Went over the weekend to see a big show at the Guggenheim (resplendently restored for its fiftieth anniversary), "The Third Mind: American Artists Contemplate Asia, 1860-1989." The show was less enjoyable in situ than it has proved in retrospect, now that the annoying explanations recalling orientalist ideas of a unified "East" (and from which native Asian subjectivities are strangely absent) have faded into a background drone. In particular, I'm very glad to have seen the difference between works inspired by a touristic understanding of Zen Buddhism - spontaneity and immediacy and perhaps emptiness, but celebrated in abstraction from any actual Buddhist practices - and more recent works which show the imprint of Buddhist practice. The former, to oversimplify, are about eternal moments and sudden enlightenments, while the latter explore duration, rhythm, and the slow unfolding made possibly by repetitive practice. A nice sort of hinge is offered by "Cold Mountain Studies" (1988-90), a series of 35 ink drawings inspired by Chinese calligraphy by Brice Marden (above is one; a few more here).
Tuesday, April 14, 2009
Artful Buddhisms
Went over the weekend to see a big show at the Guggenheim (resplendently restored for its fiftieth anniversary), "The Third Mind: American Artists Contemplate Asia, 1860-1989." The show was less enjoyable in situ than it has proved in retrospect, now that the annoying explanations recalling orientalist ideas of a unified "East" (and from which native Asian subjectivities are strangely absent) have faded into a background drone. In particular, I'm very glad to have seen the difference between works inspired by a touristic understanding of Zen Buddhism - spontaneity and immediacy and perhaps emptiness, but celebrated in abstraction from any actual Buddhist practices - and more recent works which show the imprint of Buddhist practice. The former, to oversimplify, are about eternal moments and sudden enlightenments, while the latter explore duration, rhythm, and the slow unfolding made possibly by repetitive practice. A nice sort of hinge is offered by "Cold Mountain Studies" (1988-90), a series of 35 ink drawings inspired by Chinese calligraphy by Brice Marden (above is one; a few more here).
