| |
Asian
mysticism has seeped into the white snailshell of the Guggenheim
in The Third Mind: American Artists Contemplate Asia, 1860-1989.
The exhibit explores the influence of Asian culture - the impact
of Zen Buddhism, transcendentalism, Asian metaphysics, and
calligraphy on American Art. The show includes poetry and
music - bells tinkle, there is a distant hum of chanting as one
walks, and the installations have a certain random, haphazard
quality - all this giving the museum an uncharacteristically
raffish air!
The
curators date the beginning of this flourishing cultural
interaction to Commodore Matthew Perry's reopening of trade with
Japan in the mid 19th century, an action which brought to an end
250 years of Japanese isolationism. The title of the show
refers to a 'cut-up' work by William S. Burroughs and Brion Gysin
that draws on the idea of spontaneity derived from Asian culture -
random texts and images that incorporated misreadings and even
invented terms.
One
of the most exciting ideas here is the link between Abstract
Expressionism and Japanese and Chinese calligraphy. Artists
like Robert Motherwell, Franz Kline, and David Smith found
inspiration in the art of the letter - they were, after all,
searching for a way to use paint to express emotion.
Japanese and Chinese calligraphy were fascinating to the Abstract
Expressionists for their aesthetic qualities - rhythm, balance,
the opposition of control and dynamism, the way the brushstroke
and the gesture involved became a part of the process and captured
the spirit of the artist himself. The idea of the brush as
an extension of the body.
Franz
Kline's large, imposing oil on canvas, Painting No. 7,
captures the sense of this brilliantly. Seen in the context
of Asian art, the calligraphic influence is overwhelming - from
the use of black-and-white to the bold brushstrokes. Kline's
contribution was to take this very ritualized art form - the
letter as aesthetic object - and blow it up in size,
simultaneously freeing the painting from any secondary
associations. The painting is reminiscent of Japanese art
and calligraphy, but the size, boldness and sense of action take
the painting in completely new directions. A bare branch in
winter, or a letter from some exotic alphabet of the
imagination?
The
calligrapher's art is a formal one - but with the breaking of
rules comes personal expression. It is the beginning of that
thing known as 'style.'
See:
The
Third Mind: American Artists Contemplate Asia, 1860-1989 at the
Guggenheim, through April 19, 2009
|
|
|
