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Press Release Zen Master Sengai Museum Rietberg Zürich Gablerstrasse 15 8002 Zürich Tel. 044 415 31 31 Fax 044 415 31 32 www.rietberg.ch contact [email protected] Tel. Direct +41 (0)44 415 31 27 Press Release Zen Master Sengai (1750–1837) May 18–August 10, 2014 For the first time in over half a century, forty of Zen master Sengai’s most famous works are to go on show in Zurich in a special exhibition to mark 150 years of diplomatic relations between Switzerland and Japan. The light-sensitive paintings that will be on view to the public in two, six- week-long series come from the Idemitsu Museum of Arts in Tokyo, which houses the world’s most important collection of ink paintings and calligraphy by Sengai Gibon. Visitors will thus have a unique opportunity to rediscover the multifaceted legacy of this great Zen master and highly idiosyncratic artist. Sengai Gibon was abbot of Japan’s oldest Zen monastery, built in 1195. At the age of sixty-two, he resigned as abbot in order to devote himself exclusively to painting and calligraphy, which he used for teaching Zen to his pupils. He saw his art as a way of helping people—even very simple people—to understand Zen Buddhism. And a large part of his output does indeed belong to the genre called zenkizu, or “Zen assistance paintings.” Compared with medieval Zen painting, whose masterful brushwork reminds us of the semi-professional status of many of the painter-monks of the thirteenth to the fifteenth century, some of Sengai’s paintings radiate an almost childlike insouciance. Clearly, the idea behind the motif and the handwritten inscription were more important to him than technical finesse. Whereas the calligraphy in most medieval Zen paintings tends to be only indirectly linked to the motif and in most cases was added by someone other than the painter himself, in Sengai’s works word and image form an indissoluble whole. The term zenga, or “Zen painting,” was coined in the nineteen-fifties to describe those works by Zen monks that combine text and image in a coherent whole—an art form that reached its apogee between the seventeenth and early nineteenth centuries. One important influence on this development were the haiga or “poem paintings” combining haiku (a short poem) and ga (painting) that were likewise popular around this time. In both cases, the artists were not professional painters but either Zen scholars or poets who used ink paintings to invest thoughts expressed in words with additional layers of meaning. One characteristic that zenga and haiga share is an unpretentious, cursory style of painting. The haiku about a frog who leaps into the water by the poet Matsuo Bashô (1644–1694) counts among the best known works in this genre in Japan. A peaceful landscape is set in motion by a very lively frog. Viewers of the imaginary scene hear a splash; and then silence. Sengai barely changes this literary tour de force; his decision merely to replace the word “frog” with the name “Bashô” attests to his reverence for the great poet, as well as pointing to what might be the poem’s transcendental dimension—a spiritual breakthrough. Präsidialdepartement Widely regarded as one of his unsurpassed masterpieces, Sengai’s unambiguous and profoundly humorous Meditating Frog raises the question of whether it is the man or the frog who makes the leap from one realm to the other. The fat frog of the title wears a very human grin and appears to be looking at the calligraphy at left—an integral part of the composition that curls around him and helps to explain his evident contentment. For him, seated meditation is utterly effortless; he is at one with himself and his frogginess. Sengai appears to be saying that any human who achieves such a state will be just as content as this frog. What leads to enlightenment is not the observance of excessively strict rules but understanding one’s own innermost self. In typically tongue-in-cheek manner, Sengai holds up a mirror to us, forcing us in the most amiable way to engage in some honest introspection. Sengai was refreshingly free of all priestly airs and spoke openly of his own human weaknesses without any sense of shame, as when he blamed a boil on his buttocks for being unable to meditate properly at the commemoration of Bodhidharma, the founder of Zen Buddhism in India. It was this same gentle humor that enabled him to connect with those lay people who struggled to sit still when meditating. There can be no doubt that his expressive masterpiece, Circle, Triangle, and Square, has since become an icon of Japanese art. Unmatched in its simplicity, this work has moved art historians to a wide range of interpretations. Not least among them is Daisetz T. Suzuki (1870–1966), a great Buddhist scholar and expert in Sengai’s works, who was one of the key figures responsible for the Zen fever that gripped the West right up to the nineteen-eighties. Suzuki interpreted the work that he called The Universe as an expression of Sengai’s philosophical view of the world, reading the circle as water, the triangle as fire, and the square as earth. Which of the many interpretations of this work is the “right” one we will probably never know. What we do know is that this symbolic rendering of a deeply intuitive worldview was born of a flash of inspiration, for it was painted in a single “breath”—in other words, without once pausing to dip the brush back into the ink. These timeless and extraordinarily modern-looking images affect different people in different ways, depending on how much education they have, what their background is, and what their current circumstances are. With semantically charged simplicity and a subtle sense of humor, Sengai offers us a gently ironic take on all the big questions of human existence. His paintings radiate a deeply humane wisdom, which can scarcely leave anyone untouched. Just how central Sengai’s role was is proven by the answer given by another Zen abbot when asked how best to study Zen: “Look at Sengai,” he replied. “There is Zen everywhere.” Sponsors This exhibition is kindly supported by JTI and the Japan Foundation. Lenders Idemitsu Museum of Arts, Tokyo Catalogue Katharina Epprecht (ed.), Zen Master Sengai 1750–1837, with essays by Katharina Epprecht, Taizô Kuroda, Michel Mohr, and Hirokazu Yatsunami. Designed by Hitomi Murai. Bound, ca. 96 pages, 40 color ill. 24 x 30 cm, ca. CHF 34 | € 29 ISBN 978-3-85881-423-4 (D). 978-3-85881-749-5 (E). To be published in May 2014. www.rietberg.ch/sengai Präsidialdepartement Concerts Der Klang der Glocken (The Sound of Bells) Sat. June 21, 2014, 6 pm Tadashi Tajima, shakuhachi (bamboo flute), Junko Handa, biwa (short-necked lute), Shogo Hiyoshi koto (zither), Kuniko Obina shamisen (long-necked lute)—Ensemble Nihon; Sonoe Kato, mezzo soprano; Akira Tachikawa, countertenor, with Heidy Nyman conducting In the Sengai exhibition, CHF 45/40. Museum Café open until 6 pm “Prometheus Meets Jazz”: Nik Bärtsch & Sha—Meditative “Minimal Funk” Thurs. July 6, 7.30 pm Nik Bärtsch, piano; Sha, bass, bass clarinet Just for once, these internationally celebrated jazz musicians are not playing at the city’s famous Zen Funk Monday in Club Exil but as a duo in a special exhibition-themed Festival program. Their urban, highly energetic “ritual groove music” oscillates between the Promethean and Zen, between freedom and structure, the urge to move forward and a cosmic consciousness for serenity, stillness, and space. Both diametrically opposed creative strategies lead paradoxically to the same result: to inner freedom—free from external authorities and from oneself. As part of the Festspiele Zürich in the Summer Pavilion of the Museum Rietberg and in cooperation with Moods in the Schiffbau. CHF 35/30 Workshops and Tours of the Exhibition Outdoor Tea Ceremony Sun. May 25, 2014, 1 pm–4 pm Nodate, known to us in the West as the tea ceremony, was popular even in the sixteenth century, especially among the noble warrior caste. The powerful warlord Toyotomi Hideyoshi is said to have attended a tea ceremony performed for him in a pine forest by the famous tea master, Sen no Rikyu, in June 1587. And what more fitting place could there be for an outdoor tea ceremony than the Rieterpark in early summer! Director: Soyu Mukai, tea master, CHF 10/5. Held in all weathers. No advance booking required. Tours Introduction to the Way of Tea in the Context of Zen Painting Soyu Mukai, an experienced tea master, will explain the principles of the Way of Tea and how it relates to the Zen painting of Zen master Sengai. Free introduction (for holders of an admission ticket). In German only. Wed. 6 pm Public Tours Free tours (for holders of an admission ticket). In German, on Thurs. at 12.15 pm and on Sun. at 11 am. Private Tours (German, English, and French) please visit our website for further information and online bookings: www.rietberg.ch/fuehrungen Präsidialdepartement Exhibition Credits Curator, exhibition concept Katharina Epprecht Cénit De Sousa (assistant) Exhibition design Martin Sollberger Lighting Rainer Wolfsberger Graphic design (exhibition) Jacqueline Schöb (management) Stefanie Beilstein (intern) Graphic design (printed matter) Raffinerie AG für Gestaltung Marketing & communication Christine Ginsberg (management) Ursina Wirz (web / print production) Monica Stocker (media planning) Andrina Sarott (intern) Events Caroline Delley Multimedia Masus Meier Registrar Andrea Kuprecht Information and contact Information, texts and pictures available for download from: www.rietberg.ch Museum Rietberg Zürich Gablerstrasse 15 CH-8002 Zürich T.
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