Kanzan
(1969)
- Medium
- aluminium flake pigment and varnish/lacquer on paper, four panel folding screen
- Measurements
- 162.0 × 310.0 cm (open) 162.0 × 78.5 × 8.5 cm (closed) 162.0 × 279.0x 38.5 cm (installed)
- Place/s of Execution
- Japan
- Department
- Asian Art
- Credit Line
- Felton Bequest, 2025
- Gallery location
- Level 3, NGV International
- About this work
-
Morita Shiryu revolutionised Japanese calligraphy and turned it into a global avant-garde aesthetic. During the 1960s his work was fundamental to the introduction of Japanese artistic philosophies to the Americas and Europe and was also significant to the postwar international ‘New Zen’ boom and Zen’s influence on international abstract artists like French painter Pierre Soulages, who also has work on display in this gallery.
The giant, expressive brushstrokes on this screen are a representation of the character ‘Kanzan’, a legendary monkpoet considered to be the embodiment of a free spirit and the path to Zen enlightenment. After meditative preparation, Morita walks barefoot across the paper executing brush strokes with speed and vigour, often in less than a minute, to create a spontaneous transmission of ideas from the mind through to the brush and on to the paper.