TWO CONCURRENT exhibitions at the Museum of Fine Arts (MFA) in Boston are allowing visitors to contemplate two great personal collections of Japanese ink paintings this autumn. The first explores the legacy of 18th-20th century Zen masters. This exhibition features paintings and calligraphies by monks from the 18th century to the present day, who have expressed their spirituality through their art. Included in the exhibition are 35 hanging scrolls and screens from the collection of Kurt Gitter and Alice Yelen, who are considered to have the most extensive collection of Zen artwork outside Japan.
New Orleans residents Kurt Gitter and Alice Yelen were amongst the first Westerners to collect later Zen paintings. They began acquiring paintings and calligraphies by Zen monks long before their importance was recognised 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 practised at newly established monasteries which functioned not only as important religious institutions, but also as cultural centres. During the 16th century, a spiritual malaise gradually set in, but the Zen sect was revived and popularised 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 humour, 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.
During Zen Mind/Zen Brush, the MFA are also hosting a second exhibition, Brush with Enlightenment: Zen Calligraphy, paintings from the collection of Sylvan Barnet and William Burto, which features seven Japanese hanging-scrolls created between the 14th and 18th centuries. The first gallery of the exhibition includes scrolls created by monks associated with Nanzen-ji and Shokoku-ji, two temples in Kyoto that were part of a network of Zen centres that were administered by Japan’s military authorities. The works in the adjoining gallery are by monks affiliated with Daitoku-ji, a Zen complex in Kyoto that maintained its independence. Sylvan Barnet and William Burto have been collecting Japanese calligraphy for more than 30 years. An exhibition organised by the MFA in 1970, piqued their interest in bokuseki (ink traces), the dynamic lines of Chinese characters inscribed by early Zen masters. Since that time they have formed the most important collection of these works in the West.
Until 4 January at The Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, www.mfa.org
