禪與道對 20世紀抽象畫的影響--兼論研究者的體驗與表現

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(1)National Taiwan Normal University Department of Fine Arts. Doctoral Thesis. 禪與道對 20 世紀抽象畫的影響 --兼論研究者的體驗與表現 “Zen and Taoism Influence on 20th Century Abstract Painting -- and Researcher's Art Creation Experience”. Advisor：Prof. Su Hsin-Fa 蘇憲法 Student ：Sagar Talekar 德卡. 2013.

(2) ACKNOWLEDGEMENT. I would like to express the deepest appreciation to my advisor Professor Su Hsian – Fa, (蘇憲法) who has the attitude and the substance of a genius: he continually and convincingly conveyed a spirit of adventure in my PhD research, and excitement in theory and practical painting. Without his guidance and persistent help this dissertation would not have been possible. I would like to express my sincere gratitude to the committee members, Professor Hsiao Chong-Ray ( 蕭瓊瑞), Professor Liu (劉俊蘭), Professor Tsai (蔡芷芬) and Professor Huang ( 黃進龍 ), whose precious comments, guidance and important suggestions on global affairs supported by an “engagement” in comparative literature and abstract paintings, will always transcend academia and provide a quest for our times.. In addition, a profound gratitude to Professor James Gomes, whose enthusiasm for the “underlying structures” had lasting effect. I thank my senior classmate Tsai ShengChuan (蔡勝全) for grate help and master’s classmate ‘E Chen’ translating English titles in Chinese for my dissertation. I specially thank to my all-time supportive friends Pradeep Nayak who provided me many important books and encouragement for this thesis. I would like to dedicate this doctoral thesis to my parents, elder brother Dr. Rahul Talekar, Ms. Wu Liling and Mr. Hsie for their great love, care and support. Finally, by this doctoral thesis I express my deepest tribute to ‘Late Vincent Lee’, who had loved my paintings, cared about my studies and living in Taiwan. I believe he is in paradise and pray that his soul may rest in peace …. I.

(3) ABSTRACT. First chapter focused on the introduction of Zen and Taoism philosophy by Eastern and Western viewpoints. Second part of this chapter investigates the literature review by number of books, novels, research papers, articles of Zen and Taoism philosophy, art influence on east and west. However, several painters from East and West have deeply influenced by this philosophy but there is very less information available about painting and philosophy connection. Some of literature are very important for this research and had details examination in this chapter. Second chapter Research background is constructed on Twentieth century artists, who can be safely said to be influenced by Zen and Taoism philosophy, were not interested in a photographic representation of an object but in interpreting its spirits. It has been Cosmo centric. Therefore this chapter examines western artists and their involvement and viewpoints and for Eastern mainly concern on Taiwanese and Indian artists works. Third chapter of significance and expected outcomes mainly focused on varied colors and abstract forms of Zen and Tao such as Enso, Yin-Yang, circle, square, triangular, spiral or (Kundalini). Therefore this Chapter is constructed on philosophical influence of Zen and Taoism by basic of line, calligraphy, color, techniques and styles by various artists. Fourth chapter is based on my own art experience and an influence of Zen and Taoism philosophy as well as the influence of abstract painters of 20th century. The guidance of my fine art professor Su Hsian-Fa and Hsiao Chong Ray, about collective unconscious, that all humans have common inherited archetypal and symbolic. II.

(4) patterns of emotional and mental behavior which took me to the higher levels and in depth in abstract paintings creation inspired by Zen and Taoism Philosophy. Fifth chapter is main analysis of this research. It’s analyzed by number of artist of Europe and America. 20th century’s American artists explored the calligraphic brushstroke, which was an approach to abstract painting that focused on popular writings on Taoism and Zen and its ethics of direct action. American artists were searching beyond the limitations of their culture for motivation. Shodo, in general, served as inspiration to numerous Abstract Expressionist painters of the period. Japanese art and Zen Buddhism dominated in part because America’s political and economic ties with Japan were historically stronger than those with China or India. Especially European artists inspired by this philosophy and their composition were depending upon chance, random accident or highly improvisational execution, typically hoping to attain freedom from the past, from academic formulas and the limitations placed on imagination by the conscious mind. 20th century most of abstract art was spiritual in its origin and one of them was theosophy movement, it can compare with many of spiritual techniques in Eastern systems of spirituality, to compare the different meditation techniques of Zen and Taoism in this chapter. Conclusion is arrived on Zen Philosophy is constructed on Nothingness whereas Taoist philosophy is constructed on Empty mind therefore this research focused on the aspects of comparative philosophical and painting study and view but not religious view. Key words: Zen, Taoism, Buddhism, Meditation, Abstract Expressionism.. III.

(5) 摘要. 緒論聚焦於東西方觀點下的禪與道，對其哲學及其對東西方藝術的影響進行相關文獻探究。縱然許多東西方藝術家的創作觀均深受禪與道的思想影響，將二者相互聯結的相關文獻卻極為不足。關於本研究的重要文獻均在此被詳盡地檢視。第二章研究背景建構在二十世紀受禪與道的哲學觀影響的藝術家，他們對於呈現物質的外在表象不感興趣，而關注於其內在精神性，此即無限的中心。因之，本章在西方部分研究西方藝術家的涉入與觀點，東方部分則僅限於台灣及印度的藝術作品之探究。第三章重要性與預期結果主要焦注於禪與道的多樣色彩及抽象形式，例如：円相 (Enso えんそう日文音譯 ) 、陰陽、圓、三角形、四方形及螺旋或拙火 (Kundalini 梵文)。因此，本章透過不同藝術家作品的線條、書法、色彩、技法及風格來建構其所受到的禪與道之哲學性影響。第四章是以我個人的藝術經驗、禪與道的內涵及二十世紀抽象藝術家的影響作為基礎。我的藝術學養師承自蘇憲法及蕭瓊瑞二位教授，而集體潛意識此傳承自全人類的原型及來自情感、內在行為的象徵型態引領我向更高境界，而更深層的抽象藝術創作則受到禪與道的哲學觀激發。第五章主要為對此研究的分析探討。二十世紀美國的藝術家研究書法的筆畫，透過聚焦於禪與道常見的書法作品及直接行動，而走向通往抽象繪畫的路徑。美國藝術家不自限於本身的文化而積極行動，於此期間，書道即為啟發為數不少的抽象表現主義藝術家的靈感源頭。. IV.

(6) 日本藝術與禪宗居主要影響性地位，肇因於美國的政治及經濟在歷史因素上與日本緊緊相繫，而中國或印度則相對影響性低。特別是歐洲藝術家多受此哲學觀激發，他們的作品構成仰賴瞬間偶然與隨機性，或即興式的手法，以期達到自過去經驗、學院式的窠臼及想像力受意識控制的限制中全然解脫。. 二十世紀的眾多抽象藝術其根源是精神性的，而其ㄧ則包含了神智學運動，. 可從本章比較東方性靈系統的許多技法，到比較禪與道的不同冥思技法得知。. 結論歸結於禪的無色相與道的放空，因此本研究聚焦於哲學觀的比較與畫作研究觀點而非宗教性的觀點。關鍵字:禪、道、佛教、冥想、抽象表現主義。. V.

(7) TABLE OF CONTENTS. CHAPTER ONE INTRODUCTION OF ZEN AND TAO PHILOSOPHY BY ART VIEWPOINTS 藝術觀點下的禪與道及文獻回顧------------------------------01 1.1 Motivation and Introduction. 緒論----------------------------------------------------01 1.2 Zen and Taoism Comparisons. 禪宗與道家思想之比較---------------------------01 1.3 Zen and Taoism philosophy in Hinduism by art viewpoints. 從藝術觀點看印度教中的禪與道---------------------------------------------------------02 1.4 Zen and Tao philosophy in Buddhism by art viewpoints. 從藝術觀點看佛教中的禪與道------------------------------------------------------------04 1.5 Zen and Tao philosophy in 20th century by art viewpoints. 藝術觀點下二十世紀的禪與道------------------------------------------------------------09 1.6 Literature review 文獻回顧-------------------------------------------------------------10 1.7 Conclusion: 結語-------------------------------------------------------------------------16 CHAPTER TWO EASTERN AND WESTERN INFLUENCE ON ZEN AND TAO 禪與道對東西方藝術的影響-------------------------------------------------------17 2.1 Eastern and Western view on Zen and Tao 禪與道的東方與西方觀點----------17 2.1.1 Zen and Tao influence on Western Art 禪與道對西方藝術之影響-------------17 2.1.2 Zen and Tao influence on Eastern Art 禪與道對東方藝術之影響-------------28 2.1.3 Zen and Taoism influence in Taiwan 禪與道對台灣之影響--------------------30 2.1.4 Zen and Taoism influence in India 禪與道對印度之影響-----------------------34 2.2 Conclusion: 結語-------------------------------------------------------------------------37 CHAPTER THREE GEOMATRIC ELEMENTS, STRUCTURE AND COLOR IN ZEN AND TAOISM 禪與道之創作形式:幾何元素、結構及色彩-------------38 3.1 Line: 線條---------------------------------------------------------------------------------38 3.2 Form 形式---------------------------------------------------------------------------------41 3.2.1 Two main forms of symbolism in Zen and Taoism. 禪與道的二種主要象徵形式---------------------------------------------------------------42 3.2.1.1 Tao: 道---------------------------------------------------------------------------------42. VI.

(8) 3.2.1.2 Zen 禪---------------------------------------------------------------------------------43 3.2.2 Circle 圓--------------------------------------------------------------------------------43 3.2.3 Triangle 三角形-----------------------------------------------------------------------45 3.2.4 Square 四方形 ------------------------------------------------------------------------46 3.2.5 Spiral or Kundalini 螺旋或拙火----------------------------------------------------47 3.2.6 Signature style 特徵-------------------------------------------------------------------49 3.3 Space 空間 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------50 3. 4 Colors 色彩-------------------------------------------------------------------------------53 3.4.1 Yellow 黃色 ----------------------------------------------------------------------------55 3.4.2 Red 紅色--------------------------------------------------------------------------------57 3.4.3 Green 綠色-----------------------------------------------------------------------------58 3.4.4 Blue 藍色-------------------------------------------------------------------------------58 3.4.5 White and Black 白色與黑色--------------------------------------------------------59 3.5 Conclusion: 結語-------------------------------------------------------------------------62 CHAPTER FOUR ANALYSIS ON ZEN AND TAOIST ISFLUENCE ON ABSTRACT PAINTING 禪與道對抽象藝術的影響---------------------------------64 4.1 Zen and Taoism with Theosophy Movement 神智學運動中的禪與道---------------------------------------------------------------------65 4.2 Zen and Taoism Influence on Semi Abstraction 禪與道對半抽象藝術的影響---------------------------------------------------------------69 4.3 Zen and Taoism Influence with Geometry Abstraction 禪與道對幾何抽象藝術的影響------------------------------------------------------------74 4.4 Zen and Taoism Influence on Freeform Abstraction 禪與道對自由抽象藝術的影響------------------------------------------------------------79 4.5 Zen and Taoism Influences with Empty Color-Field Abstraction 禪與道對色空抽象藝術的影響-----------------------------------------------------------83 4.6 Zen and Taoism Influences with Shodo Calligraphic Abstraction 禪與道對書道抽象藝術的影響-----------------------------------------------------------89 4.7 Conclusion: 結語------------------------------------------------------------------------97. VII.

(9) CHAPTER FIVE RESEARCHER’S (Sagar Talekar 德卡) EXPERIENCE WITH ZEN AND TAO 研究者 (Sagar Talekar 德卡) 對禪與道之體驗與呈現------------98 5.1 Zen and Taoism influence in my painting 禪與道對我的創作之影響------------98 5.1.1 Zen influence in my paintings 禪對我的創作之影響------------------------------99 5.1.1.2 Why Zen Buddhism Came to China from India? 為何佛教從印度來到中國-------------------------------------------------------------------99 5.1.1.3 Birth of Zen; Meditative Flower of Lord Buddha.禪之生；佛拈花微笑----100 5.1.1.4 Yellow in Meditation by Buddha. 在佛的冥想中的黃色-----------------------100 5.1.1.5 Self Realization 自我醒悟----------------------------------------------------------101 5.1.1.6 Zen Riddle; Fish and Bottle 禪宗打謎；魚與瓶--------------------------------102 5.1.1.7 Life is Transient; Zen philosophy of Basso. 生命無常:Basso 的禪哲學-----103 5.1.1.8 Anand Shanti 心之平靜 --極樂世界---------------------------------------------103 5.1.1.9 Roop and Swaroop. 真我不生不滅 ----------------------------------------------104 5.1.1.10 Divine Mother is Calling. 聖母在呼喚 -----------------------------------------104 5.1.1.11 Lord Buddha’s Palm; May Coincidence? 如來神掌；是巧合嗎？-------105 5.1.1.12 ‘Sahaj’ means effortlessness or ‘ease’. Sahaj 意思說自在或是解脫------105 5.1.1.13 Untitled Meditation 凝思 ---------------------------------------------------------106 5.1.2 Buddhist Mandala Geometry Abstract Painting Series 2010-12 曼陀羅幾何抽象系列畫作 2010-12------------------------------------------------------108 5.1.3 Taoist influence in my paintings 道對我的作品之影響------------------------111 5.1.3.1 Music of the contrast rhythms – Tao 對比律動的和諧曲--道 ---------------111 5.1.3.2 Mystic Supreme Source- Tao 神秘至高的源頭--道----------------------------112 5.1.3.3 Absolute and Eternal Tao 純粹永恆的道----------------------------------------114 5.1.3.4 In the depths of Tao’s selflessness 道深層的無私內涵 -----------------------114 5.1.3.5 Let the ego drown and enter in the mystery 放下自我,潛進奧秘-------------115 5.1.3.6 Perhaps, the Reflection of before God existence 也許,這是存在在神明之前的反映-------------------------------------------------------116. VIII.

(10) 5.1.4 Conclusion: 結語----------------------------------------------------------------------118 CHAPTER SIX CONCLUSION 結論--------------------------------------------------119 PICTURES-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------121 REFERENCES------------------------------------------------------------------------------138. IX.

(11) CHAPTER ONE INTRODUCTION OF ZEN AND TAO PHILOSOPHY BY ART VIEWPOINTS AND LITERATURE REVIEW 第一章藝術觀點下的禪與道及文獻回顧. 1.1 Motivation and Introduction 緒論 While studying in Taiwan, I observed a beautiful amalgamation of Zen and Tao philosophy with art; the fine threads of super-consciousness that have intrinsically modeled the East Asian culture, lifestyle and civilization for so many centuries was visible in its culture and art forms. Being from India, a country where art and culture exhibits visible philosophical nuances, my appreciation of the various art forms I observed in Taiwan happened naturally. The cultural and philosophical heritage our civilizations have been intercommunicating for over thousands of years not to speak of Buddhism – the gift of India to the world – that has immensely defined the literary, visual and performing art of East Asian countries. Also I realized that the underlying philosophy of life that permeates in India and East Asian countries has the same colors, although the hues are different.. 1.2 Zen and Taoism Comparisons. 禪宗與道家思想之比較 Zen and Tao in philosophy, like abstract art, does not aim to represent the exact shape of an object or thought but rather its essence. The idea of seeking connection to true self through gestures that claim the spirits we truly are strongly influenced by Zen and. 1.

(12) Tao. The essential truth of Zen and Tao cannot be expressed in words. It can only be understood in silence and through walking the path of balance and restraint.1 Zen practitioners throughout history have aimed to return to emptiness; Taoist practitioners have aimed to become immortals. Returning to emptiness is transcendental, whereas becoming an immortal is still phenomenal. Both are worthy goals. Zen, practitioners keep their mind on the void. In Taoism, visualization is used extensively in meditation. Even though ‗Zen is void‘ and ‗Taoism is nature‘ then also,Zen and Taoism agree: Name it and you have made it something other than what it is. Divide it with conceptual thought and you have created all dualistic thinking. Put yourself first you have disturbed the way. Try to ‗get somewhere‘ and you will lose contact with ground. Embrace ‗not knowing‘ and you will know everything you need. 2 In Zen what the highest truth is may not be given a direct answer. Taoism is about truth which says the truth is not truth, so that one can probe his/her own intuition instead. Many skeptics of abstract art are often asked to do the same. A particular piece of art may hold the answer for someone who has not lost the ability to connect with the true self.. 1.3 Zen and Taoism philosophy in Hinduism by art viewpoints. 從藝術觀點看印度教中的禪與道 It‘s said that the word Zen was actually ‗Dhyana‘ (Meditation/concentration by void) given by Lord Buddha in pali (ancient Indian language). When it came to china the word became ‗Chan‘ and the after arriving in Japan became ‗Zen‘. Void is also envisioned as the cosmic egg that held the seed of creation. The ‗Void‘ called Brahman, can be reached through the spiritual practice of meditation and is thought of 1 2. Joanne Ehrich, ‗Zen Art‘, Zenjo press, : P.7 Kay Larson, Where he Heart Beats, P. 178. 2.

(13) as an energy consciousness that goes beyond awareness and physical emotional and mental bodies dissolve into formlessness. 3 The first Hindu artworks representing the Void were similar to the Western images in that they were creating the Void with human characteristics. In this case the Shiva Trinity (man/woman/and androgynous), shows how duality can exist in an absolute. On one side of the Shiva is a female, Uma, with ―a sweet and sensuous expression.‖ On the other side is a male, Bhairava, with an ―angry countenance.‖ (Fig. 25 A) The central face of Shiva Mahevara ―appears to be deep in meditation with a blissful smile‖ with an iconic face signifying the Void, omniscient and omnipotent, containing all and everything. 4. For example, In the Brhadaranyaka Upanishad there is the metaphor of a spider sitting at the center of its web, issuing and reabsorbing its threads in concentric circles, all held at one point. The spider's threads symmetrically expand into a visible circumference, but they can all be traced back to the central point of the web. Like the spider in its web, the center of the yantra is the power-point from which the entire diagram expands, the radiating source of energy that generates all forms. It is the divine essence out of which proceeds the polarized world. It is called Bindu, the first drop, which spreads unfolds, and expands into the tangible realm of the universe. According to Mark Levy, this is also equivalent of the Taoist Yin/Yang. In the Yin/Yang the white and black signify male/female and the circle the absolute. Show images of Shiva and Yin/Yang. 5 In my opinion Levy goes into a great deal of technical aspects of Hindi/yogi meditation and spirituality but does not relate it to. 3. Mark Levy, Void – in Art, Bramble Books, Norfolk. Conn, 2006, P 1. Mark Levy, Void – in Art, P 9. 5 Mark Levy, Void – in Art, P27. 4. 3.

(14) Hindu art work in specific. The statute of Shiva Lingam in all temples in India, the outside circle seems to Zen Enso. (Fig. 25). 1.4 Zen and Tao philosophy in Buddhism by art viewpoints. 從藝術觀點看佛教中的禪與道 When talking about Buddhism there is considerably more specific reference to art. One of the fundamentals of Zen in Buddhism is the refusal of participants to worship images. 6 According to Levy, this has created a context that was ―conducive to the embodiment of the Void in images. Many of the Zen (or Ch‘an as it is called in China) landscape paintings use subjects such as houses, figures or mountains of varying definition. They gradually emerge from or dissolve into the empty space that consumes most of the paper. In these works the scene becomes the path through which we meet the Void. Fugai‘s (1568–1664), paintings evoke a most mysterious and deeply intense feeling. Even his name suggests those qualities: Fugai means "Beyond the Wind." Another prominent artist Hakuin (1685-1765) also widely considered the most important Zen monk of the last five hundred years. His paintings contain a profoundly spiritual power. The older he grew, the greater his brushwork became which could be find in this painting (Fig. 22). Reigen Eto (1721–1885) became one of Hakuin‘s most prominent disciples. Later he went into the mountains where he lived as a hermit for over ten years. Since ancient times its story that Zen masters often describes that, when one many gives a smile to towards mountain then the mountain gives a reply by same smile. (Fig. 18) This painting may got influence by this philosophy. Kogan Gengei (1748–1821) was a prolific Zen artist, whose paintings (Fig. 21) often shown a. 6. Mark Levy, Void – in Art, P 27.. 4.

(15) whimsical touch and contain humorous, original compositions. Kogan studied under Hakuin at his temple for several years. When Kogan first arrived, Hakuin was over eighty years old, and so Kogan also worked with a number of Hakuin‘s direct disciples. One more monk artist Nantenbo (1839–1925) noted one of the greatest Zen masters of the 20th century. He had tremendous energy and brushed Zen art daily as an integral part of his practice which could be found in this painting (F. 17). He was strong and active to the day he died at age eighty-seven. 7. In many ways Zen in Buddhists and Hindu philosophers agree with contemporary physicist that matter is a quantum soup, a vibrating field of varying densities in constant flux.. 8. The connection with the smallest Void is a connection with the. universe. When speaking of a Zen garden Levy says ―the cones of gravel in the garden seem to dissolve into the pure energy of the Great Void. The dilution of form by space, which occurs in meditation and through observation of such works as this garden, lightens the pressure created by the apparent solidity of the world. Space is a great mental balm.‖ 9 Enso which are one-stroke, ink circles drawn by Zen masters are another expression of the Void. The empty circle symbolizes the spiritual world, and the circle without beginning and end, alludes to the infinite empty space of the Void.. 10. In 1995,. Tanahashi, a Japanese American artist, created an enso with a brush six feet tall to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the founding of the United Nations. For him, the circle also symbolized social unification and solidarity. 11 There are similarities in the work of Agnes Martin and in how she prepares for her work and waits for inspiration. 7. Stevens, John. ‗The Transactions of the Asiatic Society of Japan‘. Japan, 1986. 7 Mark Levy, Void – in Art, P 28. 9 Mark Levy, Void – in Art, P 37. 10 Mark Levy, Void – in Art, P 38. 11 Mark Levy, Void – in Art, P 41. 8. 5.

(16) Levy quotes Tanahashi, ―We can be most creative when we have nothing in hand, nothing in mind,‖ 12 which are almost the exact words you will hear Agnes Martin say in the film, ‗With my Back to the World‘. In Japan, the warrior elite showed particular interest in Zen. Monks used calligraphy (bokuseki, or 'brush traces') to convey stories or details of a patriarch's life, Zen philosophy, and poetry, connections to an influential patron or funerary sentiments. Zen figure painting in Japan also detailed the interregional dialogue between Chan and Zen Buddhists, as Chan masters traveled between China and Japan, and Japanese Zen Buddhists began to study in China. ‗Zen‘ in China shared much with the Taoism of Lao-tzu and Chuang-tzu, so much that it is difficult to determine how much of Zen has Buddhist origins, how much Taoist. 13 The advent of Buddhism (1st century AD) introduced art of a different character. Works of sculpture, painting, and architecture of a more distinctly religious nature were created. With Buddhism, the representation of the Buddha and of the bodhisattvas (菩薩) and attendant figures became the great theme of sculpture. 14 Taoism appears at first to be a school of philosophy, but then we learn that ordained Taoist priests, wearing formal robes, perform prescribed rituals before precisely laidout altars. It seems firmly rooted in humanism, but then we discover that it boasts an extensive pantheon of deities who populate an elaborate network of heavens. It seems to address in the broadest terms the most general questions, but then we find that its theories are detailed in volumes of painstaking minutia. It may appear as a religion, but then it manifests itself as a system of alchemy, of medicine, of geomancy, of astrology, or in any number of bewildering forms. Tao is founded on nameless, 12. Mark Levy, Void – in Art, P 41. Edward Cozen, ‗Buddhist Meditation‘: P.8 14 Edward Cozen, ‗Buddhist Meditation‘: P.9 13. 6.

(17) formless, ‗non being‘ which is in essence, the totality of the natural process. Despite constant flux, Tao is unitary, having no distinctions of big or small, good or bad, life or death. 15 The Yin/Yang is the best known Tao symbol representing male and female and unity, or in Levy‘s words, ―polarities of the existential world.‖ 16 The traditional Tao artist will strive to connect his or her own ―chi‖ (breath, vapor or energy) through the brush to the viewer. For the Tao artist ―the idea [of emptiness] must precede the brush‖ and ―it must extend [to emptiness] once the stroke has ended‖ leading the viewer into the empty space or Void. Bamboo is a typical subject for Tao paintings since it has a hollow core and signifies the presence of the Void in all things. 17 These descriptions at first may seem esoteric and unrelated, but as we study the art of the early abstract impressionists there will be many links. Similarly, in Tao philosophy the form, change, and development of all things can be placed within the cycle of Yin and Yang. From the relationship of the Liang Yi contained within the Taiji diagram, we see that "the Yin polarity creates Yang and the Yang polarity creates Yin"; and that "a single Yin cannot form Yin and a single Yang cannot form Yang." "One is needed to produce the other". Lao Tzu said that "all things carry Yin and hold to Yang." The Yellow Emperor's Internal Classics state that "Yin and Yang are the way of heaven and earth, the web of all things, the mother and father of change, and the originators of birth and death." Moreover my research on Hsiao Chin, the great artist and advocate of Taoism Zen in Taiwan, made me look into a brilliant cultural and artistic revolution that has cropped into the eastern art forms in the modern era.. 15. Johan Fairbank , ‗East Asia‘: P.48 Mark Levy, Void – in Art, P 52. 17 Mark Levy, Void – in Art, P 52. 16. 7.

(18) Two philosophers Laozi and Chuang Tzu are accredited the establishment and dissemination of Taoism. Although it started as a way of life in harmony with nature Taoism transformed over the centuries into an organized religion having numerous gods and goddesses. 18 (F.13). This rubbing expresses (Chuang Tzu Dreaming of a Butterfly, mid 1500s, by ( 陆治) Lu Zhi (1496–1576), China) the Taoist notion of the transformation of things, for the same forces that manifest themselves as mountains, rivers, celestial bodies, animals, and plants are also viewed as operating within the microcosm of the human body. "The rubbing consists of a diagram of the head and torso, seen from the side. The entire diagram is framed on the right by the spinal cord, which connects the lower torso with the cranial cavity in the three major sections of the body, head, upper torso, the lower torso, and the areas of the three 'cinnabar fields'. (F.14) Zhang Lu (张路)(1490–1563) was Taoist painter and his style name was 'Tian Chi' (天馳) and his pseudonym was 'Ping Shan' (平山). Zhang followed the Zhe school of painting. He painted landscapes and human figures in a free and uninhibited style (F. 12). In its later elaborations, Taoism produced a staggering multitude of deities. Among those shown here are the Stove God, the Door God, the Kitchen Door God, the Well God, and the Earth God (the sixth household god alluded to in the title, the Lattrine Goddess, is missing), along with several mountain deities. For artists, Taoism offers a rich repertoire of subjects. It also offers a way of seeing, and a way of doing: a Tao of art. The first of the "six laws of painting" set down by the scholar Xie He (謝. 赫 ) in the early sixth century CE reads ( 气韵生动 ) qiyun shendong: "convey movement through harmony of spirit." Taoist artists, understanding that existence is fluid, typically created lively works full of movement, as they sought to transmit the 18. Johan Fairbank , ‗East Asia‘: P.47. 8.

(19) essence of their vision by serving as a vehicle for the expression of (氣) qi. The result is a marvel: we need only to look and to see. A vast yet orderly scheme of nature was conceived, reflecting contemporary Taoist and Confucian views. Sharply diminished in scale, the human figure did not intrude upon the magnitude of nature. The technique of ink monochrome was developed with great skill; with the utmost economy of pictorial means, suggestion of mood, misty atmosphere, depth, and distance were created. During the Sung dynasty the monumental detail began to emerge. A single bamboo shoot, flower, or bird provided the subject for a painting. Hundreds of painters contributed to its glory. The basic premise that the highest truth, or first principle, or Tao, is not expressible in words or conceivable through logical thought is common to both Taoism and Zen. Both hold, moreover, that an intuitive understanding of the first principle is possible, and this is called enlightenment. The enlightened Taoist sage is considered to have gained some special knowledge, coupled with arcane skills, and thus becomes somehow removed from the world, but the Zen Master gains nothing other than the realization that there is nothing to gain, and is thus more than ever in the world.. 19. The profoundness of thought and action reflects directly in the art and crafts, paintings literature, performing arts all over the East Asian Countries be it China, Japan, Korea, Taiwan, etc. 20. 1.5 Zen and Tao philosophy in 20th century by art viewpoints. 藝術觀點下二十世紀的禪與道 When abstract art was in its infancy several artists, Wassily Kandinsky and Paul Klee in particular, began to write about their art from a spiritual perspective and the belief 19 20. Deisetz Tei Taro Suzuki, ‗Zen Buddhism and its influence on Japanese culture‘: P.33 Deisetz Tei Taro Suzuki, ‗Zen Buddhism and its influence on Japanese culture‘: P.5. 9.

(20) that art had an ―awakening and prophetic power.‖ 21 Kandinsky was aware that Asiatic disciplines of meditation might provide a method through which For Kandinsky meditation or ―absorption‖ artists could discover the invisible universe of spiritual energies.. 22. In Kandinsky‘s notebooks several pages exist that have notes for. meditation instructions. 23 The difference Shimomura cites between the West and the East is that in Western thought religion is a matter of faith and therefore moves beyond intellect, that is it is still based on rational understandings which it then transcends whereas in the East transcendence takes the form of sensory awareness and is therefore a unique type of intellect, which is apart from rational thought. 24. 1.6 Literature review. 文獻回顧 There are very short and incomplete literatures on the topic ‗Zen and Taoism influence on 20th century abstract painting‘. Most of the literatures are on Zen and Tao since ancient time to present time. Till recent period, most of the painters have been incorporating only Zen and Taoism philosophy in their paintings. Many several modern painters from East and West have deeply influenced by this philosophy but there is very less information available about painting and philosophy connection. However, I have searched on number of articles, magazines, books, novels, pictures on Zen, Taoism, Buddhism, Hinduism, Western art, Eastern art, philosophy, psychology, painting ‘isms from ancient period to present. Most of them are examined. 21. Ulrike Becks-Malorny, Kandinsky, Taschen, Koln. 2007,P. 58 Roger Lipsey, An art of our Own: The Spiritual in 20th Century Art, Shambhala Publications, Boston, Mass.,1988, P. 1 23 Maurice Tuchman, Ed., The spiritual in art: Abstract painting, 1890-1985, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Abbeville Press, N.Y., 1986, P. 133 24 Shimomura, ―D.T. Suzuki‘s Place,‖ in A Zen Life, ed., Abe, 66. 22. 10.

(21) partially on this chapter and tried to combine the literature review Zen and Taoism and painting. In various spiritual traditions, Zen and Taoism philosophy may be employed for focusing attention of aspirants and adepts, as a spiritual teaching tool, for establishing a sacred space, and as an aid to meditation and trance induction in their paintings. Jacquelynn Baas, ‗Smile of the Buddha: Eastern Philosophy and Western Art from Monet to Today‘ is a concise, crisply written overview of the influence of Buddhist philosophy, doctrine, and visual arts on European and American painting, drawing, and sculpture from the late-nineteenth century to the present. Bass begins the book with a very useful explanation of Buddhism and its fundamental differences from Christianity, Islam and Judaism. She emphasizes that Buddhism is a religion of personal, introspective contemplation rather than preached and taught revelation of the Divine. The book consists of twenty chapters that are case studies of major artists from Impressionism to the present. The chapters are grouped mostly chronologically according to five broadly defined themes of Buddhist ideas and artistic influences and development. The artists given individual chapters include Paul Gauguin, Vincent Van Gogh, Odilon Redon, Wassily Kandinsky, Constantin Brancusi, Georgia O‗Keeffe, Marcel Duchamp, Isamu Noguchi, Jasper Johns, Nam June Paik, Yoko Ono and Richard Tuttle. All of them, and many more who were not discussed, were influenced and inspired by various aspects of Buddhism to greater and lesser degrees. For some, Buddhism was essential. For others, it was useful and significant but not as vital. For still others, it was rather circumstantial and incidental, but subtle affinities are apparent. In some cases, Buddhism provided the artist with a sense of purpose. In other cases, Buddhist art had greater visual influence on artworks; it provided stylistic direction and visual motifs for artworks.. 11.

(22) In discussing Kandinsky, Bass dwells on the Siberian and Mongolian, and hence Buddhist, aspects of his genealogy, and she draws parallels between Kandinsky‗s writings and Buddhist writings. Although enlightening, this chapter feels complete. Bass described Kandinsky might have been influenced by Buddhist aspects of Theosophy or what aspects of Theosophy is particularly Buddhist. She clarified that how Buddhism influenced aspects of turn-of-the-century spirituality and mysticism that were important to many pioneers of abstraction. Bass interprets many of Van Gogh‗s ideas on his art as spiritual enlightenment and messianic salvation originating as a Christian mentality with parallels to Buddhism. She discusses a few of van Gogh‗s lesser-known paintings, among them a painting of a tree and a self-portrait where the artist appears vaguely as a Buddhist monk, as indicative of the importance of Buddhism for him. The quirkiness of the author‗s choices of artists and the limitations of the book‗s predetermined structure become very obvious in the last two sections of the book, which are devoted to artists of the past forty years. The choices are sometimes very logical, particularly with Nam June Paik, Agnes Martin and Richard Tuttle. For example, Conceptual Art and Earth Art are virtually absent. It seems that for recent art, Buddhism has become much more implicit and indirect in its influence, and Baas noticed this trend and explained it carefully. Major writings on Zen and Tantric Buddhism from the past 75 years were important for some of these more recent artists, and Baas often mentions the details of published and references of Buddhist concepts in artist‘s statement. She offers perfect observations concerning the Buddhist visual references in several of Duchamp‗s early paintings and readymade, such as the indirect suggestions of the Wheel of the Law and the mandala in Bicycle Wheel (a spinning wheel for contemplation), which contradicts interpretations of Dada as. 12.

(23) aesthetically vacuous icons of the failure or non-existence of art in modern life. Furthermore, she probes the Buddhist aspects of Duchamp‗s play with words and phrases. Furthermore it is useful and interesting reading and the first of its kind as a book-length study of the impact of Buddhism on modern art, The Smile of the Buddha is in very important in this research and in depth. Where the Heart Beats may not just be the best book written yet about John Cage; it‘s probably also one of the most substantive-yet-readable entryways into the nexus of 20th-century American art and the immortal qualities of Zen Buddhism and Eastern thought. It sounds like a parody of a Buddhistically deep koan to suggest that the book about Cage most likely to entrance newcomers is the same one that will most startle the class of so-called experts on the subject—but that‘s the trick Larson has managed here. In the book of well know Ellen Pearlman, ‗Nothing & Everything: The Influence of Buddhism on the American Avant-Garde 1942 – 1962‘. The early chapter on D.T. Suzuki himself may be the gem of the entire book - it is an intimate portrait of a man often seen as basically an academic more than a practitioner of Zen. Here the whole person emerges, and we see how special (and brilliant) he was, and the depth of his actual practice, which includes a description of his Enso or flash of enlightenment. Furthermore author gets into considerably denser material with Suzuki‘s influence beyond and through Cage, it is hard not to sense a need to hurry things up in the limited time she has left. Descriptions of the Fluxus group that came out of Cage, and the influence of Zen on Abstract Expressionist painters such as Jackson Pollock becomes increasingly a laundry list and brief catalog sketch. Kandinsky‘s book Concerning the Spiritual in Art, taught us to see how my art can exist in both the spiritual world and the world of form and color at the same time; one. 13.

(24) world can give meaning to the other. In the book, Zen in the Art of Archery, Herrigel, a German philosophy professor, tells the story of how he tried to understand Zen by spending five years just learning to draw the bow and release it without conscious intention or mental deliberation. The instrumental goal of hitting the target was completely irrelevant to the art. Maurice Tuchman, curator of The Spiritual in Art – Abstract Painting 1890-1985 (and editor of the exhibition catalogue by the same name) tells us that the pioneering studies of Sixten Ringbom in the 1970s25started a re-evaluation of these assumptions, and ‗by the late 1970s numerous scholars had taken up the question of artists‘ interest in mysticism. 26 In 1915 art historian Peg Weiss published Kandinsky and Old Russia: Artist as Ethnographer and Shaman. 27. This work seems to have been written and researched quite independently of. Tucker‘s authoritative analysis of shamanism in 20th century arts and culture. 1995 also saw the hosting of a panel session, The Subjugation of the Spiritual in Art, by the College Art Association in Texas, leading to the publication of essays edited by Dawn Perlmutter and Debra Koppman entitled Reclaiming the Spiritual in Art in 1999 (containing Susan Shantz‘s paper). 28 In 1999 the Tate Britain presented The Spiritual in 20th C Art, a lecture series by art historian Sarah O‘Brien Twohig, and in 2000 John Golding published Paths to the Absolute, which explicitly recognizes the spiritual influences on Mondrian, Malevich, Kandinsky, Pollock, Newman, Rothko and Still, while avoiding overtly spiritual language29. According to Lao-Tzu Tao is a path, the way of absolute; so that, the 25. Ringbom, Sixten, The Sounding Cosmos; a Study in the Spiritualism of Kandinsky and the Genesis of Abstract Painting, Abo (Finland): Acta Academiae Aboensis, 1970 26 Tuchman, Maurice (Ed.), The Spiritual in Art: Abstract Painting 1890-1985, New York, London, Paris: Abbeville Press Publishers (Los Angeles County Museum of Art), 1986, p.13 27 Weiss, Peg, Kandinsky and Old Russia: The Artist as Ethnographer and Shaman, New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 1995 28 Perlmutter and Koppman, P. 61, 72 29 Golding, John, Paths to the Absolute – Mondrian, Malevich, Kandinsky, Pollock,Newman, Rothko, Still, Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton University Press, 2000.. 14.

(25) research arrived in the links of Taoism and these artists. In 2001 the group Poeisis presented The S Word discussion forum at the ICA, bringing art, science and the spiritual together, through thinkers like Don Cupitt (Sea of Faith) Satish Kumar (editor of the nature and spirituality journal Resurgence), Margaret Boden (writer on AI and creativity) and Rupert Sheldrake (radical biologist). In 2002 Lynn Gamwell published Exploring the Invisible - Art, Science and the Spiritual, which brings out the important third strand, science, and its relation to art and the esoteric30. Viola‘s exhibition called ‗The Passions‘ at the National Gallery London in 2004 was accompanied by a catalogue and an exhibition guide (leaflet). The catalogue is edited by John Walsh, director of the J. Paul Getty Museum, and in his introduction we approach Viola‘s work through a criticism-as-spiritual literacy, alluded to above. Furthermore Walsh investigate: ‗The shift resulted in part from Viola‘s study of ancient Hindu scriptures and its ideal of perfecting the self, which transmitted through Buddhism, had become the focus of the Zen thought and personal experience that has informed his work. 31 Biggs and Iain in Journal of Visual Art Practice hints at how the transcendent spiritual impulse informs the abstraction of the mature works of the American Abstract Expressionists, and at the same time it demonstrates the limits of shamanism for theorizing abstraction. While Miro and Alan Davie, and perhaps also Kandinsky, pursue imagery throughout their mature period that contains within it shamanic purpose and iconography, Pollock, Rothko and Newman leave it behind in their later work. Their visual language is no longer bound to the world of earth, spirit and animals, but has begun a process of erasure, with many parallels and often. 30. Gamwell, Lynn, Exploring the Invisible: Art, Science and the Spiritual, Princeton and Oxford: Princeton University Press, 2002 31 Walsh John, (Ed.), Bill Viola - the Passions, Los Angeles: The J. Paul Getty Museum in association with The National Gallery, London, 2003, p. 25. 15.

(26) explicit reference to the via negativa. 32 While this term in Christianity means a route to ‗God‘ through the negation of attributes, related non-theistic concepts are found in many other traditions: ‗sunyatta‘ or emptiness in Buddhism. In its positive aspect however it becomes ironically the via negativa and in modern art perhaps its greatest expression was with Barnett Newman.. 1.7 Conclusion: 結語 One of the most important keys to understanding Abstract Expressionism is addressing directly this profusion of styles. Instead of understanding the works solely as individual attempts of self-expression, the works need to be understood in relation to and in dialogue with each other. The signature style is not simply a sort of selfbranding, an emblem of recalcitrant individuality, but is instead emblematic of a community structured by difference. Therefore, literature reviews alone may not help in perceiving the artist‘s mind and style. Furthermore, abstract painters are meditators who paint from inspiration arising in their souls and often cannot be explained in words.. 32. Biggs, Iain, Editorial, Journal of Visual Art Practice, Vol. 2 No. 3, 2003, p. 117. 16.

(27) CHAPTER TWO EASTERN AND WESTERN INFLUENCE ON ZEN AND TAO 禪與道對東西方藝術的影響. 2.1 Eastern and Western view on Zen and Tao 禪與道的東方與西方觀點 Twentieth century artists, who can be safely said to be influenced by Zen and Taoism philosophy, were not interested in a photographic representation of an object but in interpreting its spirits. It has been Cosmo centric. It sees man as an integral part of nature. The affinity between man and nature was what impressed Oriental artists rather than their contrast, as in the West. To Occidentals, the physical world was an objective reality to be analyzed, used, and mastered. To Orientals, on the contrary, it was a realm of beauty to be admired, but also of mystery and illusion to be pictured by poets, explained by mythmakers, and mollified by priestly incantations. This contrast between East and West had incalculable influence on their respective arts, as well as on their philosophies and religions. However, when cultures communicate with one another, communions and amalgamations are bound to happen. Evidently they influence one another and create another realization – however minimal it may be.. 2.1.1 Zen and Tao influence on Western Art 禪與道對西方藝術之影響 20th Century Abstract painters of the west personally or in groups were involved in Zen, Tao, Theosophy, Vitalism, Heideggerian existentialism, Gestalt therapy and Action Painting. Consequently, they were influenced by Zen and Tao, either directly or indirectly. In articulate worldviews that recognized the individual as intimately connected to each-others world by the very nature of existence. 17.

(28) Zen masters developed special forms of painting and calligraphy both as modes of meditation and as visual teachings.. 33. These dynamic forms had an important. influence on modernism. Western artists became fascinated with the artistic potential of dynamic abstract brushstrokes. Some moved beyond forms into Zen philosophy. Few if any Western artists achieved the spontaneity of Zen masters, but Enlightenment was an ideal that inspired many in their non-religious quest for the transcendent. Along the way, they gained glimpses of Nothingness which can only be known intuitively. They also learned what it is to be totally spontaneous, if only for a moment. During the 1880s and ‗90s Zen influence on art popularly influenced the occidental artists. Among the first were van Gogh who loved Japan deeply and painted himself as a Buddhist priest, Gauguin who painted a work called ―Nirvana‖ which he hoped to reach but never did. These ideas will be analyzed later in chapter 4.During the art school studies in France, Monet was exposed to Japanese Viyoe‘s wood block prints which captured beautifully colored visual effects. Monet and his contemporaries completely reflect the main stream in recent Chinese and Western painting. 34. Art comes from and is realized in a place before language, outside of the discursive mind. It shares this place, the place of emptiness, with Buddhist meditation practice.35 Kandinsky‘s watercolor In the Circle from around 1911-13 is an early example of a form that would replace his beloved horse as a symbol of power. Some fifteen years later, he told the psychologist Paul Plaut, ―If…in recent years I have preferred to use the circle so often and passionately, the reason (or cause) for this was not the. 33. Deisetz Tei Taro Suzuki, ‗Sen Nuddhism and its Influence on Japanese Culture‘: P.33 National Palace Museum, ‗Chinese and Western Style in Nineteenth Century‘: P.19 35 Jacquelynn Baas, Smile of the Buddha: Eastern Philosophy and Western Art from Monet to Today, P. 10 34. 18.

(29) ‗geometric‘ form of the circle, or its geometrical characteristics, but rather my strong feeling of the inner force of the circle in its countless variations.‖ The art historian Peg Weiss has argued that possible inspirations for Kandinsky‘s circles include Lapp and Siberian shaman drums, as well as cosmological concepts. One could infer another possible source: the circle of enlightenment –the wholeness of form and emptiness expressed in ―countless variations,‖ from the circle of the ―both vanished‖ stage of the Chinese Ch‘an Oxherding Pictures to Zen brush drawings of the enso, Japanese for ―circle (Fig. 40, 41, 42).‖ ―A circle is a living wonder,‖ Kandinsky wrote in 1937, in an essay entitled ―Empty Canvas.‖ According to Kandinsky‘s biographer Will Grohmannt Kandinsky was essentially Eastern in his personality.36 The historian of Asian art Michael Sullivan has linked Kandinsky‘s concept of resonance with that ―cornerstone of Chinese aesthetic theory‖- chi-yiinsheng-tung (―spirit resonance‖) - defined by the Chinese painter Hsieh Ho in the sixth century : ―Early Chinese painters felt that this ‗spirit‘ was a cosmic force.37 The suggestion in The Coffee Grinder of a ―window‖ that opens from material to immaterial reality hints at a Tantric influence. This work was done at the end of 1911, the same year that Jacques Bacot‘s Tibetan collection, which included Zen circle, was shown at the Musee Guiment. Duchamp may even have attended or discussed this exhumes Buddhist sculpture.38 ―Rotational movement is one of the most obvious characteristics of Tibetan rites,‖ wrote Jacques Bacot in his first published Musee Guimet lecture. Coffee Grinder depicts a machine that through rotational movement transforms individual coffee beans, whose form resembles the female exterior genitals, into a substance that can be. 36. Jacquelynn Baas, Smile of the Buddha: Eastern Philosophy and Western Art from Monet to Today, P. 61-62 37 Ibid, P. 66-67 38 Ibid, P. 85. 19.

(30) made into a stimulating-an awakening-liquid. Perhaps the best-known Tibetan examples of rotational movement are prayer wheels-rotating wheels or cylinders bearing or containing inscribed texts. Small ones are twirled on sticks; very large ones are turned using a mill powered by flowing water. Tibetan prayer wheels are modeled on the Wheel of the Dharma, the wheel the Buddha drew on the ground when he preached his first sermon, ―Setting in Motion the Wheel of the Dharma.‖ Sometime in 1913 – the year after his return from Munich Duchamp attached a bicycle wheel to a stool. He kept it by his chair in his studio so he could easily set it spinning. In Buddhism, the wheel is associated with turning the wheel of the Dharma-the liberating truth set in motion by the Buddha.39 Tosi Lee has made a convincing case for the connection between Duchamp‘s choice of a wheel for his first ―readymade‖ and the Buddhist Wheel of the Dharma (Fig. 43, 44). In the Buddha‘s first sermon the wheel stands, among other things, for the newly enlightened Buddha‘s determination to turn the wheel of truth in this world. In early Buddhist art, the Wheel of the Dharma is represented by a wheel placed on top of a throne or pillar.40 Duchamp‘s began constructing The Large Glass in 1915, which titled - Grand Vehicule - the French term of ‗Mahayana‘. Four elements on the right side of the lower, ―bachelor‖ half of the glass allude to Buddhist ―perspective‖. At the top is a small circular form described by Duchamp in his 1965 etching (a magnifying glass to focus the splashes).‖ It hovers above three ―Oculist Witnesses,‖ whose wheel-like shapes were supposedly based on French oculist charts. Duchamp first developed these circular forms in 1918 in a piece he referred to as ―the small ‗Glass,‘‖ evoking the name of Buddhism‘s other main branch, Theravada or Hinayana-in French, Petit. 39. Jacquelyn Baas and Mary Jane Jacob, Buddha Mind in Contemporary Art, University of California press, P. 19 40 Jacquelynn Baas, Smile of the Buddha: Eastern Philosophy and Western Art from Monet to Today, P. 86-87. 20.

(31) Vehicule (―small vehicle‖), because it focuses on individual enlightenment, as opposed to Grand Vehicule, which focuses on the enlightenment of all beings. The Zen circle of The Small Glass is an actual magnifying lens, and Duchamp inscribed the piece: ―To Be Looked At (from the Other Side of the Glass) with One Eye, Close To, for Almost an Hour.‖41 Cage stated that, he could have found ―Buddhist poetry‖not theory, but something more like enlightenment fables-in books like The Gospel of Buddha According to Old Records, which Paul Carus, out in lonely LaSalle, Illinois, had compiled in 1894 out of texts and stories from the Buddhist canon. The Gospel was so successful that Soyen Shaku asked D. T. Suzuki to translate it into Japanese.42 Either Duchamp absorbed Buddhist teachings from books, or he got the point all by himself, because in Fountain he proposed a view of the human mind that perfectly resonates with Buddhism. 43 Cage was so heart beaten after the death of Duchamp; he was like an old Zen Master who wouldn‘t tell you even if you did ask. After Duchamp‘s death, Cage spoke with his wife that, ‗you know, I understand very little about Duchamp‘s work. Much of it remains mysteries to me‘. She replied, ―It does to me too.‖ In the last decade of his life the famous American Japanese sculptor and painter Isamu Noguchi made Ojizousama or ‗Jizo‘, a nineteen-inch, slightly vertical stone with a circle carved in its middle. When the former relocation camp internee represented the United States at the 1986 Venice Biennale, he showed Ojizousama in an exhibition entitled ―What Is Sculpture?‖. 41. Jacquelynn Baas, Smile of the Buddha: Eastern Philosophy and Western Art from Monet to Today, P. 88-89 42 Kay Larson, Where the Heart Beats, P. 45 43 Kay Larson, Where the Heart Beats, P. 48. 21.

(32) For Cage, Duchamp had always been a teacher who acted without speaking, who spoke through his work, and who had brilliantly proposed an art indistinguishable from life.44 The bodhisattva Jizo is the compassionate protector of the dead, especially children, and of travelers. His Sanskrit name, Kshitigarbha, means ―womb of the earth‖. Jizo‘s stone form, which can be as simple as a barely carved rock, appears along Japanese roads, at intersections, in mountain passes, and at the entrance to graveyards. The circle carved into Noguchi‘s Jizo could be a reference to the womb or to the wishgranting jewel that is his attribute. It is also another enso, resonant with Mu, nothingness. 45 Another cubist New York based painter Adolph Frederick Reinhardt ("Ad" Reinhardt)‘s journey towards Zen is also fascinating. Around 1940 he had abandoned Cubist-influenced abstraction in favor of the overall pattern of collage, and by the late 1940s he was creating black-and-white ―calligraphic‖ paintings and luminous ―brick‖ paintings. His shapes gradually became larger and more contingent until he achieved the brilliant variations on a single color exemplified by Red Painting of 1952. For the next four years, Reinhardt focused on two colors: red and blue. In 1955-56 he began to darken his colors dramatically, first in vertical canvases and then in five-footsquare paintings bearing nine black squares arranged in a symmetrical cross or Zen circle shape. ―Five feet wide,‖ he was quoted as saying, ―just the width of a man‘s reach. 46 In language that echoes his reverent descriptions of Buddhist sculptures, Tantric Mandalas, and Chinese landscape paintings, Reinhardt declared his black. 44. Kay Larson, Where the Heart Beats, P. 98 Jacquelynn Baas, Smile of the Buddha: Eastern Philosophy and Western Art from Monet to Today, P. 122-123 46 Jacquelynn Baas, Smile of the Buddha: Eastern Philosophy and Western Art from Monet to Today, P. 127-128 45. 22.

(33) paintings to be ―pure, abstract, non-objective, timeless and changeless.47 His mature geometric abstractions emerge as a distinct formulation to effect as concentrated state of ―sacred‖ awareness: i.. Symmetry – geometry – perfection – absolute. ii.. Centrality – frontality – black – rectilinear. iii.. Finished before begun?. iv.. Thought – contemplation – meditation. v.. More is less – much in little – latent. vi.. Conventionality – repetition. vii.. Quietness – ―holy‖ – sacred – symbolic. With the work of the composer and artist John Cage, the relation of Buddhism to Western art came out of the closet. Cage freely acknowledged the significant impact of Buddhist philosophy on his life and his work.48 In a 1992 interview with Laurie Anderson for Tricycle: The Buddhist Review, Cage explained how he came to Buddhism: ―I had read The Gospel of Sri Ramekrishna. I became interested, in other words, in Oriental thought. And I read also a short book by Aldous Huxley called The Perennial Philosophy, and from that I got the idea that all the various religions were saying the same thing but had different flavors…So I browsed, as it were, and found a flavor I liked and it was that of Zen Buddhism. It was then that Suzuki came to New York, and I was able to go to Columbia once a week for two years to attend his classes.‖. 47. Alexandra Munroe, The Third Mind: American Artists Contemplate Asia, 1860-1989, p. 290 Jacquelynn Baas, Smile of the Buddha: Eastern Philosophy and Western Art from Monet to Today, P. 159 48. 23.

(34) Cage seems to have begun reading about Zen Buddhism in the late 1940s, before he began attending the lectures of D. T. Suzuki around 1950. 49 In 1960 grove press published D. T. Suzuki‘s Manual of Zen Buddhism. The purpose of this book, Suzuki explained in his preface, was to share with Western students of Zen what ―the Zen monk reads. Suzuki often cited the esoteric ink painting by the zenga artist Sengai Gibon (1750-1836) as the quintessential embodiment of the universe and hence a diagram of satori. (Fig 49) He interpreted Sengai‘s three fundamental forms as geometries of formlessness and infinity which underscored his own view of emptiness (Sunyata) as the essence of Zen enlightenment.50 Suzuki reproduces an early Chinese woodcut version that ends with an ‗empty circle‘ and a Japanese version of Kakuan Shien‘s twelfth-century elaboration, in which the ‗empty circle‘ is only stage eight. Kakuan, Suzuki tells us, thought the shorter version ―some-what misleading because of an empty circle being made the goal of Zen discipline (F. 41, 42). Some might take mere emptiness as all important and final.51 Painter Agnes Martin, born in the same year as John Cage, was among the first, along with her friend Ad Reinhardt, to absorb and reflect the lessons of Zen Buddhism in her art. If in his paintings Reinhardt contains and conveys the rich darkness of the mind, Martin strives to contain and convey the elements of the natural world within the elements of two-dimensional expression. These are primarily line and color; though line and light might be a better way to describe it, for some of Martin‘s most powerful paintings have no color at all. She was apparently influenced by the sixteenth-century Chinese poet Pu-ming, whose verses are quite surrealistic and deep in nature. In the early 1960s Martin gave her 49. Jacquelynn Baas, Smile of the Buddha: Eastern Philosophy and Western Art from Monet to Today, P.166 50 Alexandra Munroe, The Third Mind: American Artists Contemplate Asia, 1860-1989, p. 199-200 51 Jacquelynn Baas, Smile of the Buddha: Eastern Philosophy and Western Art from Monet to Today, P. 207. 24.

(35) paintings and drawings, which were empty of anything but simple grids, titles like Flower in the Wind and Grass, evoking Pu-ming‘s ―lilies of the field and its fresh sweet-scented verdure.‖ She herself indicated that her own philosophy integrated heavy does of both Taoism and Buddhism: ―My greatest spiritual inspiration came from the Chinese spiritual teachers; especially Lao Tzu…My next strongest influence is the Sixth Patriarch Hui Neng…. I have also read and been inspired by the sutras of the other… Buddhist masters. Zen influence is readily apparent in Martin‘s Cow, a painting from 1960 (Fig 47). Its brown circle could almost represent the ―Both Vanished‖ (Fig. 41) episode from the Zen Oxherding Pictures about the taming of the mind.52 By the late 1960s radically abstract Indian Tantric art - made to be used as perceptual aids to meditation - was increasingly available to artists like Martin and Irwin. In 1969 the Los Angeles County Museum of Art presented Fifty Tantric Mystical Diagrams in an American museum. Ajit Mookerjee‘s Tantra Art, which influenced the art of Jasper Johns, came out in 1966, with new editions in 1971 and 1977.53 According to Richard Tuttle, who was influenced by wabi-sabi (the Japanese aesthetic of impermanence) and by Chinese calligraphy, but who has more recently been engaged in an effort to shift his (and our) energy from an east/west to a north/south axis: ―Such a haptic, four-dimensional conception of energy is reminiscent of the Tantric Buddhist circles, whose visualization cultivates profoundly aesthetic as well as spiritual perceptual awareness, and which is organized in reference to the four directions. The earth turns from west to east, so east-west energy has to do with time.. 52. Jacquelynn Baas, Smile of the Buddha: Eastern Philosophy and Western Art from Monet to Today, P. 215 53 Jacquelynn Baas, Smile of the Buddha: Eastern Philosophy and Western Art from Monet to Today, P. 207, 209. 25.

(36) North-south energy, on the other hand, is related to the poles of our planet-to space‖.54 Irwin and Turrell collaborated on a project for the U. S. Pavilion at Expo 70, Osaka. Their collaborator was Edward Wortz, who would drop out of the space program and become a gestalt therapist at the Los Angeles Buddhist Meditation Center. The focus of their investigations, like isolated meditation periods inside a black, soundless anechoic chamber, was to devise mechanisms (art) that would ―make people conscious of their consciousness…The experience is the ‗thing,‘ experience is the ‗object.‖ 55 Irwin pursued the possibility of an edgeless painting with a series of convex silver-white disks whose material form, when attached to the wall and lit, dissolved in the interplay of its own shadows (Fig 45). The abstract color films of California artist Jordan Belson likewise function as what Pran Nath would call ―a psychic phenomenon; A song of the universe. Samadhi (1967) (Fig 46) is a gradual metamorphosis of emerging and receding circles that evoke planetary globes and the pupil of an eye. While Bleson‘s images in part from live photography, they are documentary ―visions of [his] inner eye‖ that correlate with his phenomenological experiences of advanced yogic meditation.56 Several of his films are based on specific South Asian metaphysical texts and concepts. Belson acknowledges his fellow abstract filmmaker James Whitney for developing the mandalic potential of the graphic film with works such as Yantra (1957) and Lapis (1966).. 54. Jacquelynn Baas, Smile of the Buddha: Eastern Philosophy and Western Art from Monet to Today, P. 211 55 Alexandra Munroe, The Third Mind: American Artists Contemplate Asia, 1860-1989, p. 297 56 Alexandra Munroe, The Third Mind: American Artists Contemplate Asia, 1860-1989, p. 290. 26.

(37) By 1969, the year Carl Andre made Zinc Ribbon. He had developed his concept of ―sculpture as place‖ and wrote: ―A place is an area within an environment which has been altered in such a way as to make the general environment more conspicuous.‖ This approach reflected his interest in Zen gardens designed for Buddhist monastic contemplation as ―ancient exemplars of field sculpture‖ and experiences that induce ―an ecstatic change of state.‖ He later noted how ―[he] found in Kyoto this kind of calm, fierce calm, a kind of fierce attention, a fierce equilibrium.‖ Increasingly, he saw mass culture as inimical to art and described his Minimalism as a process of emptying art to arrive at ―blankness,‖57 Another artist De Maria emerged as an intermediate, proto-Minimalist artist. Her reference to a mandalic cosmogram can be seen in an earlier work, Triangle, Circle, Square (Fig 48), which quotes the famous Buddhist cosmogram by the eighteenthcentury Japanese Zenga artist Sengai. (F. 49) De Maria orchestrated Minimalist means and contemporary disseminations of Asian cosmologies to intentionally create an art of sublime immanence. 58 The three forms of triangle, circle and square has been analyzed in the 3rd chapter sub chapters 3.2.2, 3.2.3 and 3.2.4. Among the Seattle painters, Morris Graves was the most profoundly influenced by Tobey‘s ideas about Asian art. Graves achieved such emblematic authority with his painting Black Buddha Circle an image that occurred to him in a ―waking vision.‖ It is one of the few works to explicitly reveal his profound understanding of Buddhist art forms. Using the predetermined dimensions of the stretched canvas, Graves duplicated the Circle ―palace‖ format of a square enclosing a circle containing a deity represented, in this case, by diaphanous layers of ―white writing.‖ At each of the four gates, or ―cardinal directions,‖ of the palace is another deity; Graves chose plant 57 58. Alexandra Munroe, The Third Mind: American Artists Contemplate Asia, 1860-1989, p. 296 Alexandra Munroe, The Third Mind: American Artists Contemplate Asia, 1860-1989, p. 296. 27.

(38) forms to serve this purpose. By retaining the traditional ―sacred geometry,‖ Zen circle became his schematized map of cosmic consciousness.59. My main consideration is that the influence of the Zen and Taoism on the Western tradition examining the spiritual dimension of art as embodied in the works of the guiding figures of abstract modernism. 2.1.2 Zen and Tao influence on Eastern Art 禪與道對東方藝術之影響 Western influence on Chinese art has been evident since the late 17th cent., but was not of major significance until comparatively recent times. The 19th century produced no major Chinese masters but many competent traditionalists. Chinese painting had already indirectly influenced of European Art by end of Ching Dynasty ( 1644-1911) and beginning of republic period (1911), the artist such as Hsu Pei-Hung ( 1895-1953), Liu Hai-Su ( B. 1896) and Lin Feng-Mien (1900-1991) began returning from France, that the influence was felt in educational circle stirring up waves of Western reform. 60 With the Communist takeover in 1949 the parameters for art were changed. During the 1950s, 1960s, and 1970s, especially during the 1960s Cultural Revolution, Eastern artists were insulated and isolated from cultural developments in the West, such as pop art. As a result of the open door policy in the early 1980s, all kinds of western modern art flooded into China and polarized Chinese artists into two camps: those who wanted to follow the West and those who wanted to cling to tradition. Chinese Artist Zhao Wuji (Zao Wou-ki) (1920-1913) His paintings could connect with Eastern Calligraphy. He was settled in 1948 in Paris, where his first sustained 59 60. Alexandra Munroe, The Third Mind: American Artists Contemplate Asia, 1860-1989, p. 95 National Palace Museum, ‗Chines and Western Styles in Ninettenth Century‘: P.16. 28.

(39) exposure to Western Modernist painting left him feeling ambivalent about the classical forms of landscape and calligraphic ink painting in which he had been trained. The combination of these influences has resulted in the unique art of one of the greatest contemporary Chinese artists. But through nonobjective Western painting, especially the work of Paul Klee, who was influenced by traditional Chinese and Japanese art, Mr. Zhao gained new insights into what the British art historian Michael Sullivan called ―the Abstract Expressionist element in his own tradition.‖ Art curator Daphne King described that, Westerners thought he was Chinese, but Chinese thought he was very westernized. His creation known for their striking Modernist lines combined with color subtleties and three-dimensional perspective suggestive of Chinese landscape painting. He mixed Western influences with his Chinese identity to give his work a universal scope. Zao Wou-ki's art becomes abstract expressionist movement most poetic one, even the most hurricane flying picture, let us also think misty rain and Chinese landscape of the world like blurred and hazy. His art from the beginning, slowly let the art scene of one of the bright his calligraphy series on ancient bronzes Zhou Wen Zhuanshu of digging down, throw in the smoke of history, those characters as if it is being electro-optical lightning Soho has demonstrated a different abstract expressionism of the road in the West.. On the way of the research of Zen and Tao philosophical modern painting, I gain knowledge that, two great painters are the most important in this field. The reclusive master from India is V. S. Gaitonde (1924 - 2001), and a meditative painter is Hsiao Chin (1935) from Taiwan.. 29.

(40) 2.1.3 Zen and Taoism influence in Taiwan 禪與道對台灣之影響 While studying PhD in Taiwan made me find more sources of Zen and Taoist influence here. Hybrid is the word for contemporary art from Taiwan, an island swept by insistent waves of Japanese, Chinese and Western influence. In an effort to chisel out a distinctive aesthetic, many young artists are increasingly drawing on indigenous folk beliefs and popular culture, a trend illustrated in this well-selected survey.61 Contemporary 21st century art in Taiwan shows a great tendency towards juvenile, pluralism and subjectivity. The artists of today are mostly self-mocking, humorous, rebellious and critical when observing, examining and interpreting the phenomena of their own age. On the other hand, they are overwhelmed by the modern-day knowledge explosion, information overflow, media flood, consumer-orientated culture and fluctuation of value sense carried along with globalization. However the artists who nevertheless were not blown away by the commercialism and worked towards solidifying their knowledge, their self-awareness and spirituality had started experiencing a new smell of change. They started experimenting with new mediums in terms of color, texture, size and perception. I need to reflect here about my research on Hsiao Chin before elaborating upon the progress so far. Hsiao Chin began with Post-Impressionism via a received repertory of visual information and formal strategies; naturally, even a cursory contact with his work immediately reveals its links to the visual prototype that surely surrounded him in Shanghai, in infancy. His idiosyncratic abstractions, dating from l961 onward, abound in a calligraphic quality that is recognizably Eastern, but also very personal and instinctively aesthetic. They also contain resonances of Ch'an (Zen) paintings in China and Japan, and even more ancient sources. He no longer had to avoid the usage. 61. Jason C. Kuo, ‗Aart and Culture Politics in Postwar Taiwan ‘: P.3. 30.

(41) of bright colors since he had gained a total control of the acrylic paints. The vibrant brush strokes and transparency produced by the water content of the ink had transformed the jumping color dots into spiritual light of deep Chinese tradition… The Spanish critic J E. Cirlot described his works in 1957 at his first exhibition that Hsaio Chin‘s style originates in Fauvism and passes through the theory of the composition of the Cubism, absorbing the expression technique of other art as well as utilizing the techniques of automatism. As for color his works show hints of Chinese opera costume and folk art influences. The masks are clearly very extraordinary. The paintings use strong contrasting colors, however although they are energetic and sprightly his work hides within itself the tenderness and elegance of tradition. That year an already popular artist by the name of Xi De-jin also discussed Hsiao Chin's work and reverently described them as: "simple and clear. The colors were elegant; the form possessed an innocent interest". 62 What does it mean? It‘s but obvious that the tremendous socio-cultural revolution of 18th and 19th century, which was the result of Industrialization and which created an array of modern artists as well as strong modern schools of thought as well as art form, was bound to influence the eastern art as well. Although western modern art met severe resistance all over the east, the artists along with the educationists – philosophers found it irresistible to stay away from this astonishing explosion of thought. On the other hand the highly developed and profound eastern philosophy and culture had its iron grip on their psyches because of its sheer abstractness and magnificence. One of the well-known painters is Hung Tung (1920-1987), an illiterate, self-taught painter, calligrapher and sometime shaman, whose work did much to get the idea of a native style off the ground. His decorative, hallucinatory pictures. 62. Lin and Keng Gallery, ‗Hsiao Chin: A Traveler of Universe‘, P.23. 31.

禪 與 道 對 20世紀抽象畫的影響--兼論研究者的體驗與表現

禪與道對 20世紀抽象畫的影響--兼論研究者的體驗與表現