The Beauty and Complexity of Minimalism Essay Example for Free

The Beauty and Complexity of Minimalism Essay Today’s modern world is often complex, colorful, noisy and fast-paced. When I am engaged in art, I frequently look for works that allow me to escape from my hectic lifestyle. Clean lines and use of space appeal to my senses and calm me. Sometimes, what is not stated says more than what is stated. I have learned from my study of Japanese art history this semester that simplicity seems to be a common theme in many of the artworks produced throughout Japan’s rich history. Of course, this is not always the case; there are plenty of works that are colorful and loud. Use of color, in fact, seems to be an appreciated value in much of the art I have seen. However, there seems to a simplistic nature in even the most complex of Japanese artwork. This minimalism appears to be an appreciated Japanese aesthetic. Two works of Japanese art stood out to me this semester, precisely for their minimalistic nature: Pine Trees by Hasegawa Tohaku from the late 16th century Momoyama period, and a Shoki-Imari sake bottle from the 17th century Edo period. While there are many differences between these two works, they appear to complement each other. Each of these works has a rich history behind its creation and they both convey a sense of complex simplicity. Before diving into the two works of art presented in this essay, a brief overview of the periods that spawned these artworks is necessary; specifically the relationship of the Momoyama and Edo periods with painting and ceramics, respectively. 1. Momoyama Background Artistically, the Momoyama period (1568-1615) was the most important half-century period in the history of Japan (Swann 211). Momoyama means â€Å"Peach Blossom Hill,† and the period drew its name from the flowering peach trees, over-looked by the great Fushimi Castle, which was frequented by the local residents of the prefecture (Hickman 19). Hickman states, â€Å"[The term, Momoyama] seems appropriate†¦ for the vision of a brilliant cloud of evanescent peach blossoms serves well as an evocative visual metaphor for the period, a ‘golden age’ of short duration but memorable accomplishments,† (19). The period was fraught with intense warfare between clans, and the emperor remained powerless, but the Momoyama laid the foundation for a modern Japan that would experience over two hundred and fifty years of peace in the Edo period. Momoyama’s art was defined by color and movement that took the place of previously used monochrome and stillness (Swann 215). Artists suddenly felt free of restraint and were free to breath new life into old themes and form original interpretations (215). Color, gold and silver were frequently used in art. The Kano school style of painting gained prominence. Folding screens, covered in paper with bold paintings, became increasingly popular. â€Å"Perhaps [The Momoyama’s] most important product is among the most conspicuously decorative works ever produced†¦ a movable and flexible wall of dubious utilitarian value, but perhaps the most significant creation of the Japanese decorative style,† (qtd. Swann 216). The large area of the folding screen lent itself to broad, sweeping brushstrokes and immense designs. The Momoyama period attempted to bring nature into the household. 2. Hasegawa Tohaku Hasegawa Tohaku (1539-1610) was born in Nanao in the province of Noto (Tazawa 83). He was a painter of the Momoyama period who was able to paint in both Chinese and Japanese styles (Swann 219). Before he took the name Tohaku, he went by the name Shinshun and mainly produced portraits and Buddhist paintings (Tazawa 83). Hasegawa Tohaku was highly skilled and studied the works of Sesshu, Shubun, Kanga, the Kano school and Song and Yuan Chinese dynasty painters (83). Much of his work represented the style of the Momoyama period – flowering trees, flowers, and bright colors. However, his most famous paintings, like Pine Trees differ greatly from the typical Momoyama style (Seiroku 107). . Edo Background The Edo period (1615-1868) is distinguished by the long rule of the Tokugawa clan and an era of political stability. The period is called Edo since the capital was moved from Kyoto to the small village of Edo, which later became Tokyo. Two important developments influenced the subsequent artistic developments of the Edo period. First, in the Edo period Japan beca me completely isolated from the rest of the world by closing its borders to foreigners (with a small exception to some Dutch and Chinese near Nagasaki) and prohibiting foreign travel (Swann 239). Since the Chinese had historically influenced the Japanese, artists were now able to move towards the rejection and free adaptation of Chinese influences (Watson 260). The closed borders also removed the Western and Christian influences which had been slowly filtering in through the Dutch. As feudalism declined in the West in favor of the creation of parliamentary systems, Japan feverishly worked to pursue, â€Å"pleasure and extravagance which is most vividly reflected in the arts,† (Swann 240). The pursuit of the arts gave way to the second major Edo development the rise of the merchant class, which affected the artistic patronage and ushered in the Edo artists. New patrons allowed art to flourish in the Edo period. The new city of Edo helped create this new class of merchants that were able to supply not only the samurai, but themselves as well. This opened new and wider markets for the creations of artists and craftsmen (Swann 243). 4. Shoki-Imari ware One of the greatest influences to Japanese ceramics was Hideyoshi Toyotomi’s invasion of Korea at the end of the Momoyama period (Watson 260). The Japanese still wanted to produce ceramics that represented the greater Asiatic cultures, so the returning Japanese armies brought back Korean potters (Sanders 44). This led to a tremendous advance in ceramics of the early 17th century, allowing for the proliferation of porcelain (Watson 260). There were several innovations of porcelain throughout the Edo period, but for the purpose of this paper, only the Shoki-Imari ware will be discussed. Arita became a town in the Saga prefecture of Japan known for porcelain production after a discovery by a Korean potter in the early 17th century (Sanders 44). The earliest porcelains, called Shoki-Imari, were made out of a poor quality clay, with a high iron content (Watson 261). These Shoki-Imari were typically decorated with an underglaze of cobalt oxide, which had a bluish tinge. The decorations were often flowers or landscape of Korean influence (261). However, the Japanese still envied the enameled porcelain of the Chinese Ming Dynasty and finally by the mid 17th century the Arita potters learned how to use an overglaze to produce that effect. Both the underglaze and the overglaze porcelains were able to proliferate to Europe through the very limited trade with the Dutch. . Pine Trees and the Shiko Imari sake bottle The first thing one notices about Hasegawa Tohaku’s screen painting, Pine Trees, is that the entire painting is monochromatic and you can easily see how little of the canvas is used. There is more space than ink, or in terms of the environment, more mist than trees. This presents a sense of openness, almost an empti ness in the painting. According to Tazawa, â€Å"In no other work, perhaps, has the poetic quality inherent in Japanese style ink painting been so successfully realized,† (84). The same sort of feeling of Pine Trees is immediately seen in the Shoki-Imari sake bottle. The sake bottle is also monochromatic and the porcelain gleams all around the sparseness of the landscape presented. It has the same sort of emptiness as Pine Trees. This emptiness is interesting in the sake bottle because the use of the open space makes the bottle seem empty inside. Both pieces of art are similar in the sense that they present a landscape, which is a common Japanese aesthetic, especially of those time periods. The artist of the Shoki-Imari bottle is unknown, but it is clear that he was familiar with the environment he was painting. Both pieces of art make the viewer feel they are inside the painted scene, even if one piece is small and the other is large. Both works create environments that are simple and direct in their reference to an ageless Japanese reality (Seiroku 107). One element the sake bottle presents that Pine Trees does not is the bottle uses a man-made element it its scene; the sake bottle has a pagoda painted on it. This element causes the viewer to feel as if man had been inside the portrayed environment where Pine Trees does not. Pine Trees leaves the viewer feeling that no one had ever been inside the forest. The use of the mist helps enforce this feeling. It gives it a haunted, untouchable feel. The sake bottle landscape makes the artwork feel approachable. Another difference is that the techniques used in Pine Trees are distinctly Chinese. The techniques used in the creation of the Shoki-Imari Sake bottle were Korean. However, since the Japanese wanted to create ceramics in the manner of the Chinese, the underglaze was painted on in a Chinese style. This specific Shoki-Imari piece however, was not part of the first Shoki-Imari created, since it was formed sometime between 1650 and 1660 (Watson 267). It is in the style of the first porcelains exported by the Dutch, but was created later for the international market; Arita had already ceased production on poorer quality Shoki-Imari ceramics (267). Since the Japanese had already mastered overglaze technique by this time, this bottle was made purposefully with underglaze. The blue and white design was an aesthetic of the Chinese the Japanese were trying to master and created this vase to replicate earlier Chinese models (267). The painting styles of the two pieces of artwork are similar and different. In Hasegawa Tohaku’s Pine Trees, the ink was skillfully applied with â€Å"varying degrees of thickness to create the effect of pine trees partly hidden in mist, the work as a whole giving a strong sense of economy, vividness, and clarity of conception,† (Tazawa 84). Some of the ink of the trees is so dark that some individual branches are indistinguishable, yet they seem closer and more clear than those painted lightly. In some parts of the painting, there is nothing painted at all, but it is still clear that the forms of the trees are still there, even if only implied. For the most part, the use of hue in Pine Trees is not the same as the Shoki-Imari sake bottle. Some parts of the trees are painted darker than others, but only to give the individual trees added detail. There are some varying hues of the mountains and land in the bottle, but not in the same sense as Pine Trees. The mountains are not painted in detail either; they are only outlines, leaving the inside hollow. The lightest object on the entire bottle is, surprisingly, the man-made pagoda. The lightness of the pagoda assumingly expresses the Japanese respect for a nature. Each piece of artwork has something in common and something different in the way they portray the tree branches. In Pine Trees, Hasegawa Tohaku curves the branches, sloping toward the ground. But at the same time, there is a slight element of the Ma-Yuan Chinese influence on Japanese painting. The trees have a slight angular nature to them. It is not something that is noticed at a mere glance, but upon further study, you can see the implied angular nature of an older style of painting. He clearly studied the style and made it his own. The brushstrokes imply a hidden angularity in the forest. The Shoki-Imari sake bottle does not use any angularity, but it has another interesting element. The two trees in the foreground sit at an angle and curve with the roundness of the bottle. The mountains also protrude into the neck of the bottle. This method of following the lines and curves of the bottle makes the environment seem more real by conforming to the three dimensional object. Another element that the two pieces of art have in common is depth. The Shoki-Imari sake bottle certainly does not use a thickness in the brushstrokes to convey this. It conveys depth by the placement of the objects. The mountains are painted above the tree line with little overlap. A river flows from the base of the mountains to the middle of the bottle where the pagoda is located in the middle of the tree. The tree come up from the ground at an angle and curve to either side so that they have varying heights. The combination of each of these elements puts the trees in the foreground and the mountains in the background, with the pagoda and some vegetation in the middle. This creates a sense of depth, which was a newer element in Japanese art. Each of the brushstrokes on the bottle is deliberate and creates line for the eye to follow. Hasegawa Tohaku’s painting creates depth, if not more so than the bottle, but by using a different technique. The varying levels of ink he applied to the trees and the lack of ink used in the midst creates an intense depth. It is presumable that all of the trees are planted at the same relative level, but by having the darker trees at varying heights and painting the other trees at varying hues, he created an incredible amount of depth on a flat surface. He created a forest from a row of trees. 6. Conclusion The Shoki-Imari sake bottle and Hasegawa Tohaku’s Pine Trees are obviously very different pieces of art. Pine Trees is ink, black and white, large, on a folding screen and from the Momoyama period. The Shoki-Imari sake bottle is porcelain, underglazed, small, blue and white and from the Edo period. They were created roughly fifty years apart. However, they both express a minimalism that reflects an essence of Japanese aesthetic. Both pieces of art say more with what is understated. They are simple pieces; but the history behind these works and the processes involved are incredibly complex. I find both them both incredibly powerful, peaceful and refreshing.