If the originality of European painting determined the use of a linear perspective, then the eastern (China, Japan) - was strongly influenced by the spirit of Zen.If the originality of European painting determined the use of a linear perspective, then the eastern (China, Japan) - was strongly influenced by the spirit of Zen. Read about what it is in this post.
What is Zen
Zen Buddhism is neither religion nor philosophy, nor psychology nor science. It is a way of life and a view of life, an example of what is called the “path of liberation” in India and China. This is the acceptance of the naturalness and spontaneity of life in all its causelessness and fluidity.
The essence of Zen Buddhism is very difficult to convey in words. It is the sense of peace as it is, not artificially divided into objects and actions, into bad and good. Just as a coin, it is what is concluded between an obverse and a reverse, so the world is that elusive “between”.
The manifestations of Zen in art
Naturalness and spontaneity
From a Buddhist point of view, every moment is self-sufficient and does not need to be justified by some external purpose. Such a life is beautiful - it is consonant with the freedom of clouds and mountain streams wandering everywhere, flowers in inaccessible gorges, whose beauty no one sees, and an ocean surf, forever washing the coastal sand.
Therefore, in life and in art, the cultural tradition of the Far East most of all values naturalness and spontaneity (zu-jen). This is the unmistakable sound of sincerity, characteristic of the action of ill-conceived, direct.
Guided Chance
Pictures form as naturally as the rocks and grass that they depict. This does not mean that the art form of Zen is created purely by chance, and the picture can be created by a snake, which was dipped in ink and then left to wriggle on a sheet of paper. Rather, for Zen there is no dualism or contradiction between the natural element of chance and the human element of control.
Slowness
Since the world is not going anywhere, there is nowhere to hurry. Everything can be taken easily, as nature itself does. Hence the principle: haste and everything connected with it are destructive. The lack of rush is also associated with a certain non-interference in the natural course of events.
At the junction of genres - calligraphy
The calligraphic style of painting was closest to the attitude of Zen - it was usually a drawing and a poem beneath it, made in black ink on silk or paper. The East was not characterized by a strict distinction between specialties - writing and poetry were one of the main occupations of Chinese scientists, and Chinese painting is very close to calligraphy. Therefore, often a scientist, artist and poet were combined in one person.
The originality of the genre was also influenced by the materials used. Chinese black mascara conveys a wide variety of tones depending on the amount of water added, and the mascara itself has an extraordinary richness of color shades of black. Since the touch of the brush is light and smooth, and in order for the mascara to flow evenly from it, it should easily slide on absorbent paper, using the brush requires special ease in the movements of the hand, brush and shoulder, more like dancing than drawing letters on paper.
As a result, a special genre of painting was born in the East, which was later called sumi-e.
Sumi-e
In Chinese painting, this style reached its peak during the Song Dynasty (959-1279) and is represented by artists such as Xia Gui, Ma-yuan, My Qi and Liang Kai. In Japan, he received the name Sumi-e.
Masters of the Song era were primarily landscape painters and created a style of "painting of nature" that was hardly surpassed anywhere in the world. They paint nature for us: mountains, waters, fog, rocks, trees and birds - just like Zen Buddhist or Taoist feels her life. This is the world to which a person belongs without dominating him. This world is self-sufficient, it was not “created for” anyone and has no purpose.
Chinese landscape
Song landscapes are not at all as fantastic and stylized as Western critics think. When you go to similar places in the mountainous terrain, this kind of thing opens up at every turn of the road, and only a photographer is not enough to take a picture exactly resembling Chinese painting. A striking feature of the Song landscapes, like sumi-e as a whole, is the comparative void of the picture - a void, which, however, looks like part of the picture, and not just an unpainted background. Filling one corner of the sheet, the artist enlivens the entire surface of the painting.
Xia Gui. Landscape
The technical skill of the artist, the variety of brush movements, from full subtle grace to crude vitality. This brush carefully paints out all the details of the tree, then it sketches out only general outlines and masses, the texture of which is created by “controllable randomness” - disheveled brush hairs and uneven ink coloring of the paper. The secret of this technique lies in the ability to balance the form with empty space and, most importantly, to feel the moment when it is “said” enough.
The western eye in these paintings is immediately struck by the lack of symmetry - the consistent deviation from regular and geometric shapes - and straight and curved. A line drawn with a brush is usually jagged, angular, oddly curved, intermittent, or swiftly smooth, but always more spontaneous than predictable.
Moods of Furyu
A purposeless existence is a constant theme in all genres of Zen art and expresses the inner state of the artist himself, who goes nowhere and exists outside of Time.
This feeling is sometimes found on ordinary people, and it is precisely in such moments that they perceive those dazzling glimpses of the universe that illuminate in memory randomly turned up images: the smell of burning leaves at the dawn of a foggy autumn morning, the flight of pigeons in the ray of the sun against a cloud or a lonely cry of a bird in the thicket of the forest. In Zen art, any landscape, any sketch of bamboo swayed by the wind, or lonely rocks is an echo of such moments.
Sumi-e
If the mood of this instant expresses loneliness and peace, it is called sabi.
If an artist feels depressed or sad and with such a special kind of emptiness of feelings briefly notices something ordinary and natural in all of his inexpressible “suchness”, such a mood is called a wabi.
If an instant causes a stronger nostalgic sadness associated with autumn and the feeling of dying of the world, then it is called avare.
When something mystical and strange appears in what he saw, as if a hint of something unknown and eternally inaccessible, such a mood is called yugen.
These completely untranslatable Japanese words describe the four main moods of Furyu, i.e. the general atmosphere of Zen "taste" in such "aimless" moments of life.
Haiga and zenga
By the beginning of the 17th century, Japanese artists had developed an even more meaningful and “improvisational” style of sumi-e, called haiga, which was an illustration of haiku poems. This genre evolved from zeng — the laid-back sketches of Zen monks that served as illustrations for verses or sayings.
Dzenga is drawing Chinese jeroglyphs, circles, branches of bamboo, birds and human figures with these free and powerful swings of brush that seem still full of movement when the stroke is already applied. One of the most common motives of dzeng is the circle. But even such a seemingly simple figure is full of expressiveness - this circle is not only slightly shifted and curved, but the texture of the lines itself is full of life and tension, with random splashes and gaps from the movement of a rough brush.
Enso - circle, zen symbol
So an abstract or "ideal" circle becomes a concrete and natural, living circle just as rocks and trees, clouds and waters seem more like themselves to the Chinese eye, and least of all they resemble the shapes of geometry and architect.
Dzenga and haiga are the most "extreme" expressions of sumi-e style - here it is the most organic, undisturbed and unobserved and full of those "controlled accidents" of the brush, which embody the amazing "senseless" nature itself.
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"ZEN ART FESTIVAL"
International Festival of Symbolic Art
Registration deadline: until May 25, 2022 (inclusive)
Exhibition dates: June 2-8, 2022
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Terms of participation in the project
By participating in the International Zen and Symbolic Art Festival "ZEN ART | ZEN ART", you agree to the following conditions and guarantee the Organizing Committee and the organizer of the exhibition NextArt Co Ltd / NextArt Global Art Agency that all the registration information that you provide is true, accurate and :
Rights
The exhibition is open to artists 18 years or older whose use by the Organizing Committee and NextArt Co Ltd/NextArt Global Art Agency does not and will not violate any applicable laws or regulations, or any agreement to which they are a party.
Copyright
All images that you will submit are images of original works of art created independently or are works of art created by an artist who authorized you to submit images on his / her behalf. The images presented by you do not violate the rights to privacy, publicity, copyrights or other intellectual property rights of any individual or legal entity. You may not create, distribute or reproduce in any way any copyrighted material, trademarks or other private information without the prior written consent of the owner of such ownership. In accordance with this, the Organizing Committee has the right to terminate all relations with any artist who violates copyright if a notification of a violation is received from the copyright owner or the lawyer of the copyright owner.
Subject of artwork
You agree that the work of art that you will send to the Organizing Committee to participate in the exhibition will not include material that is pornographic, sexually explicit, violent and / or racist, offensive to religious values.
Expert Council
The works sent to the Organizing Committee will be presented to the members of the Expert Council, each of whom will make a conclusion on the submitted works and select those works. which, in his opinion, most deserve encouragement from the professional community. A member of the Expert Council will confirm his choice with a letter/email to the Organizing Committee. Based on the submitted examinations, a short list of works that can be nominated as "The Best Zen Art Sample" will be compiled.
Participation Formats
There are two forms of participation - personal and daistant. If the author does not have the opportunity to present his works in person, he chooses the distant form in which his works will be printed and placed in the art-book, and will also be broadcast on the monitor during the exhibition.
Sale of artworks
The structure of the commission of the Organizing Committee is 80/20: the artist receives 80% of the list / retail price and the organizing committee receives 20% of the list / retail price. In addition, 10% of the quota of the organizing committee from the sale of works will be sent to charity organizations.
Use of Images
We will be entitled to publish images of your works of art on our websites and other advertising channels for the subsequent promotion of this exhibition and your works of art.
Saving Images
By uploading your work of art, you authorize us to save images of such a loaded work of art in our system until the end of the exhibition. You also allow us to save such images after the end of the exhibition. We save these images so that you can easily present them in other projects in the future. At any time, after the end of the exhibition, you can send us an email at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. and request that we delete such images. We will confirm receipt of the letter and your images will be deleted within 10 business days of your receipt of our confirmation.
Payment
You agree that all fees associated with participation in the exhibition are non-refundable.
Confirmations and rewards
At the end of the exhibition, all participants receive diplomas/certificates. Diplomas are sent in electronic form. The cost of the registration fee includes sending diplomas in electronic form. If the author wants the organizing committee to send the diploma in paper form, then you need to make a request to the organizing committee and pay the costs (a track code will be sent to track the delivery of the letter with the diploma).
Signs and Signatures
Signature, seal or any other identification mark of authorship is allowed anywhere in the photo image. Subsequently, images are published with copyright decals. Inscriptions with the names of art objects on the front side are not allowed.
Author's consent to the processing of personal data and newsletter
By participating in the exhibition, the author agrees to the processing of personal data by the Organizing Committee and the inclusion of his phone and e-mail in free newsletters notifying of the organization of exhibitions, conferences and competitions organized by NextArt Co Ltd / NextArt Global Art Agency in Russia and abroad.
If the author doesn't want to implement this free service, the Author must inform the Organizing Committee about this in any of the following ways:
a) by sending a request to exclude your phone and / or email to the email address: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
b) by sending an SMS request to exclude your phone and / or email to mobile phone: + 7-925-0537000.
