More than 30 Japanese scroll paintings, selected from the private Sanso Collection, will survey the wide variety of responses to the teachings of Zen Buddhism. From 15th-century landscapes and portraits of Zen eccentrics to 19th-century images of the Zen patriarch Bodhidharma and the Bodhisattva of Compassion Kannon, this exhibition will explore how Zen ideas were translated into ink paintings by some of Japan’s most famous Zen masters.
The Sanso Collection is one of America’s foremost private holdings of Japanese paintings and is made available for students to study in courses on Zen and Japanese arts offered this fall by Scripps College. Concurrent with this exhibition in the Williamson Gallery will be another show entitled “Japanese No- Theater Prints” in the Clark Humanities Museum. Woodblock prints depicting actors and scenes from famous No- dramas will be chosen from among 200 such works in the Scripps College Collections. An opening reception will be held at the Williamson Gallery on Monday, November 2, at 7 pm. Related events: November 5, 4:15 p.m., lecture by Dr. Mae Smethurst, University of Pittsburgh Classics Department, comparing the Japanese No- theater to ancient Greek drama. November 5, 8:00 p.m., lecture by Dr. Richard Smethurst, University of Pittsburgh History Department, discussing Japanese woodblock print artist Tsukioka Kogyo and his depictions of the no theater during the 19th and 20th centuries.