"The Drucker Collection: Masterpieces of Ink Painting" Chiba City Museum of Art, Bijutsu Shuppan-Sha (2015): Western Intellect Saw the Uniqueness of Japanese Art in Topological Space! (Part 3)
(Part 2) continued from.
In the previous article, (Part 2), I discussed how Drucker took up Ogata Korin's "Ivy (Uchiwa Fan)", which he purchased in the early days of collecting Japanese art, and pointed out that the characteristics of Japanese art lie in its design quality and the creation of a new space, which can be considered "topological" in contrast to the "geometric" nature of Western painting and the "algebraic" nature of Chinese painting".
Next, Drucker moves the topic to Japanese "Zen painting".
Zen painting (Hakuin)
In the lecture manuscript, the slide shown at this time only says (Hakuin), and it is unclear whether it was a Hakuin painting he owned himself, or if he showed another representative Hakuin painting.
Here, assuming he showed a painting owned by Drucker, I will repost Hakuin's " Daruma " from the photos on the Chiba Museum of Art website that I cited in the article (Part 1). For reference, I will also show Sengai's " Shoki ", also owned by Drucker.
Drucker makes a surprising statement about " Zenga " right from the start.
Zenga was the anti-establishment culture of the Edo period. When a foreigner appreciates Japanese art, one of the most important things is to see Zenga as the fulfillment of the expressionism that failed in 20th-century Europe.
Translated by Tomoko Matsuo, bold text is by the author
Drucker qualifies this by saying " as seen by a foreigner ", but I think the views expressed here, " anti-establishment culture " and " the fulfillment of expressionism that failed in Europe ", contain universal content, so they should have been mentioned by Japanese experts. However, as far as I know, I have never seen this in introductory books or general books on
Zenga. In fact, the same can be said about the " topological " concept proposed by Drucker.
Why is this? Since this is not the appropriate place for this point, I would like to consider it in a separate chapter at the end.
Now, Drucker presents the following facts and supplementary explanations for his opening statement.
■ When I first came to Japan, no one was talking about "Zenga," and it was not considered art; it was the West that considered it art. ■ It was Westerners who first collected Zenga. ■ For 20th-century Westerners, Zenga was the completed form of expressionism, a greater achievement than European expressionism. ■ Expressionism, which began with Munch and reached its peak around World War I by Austrian expressionists, was an anti-establishment culture. It was a resistance against 19th-century materialism and a rebellion against the fear of world war. ■ Similarly, Zenga is a rebellion against the materialism of the Edo period. They were also a rebellion against the lack of spirituality and bureaucratic rationalists.
Drucker states that from the perspective of Westerners, Zen painting is the completed form of Expressionism, and is even superior to it; the reason for this is quoted directly below.
The anti-establishment culture of 20th-century European Expressionism, with its unbearable anxiety and anguish, demonstrates a total lack of faith, an absence of spirituality. However, Zen painting was a triumph of faith that overcame despair. The masters of Zen painting all experienced a long return from spiritual anguish and despair, and only after overcoming that spiritual suffering and becoming convinced of detachment and spiritual fulfillment did they take up the brush. Excellent Zen paintings still bear traces of that anguish.
Translated by Tomoko Matsuo, bold text is by the author
What do you think? Don't you feel that this tone is quite a bit more passionate than what we have seen so far?
In short, the difference from Western Expressionism lies in the presence or absence of faith, and he is simply saying that Zen painting possesses faith and spirituality; this is the tone of Drucker expressing the spiritual exaltation he felt when he hung the Zen paintings he owned on his walls at home and gazed at them tirelessly.
As Japanese people, who are generally said to have little religious faith, there are parts of Drucker's spiritual exaltation that we might not fully grasp, but I think it is related to the fact that many intellectuals, especially in the West, have been drawn to "ZEN" since before the war.
This is thought to be the spiritual background of Drucker that leads to his collection of Japanese landscape paintings, which I will discuss next.
Furthermore, he concludes his thoughts on Zen painting with the following words. I think Drucker's personal feelings overflow even more here.
When I was young, it was said that the Impressionists try to show, and the Expressionists try to make known. This is certainly true of Zen painting as well. Zen painting makes known and tries to make one experience. What it allows one to experience is a deep spiritual truth and experience.
Translated by Tomoko Matsuo, bold text is by the author
Josui Sōen, "Landscape with Willow Bank"
Finally, I will move on to the topic of Muromachi period landscape painting that Drucker loved.
Landscape painting owned by Drucker
In fact, Drucker had been conducting a Japanese art seminar at the university where he worked for many years. He describes the characteristics of Japanese landscape painting by citing an episode where, when he hung an Ashikaga period landscape painting on the wall, one excellent student remarked, not as a joke but in all seriousness, "I've gotten caught in the painting and can't get out."
And yet, there is something different about Japanese landscape paintings. Western landscape paintings are for viewing and are contained within a frame that shuts everything else out. The viewer remains outside the landscape and can never enter it.
Chinese ink paintings also do not try to let anything inside them. They are closed off to the viewer. This is because, so to speak, the viewer is in the human world, and the landscape is in nature. In that sense, one cannot enter a Chinese landscape painting at all. However, Japanese landscape paintings invite the viewer in. On the contrary, they desire for you to enter, and there, a place for the viewer is prepared, and the more you surrender yourself, the more it makes it possible to enter that world more deeply. Eventually, you realize you can no longer get out. The viewer has assimilated into a part of the painting.
Translated by Tomoko Matsuo, bold text is by the author
Here too, just as he did when citing Muqi's Persimmons in the article (Part 2), Drucker highlights the characteristics of Japanese painting by comparing it with Western painting and Chinese painting.
He argues that while Western painting and Chinese painting do not allow the viewer to enter, Japanese painting not only allows one to enter but even assimilates the viewer into the painting.
Drucker provides further concrete examples. In the case of Western painting, there is almost no connection with nature, and he cites Flemish landscape paintings as examples of dealing with human activities. He also states that Chinese landscape paintings, with a few exceptions, do not depict humans, and takes as an example the paintings of Yuan dynasty painter Ni Zan, who had a strong influence on the Japanese.
Drucker states that according to Ni Zan, people are something completely alien and incompatible and thus are not depicted in landscape paintings, whereas Japanese landscape paintings that faithfully copied the style of Ni Zan do depict people, noting the difference. Therefore, he points out that while the nature in Ni Zan's landscape paintings is desolate, the nature in Japanese landscape paintings is depicted as an environment where humans live, and people have become a part of nature, thereby explaining the characteristics of Japanese landscape painting.
For reference, an example of Ni Zan's landscape painting is shown below.
From this consideration of the characteristics of Western painting and Chinese painting compared to Japanese painting, Drucker even touches upon global environmental issues.
(Omitted)Westerners think of nature as something to be used for human benefit. This way of thinking leads to a path of destroying nature.The Chinese think of nature as an existence separated from humans, that is, a realm different from humans, pure and primordial, and symmetrical (sic) to the fallen and polluted human world. However, here too, as soon as humans step into nature, nature is destroyed.Japanese landscape painters believe that people live within nature, and nature is not complete without people. In modern terms, it could be said that Japanese painters are engaging with nature in a healthy way.
Translated by Tomoko Matsuo, bold text is by the author
Already in the 1960s, Drucker, who predicted the arrival of today's knowledge society, the era of entrepreneurship, and the global society, went beyond the framework of a mere "management scholar." As a "social ecologist" who considers the shape of the future with a perspective that includes the entire society and the entire globe, it is thought that paintings were also his subject of study, and he held a great interest in the Japanese relationship with nature.
Nonomura Ninsei, "Water Jar"
■Fine Arts and Crafts
At the end of the lecture, I will touch upon an important characteristic of Japanese art regarding crafts, not paintings.
First, he points out that in Western society, Fine Arts and the Fine Artists who create those works are strictly separated from craftsmen, no matter how refined or artistic they may be, and in China too, craftsmen and artisans have a very low status, and literati painters were not people who painted for a living.
It is a fact that the Japanese made efforts to digest this Chinese-style way of thinking and succeeded in skillfully incorporating it, but the point is that that is not the issue.
(Omitted) The problem is rather that they did not draw a line between "Fine Arts" and craftsmen. (Omitted) As thought of in the West and China, in Japan, tools are not considered outside the scope of art. A great potter was a great artist, and a great swordsmith was also a great artist. (Omitted) The Japanese talent for design permeated Japanese cultural life. Japanese tools showed excellent design both functionally and formatively, and are completely different from Western or Chinese tools. (Omitted) I do not know when this tradition dates back to, but
it was likely established by the Ashikaga period. I do not know if the background to this is due to social order, or artistic or religious traditions. However, I am convinced that
this is one of the characteristics of the tradition of Japanese culture.
Translated by Tomoko Matsuo, bold text is by the author
Since the title of this lecture is “Japanese Art as Seen by a Gaijin,” it is natural that the discussion extends not only to paintings but also widely to crafts.
Actually, the motivation for writing the series of articles on ink painting began in relation to my own awareness of the issue: “How should one look at ink painting, and is Japanese ink landscape painting truly unique?” So, I initially thought about omitting this final part, which is not directly related to ink painting.
However, as I wrote the articles, I reconsidered that the issue of the aesthetic sense that permeates every aspect of Japanese daily life—which, needless to say, was pointed out without exception by Westerners who visited at the end of the Edo period and the beginning of the Meiji period—is a fairly significant issue when comparing with the West and China, in the sense that it relates to all Japanese art, including ink painting. I would like to state this again in relation to Japanese ink painting at the end of this series.
Furthermore, as an interim summary, I will list the list of characteristics of Japanese art pointed out by Drucker in this lecture below.
■Korin's fan paintings are "design-artifice."
■ The design that constructs Japanese margins is topological, that is, related to topology.
■ Zen painting is the anti-establishment culture of Edo.
■ Westerners discovered Zen painting, and the Gaijin thinks that Zen painting achieved the expressionism that failed in 20th-century Europe.
■ Zen painting tries to inform and let one experience deep spiritual truth and experience.
■ Japanese landscape painting invites the viewer in. A place for the viewer is prepared, and one can deeply enter that world.
■ Japanese landscape painting depicts people, and whereas the nature in Ni Zan's landscape paintings without people is desolate, the nature in Japanese landscape paintings is depicted as an environment where humans live, and people are part of nature.
■ Unlike the West and China, Japan did not draw a line between Fine Artists and craftsmen. The Japanese talent for design permeates cultural life. It has continued since the Ashikaga period and is one of the characteristics of the tradition of Japanese culture.
(Part 4) to be continued.