Hey so this is a reflection on a Lunchtime Lecture given by Amanda Adams, curator at the VMFA, about the traditional aesthetics and styles of art the Japanese culture values. She spoke about how the culture of countries in the east and west changed greatly after being impacted by the "agreement" reached between Commodore Mathew Perry and Japan that made Japan finally open its doors and spread its culture and products to the rest of the world. I really enjoyed learning more about wabi sabi and yugen as well as the ideas of Tanizaki. I already knew a little about wabi sabi, which is about recognizing the beauty in the ordinary and a melancholy feeling or sensitivity to things, but the concept of yugen, which represents mystery and a sense of lingering emotion, was completely new to me and something I found to be very intriguing. Tanizaki was a Japanese author who wrote a book called In Praise of Shadows mourning the Japan of the past that valued all of these concepts before becoming more westernized and changing their traditional ideals of beauty. I think that it's important to always keep in mind the importance of recognizing imperfections and instead of trying to get rid of them, embracing them to the point that they are considered beauty in almost a purer form. I want to try to keep this in mind when creating art because I feel that a lot of the time, we focus on trying to make things perfect and stress on a single line that may not play a huge part in the drawing as a whole, but to the artist, it could mean the world has caught fire and is slowly being burning away to a crispy potato chip floating in outer space. I think this concept will play an important role in the upcoming unit on abstract art because it isn't about capturing a form exactly, it's more about the essence of an object or feeling and putting it in a way that it can be visually understood. The lesson of wabi sabi and yugen had a connection to this style of art and are concepts that I personally will try to utilize when creating my art. If you would like to learn more about Tanizaki and his book In Praise of Shadows, visit this link: www.brainpickings.org/2015/05/28/in-praise-of-shadows-tanizaki/ I would highly recommend watching this video that does a great job of summarizing parts of Adam's lecture on wabi sabi and how it is being impacted in present day Japan:
1 Comment
MM
11/7/2018 07:17:40 am
Good work! I love that you are looking ahead and trying to connect THIS with what is coming next!!!! "I think this concept will play an important role in the upcoming unit on abstract art because it isn't about capturing a form exactly, it's more about the essence of an object or feeling and putting it in a way that it can be visually understood." You are never given an assignment that doesn't connect to another (cumulative!!!), so having this understanding puts you ahead of the game :) Nice "Praise of Shadows" link!
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AuthorNatalie Kim is a senior at MLWGS who likes to do art, take pics, and pet puppers. Archives
May 2020
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