Bull, Picasso
Persimmons, Ink/Paper, Mu Ch'i, 1270
"This monochrome, Persimmons, by Mu Ch’i, a thirteenth century Zen priest and painter, is a splendid example of a painting in which the artist plays with contrasts (the male and female principle in Chinese and Japanese painting): rough and smooth, empty and full, one and many, line and mass, black and white, tint and shade, up and down. It is a study in the metamorphosis of a fruit, as well as of a painting. (The artist, incidentally, never used any color but black.)
The reader may find a parallel, at least in spirit, between this painting and the preceding one by Picasso. Both employ a single color, and exploit this limitation to achieve as much variety as possible, and both undoubtedly were painted (done) very rapidly, a condition often conducive to utmost simplification and improvisation."
Persimmons, Ink/Paper, Mu Ch'i, 1270
"This monochrome, Persimmons, by Mu Ch’i, a thirteenth century Zen priest and painter, is a splendid example of a painting in which the artist plays with contrasts (the male and female principle in Chinese and Japanese painting): rough and smooth, empty and full, one and many, line and mass, black and white, tint and shade, up and down. It is a study in the metamorphosis of a fruit, as well as of a painting. (The artist, incidentally, never used any color but black.)
The reader may find a parallel, at least in spirit, between this painting and the preceding one by Picasso. Both employ a single color, and exploit this limitation to achieve as much variety as possible, and both undoubtedly were painted (done) very rapidly, a condition often conducive to utmost simplification and improvisation."
To see the entire article, Design and the Play Instinct by Paul Rand, click on the link below. To read a poem by Gary Snyder, published in the New Yorker in 2008, and inspired by Mu Ch'i's Masterpiece, click on the link below.
Link Design and the Play Instinct, Paul Rand
Link Mu Ch'i's Persimmons, Gary Synder, The New Yorker
