. Mae Smethurst’s lecture compares the Japanese Nō theater to ancient Greek drama (sponsored by the Clark Lecture Fund at Scripps College); Dr. Richard Smethurst will discuss Japanese woodblock print artist Tsukioka Kogyo and his depictions of the Nō theater during the 19th and 20th centuries (sponsored by the Pacific Basin Institute at Pomona College).
Both lectures will be held at the Clark Humanities Museum.
On December 3, at 8 p.m., Professor Gregory Levine, UC Berkeley, will present “On the Look and Logos of Zen Art,” (sponsored by WorldBridge). Professor Levine has authored and co-authored books on the arts of Zen Buddhism—Daitokuji: The Visual Cultures of a Zen Monastery (2005) and Awakenings: Zen Figure Painting in Medieval Japan (2007).
The location of Levine’s lecture is to be announced.
The Ruth Chandler Williamson Gallery is located at Eleventh Street and Columbia Avenue, adjacent to Baxter Hall. During exhibitions, the gallery is open to the public, free of charge, Wednesday through Sunday, from 1 to 5 p.m. For more information, please contact the gallery at (909) 607-3397.
The exhibition has been organized in conjunction with the Drucker School and the Drucker Institute of the Claremont Graduate University. This is the initial event in a week of celebrations for the Drucker Centennial. For more information about the Drucker Centennial events, please email Drucker100@cgu.edu or call (909) 607-6007.
Scripps College—founded in 1926 by newspaper publisher, educator, and philanthropist Ellen Browning Scripps—is the women’s college of The Claremont Colleges. Its four-year liberal arts curriculum emphasizes interdisciplinary studies in the humanities, fine arts, social sciences, and sciences. The Scripps mission is to “develop in its students the ability to think clearly and independently, and the ability to live confidently, courageously, and hopefully.”
Los Angeles Times Art Review, Sunday, Nov. 1, 2009
latimes.com
ON VIEW
'Zen,' at Scripps' Ruth Chandler Williamson Gallery, is at one with all things
These images pose philosophical questions.
They're Japanese paintings from the Sanso Collection.
By Suzanne Muchnic
November 1, 2009
"Buddhas of the three worlds gobbled up in one mouthful." Bruce Coats is translating the Japanese inscription on "Frog and Snail," a painting by Zen master Gibon Sengai. The "three worlds" are the past, present and future, he says. "Zen often talks about the oneness of all things. The inscription is saying all time can be eaten in one mouthful."
As for the image, "it's wonderful," he says. "Here we have the frog looking at the snail, about to eat it. The shape of the frog is repeated upside down in the snail in a sort of yin yang arrangement. And the frog seems to be sitting with his hands in meditation."
The ink-on-paper work is one of about 40 scrolls in "Zen! Japanese Paintings From the Sanso Collection," opening this weekend and continuing to Dec. 6. at Scripps College's Ruth Chandler Williamson Gallery in Claremont.
"Frog and Snail" is also a favorite painting of the late Peter F. Drucker, known as the father of modern management. The exhibition -- drawn from a private holding -- was organized by Coats, a Scripps professor, in conjunction with the Drucker Centennial, a series of events sponsored by Claremont Graduate University, home of a management school and think tank named for Drucker.
A writer and consultant who was born in Vienna and educated in Austria and England, Drucker gained international fame in his field. His relatively little known passion for Japanese art began in 1934, when he encountered a traveling show of Japanese paintings instead of the expected British works at the Royal Academy in London.
"I fell in love," he told me in a 1994 interview. "One can't explain why one falls in love. I fell in love, period."
Opportunities to study Japanese art came sporadically, but in the 1940s, while working in Washington, D.C., he spent many lunch hours doing research on Japanese ink paintings at the Freer Gallery of Art. Over time, he developed a strong affinity for imaginary landscapes and the work of Zen masters.
The Scripps exhibition explores how artists put Zen ideas into visual form with spare but powerful authority. The landscapes, portraits and animal images made from the 14th to the 19th centuries are easy to appreciate for their artistry, but they also raise questions.
"Kensu With Shrimp," a 15th century work by Yogetsu, portrays a monk dangling a shrimp in front of his face, as if deciding what to do with it.
"It's a perplexing situation," Coats says. "If you are a Zen monk, you are not supposed to eat meat. You are not supposed to kill living things. But if you have attained enlightenment and realized the oneness of all things, then why do you have a rule saying you can't eat meat? If you can't kill this sentient being, you have already made a distinction between yourself and the sentient being, so you have lost the oneness of things. It's a visual conundrum. These are paintings that should jar you in some way. That's part of the whole Zen experience."
suzanne.muchnic@latimes.com
Copyright c 2009, The Los Angeles Times