News India-Times, February 6, 2009 ASIA IN AMERICAN ART Page 11

■ ‘The Third Mind’ ■ Show & Book ‘Paradigm-shifting’ exhibition opens at the Guggenheim The book on Natvar By Jyotirmoy Datta “The Third Mind promises to be revelatory exhibition,” Bhavsar marks New Munroe commented. “Visitors will see 130 years of American York City painter’s evealing the powerful impact of Asia on creative culture through an entirely new lens and should RAmerican art, 'The Third Mind: American appreciate the transformative influences of Asian art and Beverly Hills show Artists Contemplate Asia, 1860-1989,' which opened at Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum ideas on the formal and conceptual achievements of New York on Jan. 30, features 270 works, includ- American modern and avant-garde art.” By Jyotirmoy Datta ing a large (68 inch by 168.5 inch), joyous abstrac- tion by Gujarat-born New York painter, Natvar undaram Tagore Gallery in Beverly Hills is Bhavsar. Spresenting works by Natvar Bhavsar in his It has been described as "a paradigm shifting exhibition entitled RANG. In conjunction with exhibition." It features work in various genres by the show, Skira, over 100 of America's finest artists of the past 130 the leading years. 'The Third Mind,' set to run through April Italian art pub- 19, 2009, marks the 50th anniversary of the icon- lishing house, ic Guggenheim New York building designed by has published a Frank Lloyd Wright. monograph on Guggenheim has fished its own depths, as well the artist. as trawled through other collections, to raise to view The show manuscripts and first editions of T. S. Eliot and Ezra was to open on Pound, Jack Kerouack and Allen Ginsberg, and Delwara 1982, 68 by 168.5 inches., pigment on canvas by Natvar Bhavsar, featured in ‘The Third Mind’ Jan. 31, and run paintings by James Macneil Whistler and Mary opening at the Guggenheim Museum, Jan. 30 through Feb.15, 2009. Using his Cassatt Mark Rothko and Robert Rauschengerg, to of the classical arts of India, China, and Japan, and when it was considered the most significant and Cover of the book on Natvar characteristic name just a few, to create a monumental and com- the systems of Hinduism, Taoism, Tantric progressive form of modern art. Bhavsar by Marius Kwint and Buddhism, and Zen Buddhism. The title refers to Zen, and Buddhism and the Neo-Avant-Garde: style — sifting manding reassessment of the history of American layers of pure Irving Sandler. a "cut-ups" work by Beat writers William S. Cage Zen, Beat Zen: This section follows three art. It is a summing-up and a new beginning of the pigments onto canvas — New York-based Burroughs and Brion Gysin, The Third Mind interconnected collectives of artists and writers awareness of the powerful presence of Asia in Bhavsar produces brilliantly colored paintings American art, an awareness that has been forming Untitled ("Rub Out the World"), ca. 1965, in whose sustained if eclectic connections to Zen and with fluid, dense color. The works are inspired piecemeal and fragmentarily in recent decades. which unrelated texts are combined and re- other forms of Mahayana Buddhism emerge as and informed by the vibrant palette of India, with Although there have been attempts by arranged to create a new narrative, evocative of the critical methodological and philosophical influ- colors floating in the center of the canvas, expand- researchers and curators to explore various facets of eclectic method by which American artists appro- ences in the American postwar neo-avant-gardes. ing like a cloud.Gallerist Sundaram Tagore says, the dynamic and complex impact of Asian art phi- priated from Asia to create new forms, structures Art of Perceptual Experience: Pure Abstraction "Bhavsar's work is striking and luminous—the losophy and religion on American art, 'The Third and meanings for their own art and Alternative Minimalism: This section traces colors expand and contract and there is an endless Mind' is epochal in that it unites the various The artists represented in the exhibition include: the development of a new iteration of Asian rheto- alternation of light and dark. He evokes the feel- threads, making it clear that Asia was more impor- John La Farge, James McNeill Whistler, Mary ric in America art of the 1960s that recast the art ing of fluctuation with static images. Bhavsar's tant than just the 'Orientalism' derided by post- Cassatt, Arthur Wesley Dow, Georgia O'Keeffe, object as a specific focus of contemplation and per- style has evolved over decades, and his technique colonial critics. Augustus Vincent Tack, Ezra Pound, Isamu ceptual experience aimed at the transformation of of painting with dry pigment is groundbreaking The project received a $1 million Chairman's Noguchi, Mark Tobey, Morris Graves, David consciousness. Ad Reinhardt's radical conclusion and unique." Special Award from the National Endowment for Smith, John Cage, Robert Rauschenberg, Nam of art as a perceptual experience with the specific Tagore adds, "Bhavsar was touched by the the Humanities (NEH) and an additional NEH June Paik, Yoko Ono, Jack Kerouac, Allen power to purify consciousness through the act of visual impact of Holi and Rangoli, during which planning grant. These NEH grants have been aug- Ginsberg, La Monte Young and Marian Zazeela, concentrated contemplation was constructed from festival goers throw bright pigments on each other mented by significant funding from the Terra Jordan Belson, Ad Reinhardt, Anne Truitt, Agnes his close readings of Asian art and religious in celebration. This inspired Bhavsar to explore Foundation for American Art, E. Rhodes and Martin, Dan Flavin, Walter de Maria, Adrian Piper, thought. The "pure abstraction" and reductive the language of color-field painting." Leona B. Carpenter Foundation, National Bill Viola, and Tehching Hsieh, among others. forms of Reinhardt, Agnes Martin, and Robert Endowment for the Arts and The W.L.S. Spencer The exhibition is organized chronologically and Irwin shifted the conception of seeing from an He was also awarded a Foundation. The exhibition was conceived and thematically into sections: optical event to a phenomenological process, and Guggenheim Memorial organized by Alexandra Munroe, Senior Curator Aestheticism and Japan: The Cult of the made durational time (of looking at the object) a of Asian Art of the Solomon R. Guggenheim "Orient”: American artists' fascination with the medium of ontological awareness. In addition to Fellowship in 1975. His Museum, and a leading authority of Asian art. East began in the late 1850s and developedfrom painting and sculpture associated with paintings are in more than "The Third Mind promises to be revelatory the intellectual circles radiating from Boston, espe- Minimalism, this section features the experimental 800 public and private exhibition," Munroe commented. "Visitors will cially the interlocking communities of Harvard cinema of James Whitney and Jordan Belson, and collections, including those of see 130 years of American creative culture University, the Unitarians, and the the site-specific sound and light environment, the Solomon R. Guggenheim through an entirely new lens and should appreci- Transcendentalists. Dream House, by La Monte Young and Marian Museum, The Metropolitan ate the transformative influences of Asian art and Landscapes of the Mind: Early Modern Zazeela. During the course of the exhibition live ideas on the formal and conceptual achievements Conceptions of Nature: This section features lead- performances of Young's innovations in North Museum of Art, the Whitney of American modern and avant-garde art." ing artists of the early to mid-twentieth century Indian Classical Raga will be presented by Young Museum of American Art, the Thomas Krens, Director of the Solomon R. who hampioned modern and abstract art in and Zazeela with The Just Alap Raga Ensemble. Boston Museum of Fine Art Guggenheim Foundation, remarked: "This America while invoking Asian aesthetics nd Meditation, Performance Art, and Video: The and the Museum of extraordinary survey of American art promises to philosophies that conceived of nature as a unity of Body in Time The final exhibition section presents Contemporary Art in Sydney. be a paradigm-shifting exhibition at the highest matter and spirit. video, installation, and live performance art of the Ezra Pound, Modern Poetry, and Dance 1970s through 1989. Artists such as Linda level of innovation and aesthetic refinement." Mr. In 1934, Bhavsar was born in Gujarat, and Theater: Transliterations: This section explores Montano, Bill Viola, and Tehching Hsieh explore Krens continued: "We at the Guggenheim are gained his early artistic education at the C.N. American translations of classical Asian literature endurance and extreme duration as techniques of honored by the National Endowment for the School of Art in Ahmedabad. In 1962, Bhavsar Humanities' recognition of the scholarly and and dance theater spanning World War I and the meditation and self-awareness. left India to further his education at the University educational merit of this exhibition." interwar period.Featured are rare first-edition Three site-specific installations are featured in of Pennsylvania's Department of Fine Arts. Since ‘The Third Mind’ proposes a new art historical books by such influential writers as Ezra Pound and the Guggenheim Museum show. The James Lee 1965, he has been an active member of the New construct, challenging the widely accepted view of Lafcadio Hearn, as well as manuscript pages from Byars' chamber that once hosted the performance York School of Colorists. In 1965, Bhavsar the development of American modern art as a dia- T.S. Eliot'imagist language. The Death of James Lee Byars (1982-1994), over- received a John D. Rockefeller Grant, which logue with Europe by alternatively focusing on Calligraphy and Metaphysics: The Asian laid entirely with sheets of gold leaf, will be con- launched him into the New York art world. He artists' prolonged engagement with forms and Dimensions of Postwar Abstract Art: This section structed in the High Gallery, and a new commis- was also awarded a Guggenheim Memorial ideas aligned with Asia. The exhibition illustrates explores the transformative influences of calli- sion by Ann Hamilton will be unveiled on the Fellowship in 1975. His paintings are in more how Asian art, literature, music, and philosophical graphic brushstroke and metaphysical speculation Museum's ramps upon the occasion of this exhibi- than 800 public and private collections, including concepts were incorporated, interpreted, and that were based on Asian traditions in postwar tion. In addition, Young and Zazeela's Dream those of the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, mediated to inspire new modes of experiential, American abstract art. The traditions of metaphys- House will be created in an adjacent Tower gallery. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Whitney contemplative, process-oriented, and interactive ical speculation in Hinduism, Taoism, and Zen The Third Mind examines the aspirations to Museum of American Art, the Boston Museum art. The exhibition ventures beyond standard Buddhism provided artists with a conceptual basis understand and internalize Asian art and thought of Fine Art and the Museum of Contemporary accounts of the history of American modernism in for the understanding and representation of the among Asian-American and Asian-born artists Art in Sydney. His paintings are included in the which Asian influence is reduced to stylistic appro- spiritual and universal potential of abstract art. working in the United States, identifying the cat- university museums of Cornell, Brown, MIT and priations of Japanese forms among Impressionists, Natvar Bhavsar, Gordon Onslow Ford, Lee alytic effect of the transmission of "Eastern" sensi- Delaware. Bhavsar's work is also featured in many Post-Impressionists, and artists involved in the Mullican, and Isamu Noguchi reinterpreted Asian bilities and forms into the American vanguard by corporate collections, such as AT&T, Exxon, Aesthetic and Arts and Crafts movements. cultural theory and artistic practices to enhance the artists such as Yasuo Kuniyoshi, Isamu Noguchi, American Express, Swiss Bank, Hilton Hotels, The exhibition's scope encompasses the impact meaning and value of abstraction during a period and Natvar Bhavsar. Mobil, NBC and Reader's Digest Association.