Buddha mind in contemporary art

Abstract

"Buddha Mind in Contemporary Art documents the growing presence of Buddhist perspectives in contemporary culture. This shift began in the nineteenth century and is now pervasive in many aspects of everyday experience. In the arts especially, the increasing importance of process over product has promoted a profound change in the relationship between artist and audience. But while artists have been among the most perceptive interpreters of Buddhism in the West, art historians and critics have been slow to develop the intellectual tools to analyze the impact of Buddhist concepts. This timely, multi-faceted volume explores the relationships between Buddhist practice and the contemporary arts in lively essays by writers from a range of disciplines and in revealing interviews with some of the most influential artists of our time. Elucidating the common ground between the creative mind, the perceiving mind, and the meditative mind, the contributors tackle essential questions about the relationship of art and life. Among the writers are curators, art critics, educators, and Buddhist commentators in psychology, literature, and cognitive science. They consider the many Western artists today who recognize the Buddhist notion of emptiness, achieved through focused meditation, as a place of great creative potential for the making and experiencing of art. The artists featured in the interviews, all internationally recognized, include Maya Lin, Bill Viola, and Ann Hamilton. Extending earlier twentieth-century aesthetic interests in blurring the boundaries of art and life, the artists view art as a way of life, a daily practice, in ways parallel to that of the Buddhist practitioner. Their works, woven throughout the book, richly convey how Buddhism has been both a source for and a lens through which we now perceive art."

Contents

Nowhere from here : contemporary art and Buddhism / Jacquelynn Baas -- Sip my ocean : emptiness and inspiration / Mark Epstein -- If you depict a bird, give it space to fly : on mind, meditation, and art / Eleanor Rosch -- Upper West Side Buddhism / Arthur C. Danto -- Shaping the unbounded : one life, one art / Kay Larson -- No title / Marcia Tucker -- Intimate, immediate, spontaneous, obvious : Educating the unknowing mind / Carol Becker -- Having it good : reflections on engaged art and engaged Buddhism / Suzanne Lacy -- Time and beauty / Laurie Anderson -- Fire down below and watering : that's life : a Buddhist reader's response to Marcel Duchamp / Tosi Lee -- Seeing the light : photography as Buddhist practice / Stephen Batchelor -- Reading as a Buddhist / Linda V. Bamber -- In the space of art / Mary Jane Jacob -- Rirkrit Tiravanija -- Ann Hamilton -- Marina Abramovic -- Ernesto Pujol -- Sanford Biggers -- Kimsooja -- Michael Rotondi -- Lee Mingwei -- Ann Carlson -- Zhang Huan -- Bill Viola -- Mariko Mori.