Amanda Dalla Villa Adams gave a lecture on October 31st about Japanese aesthetics. I really enjoyed the lecture and got a lot out of it. She started by discussing how Japanese art trends can be seen within famous European artists like how Van Gogh drew inspiration from Japanese woodblocks. Then she talked about the history of aesthetics in Europe and Japan with Kant and the Heian Court's influence in Japan. I was especially interested in the discussion of wabi sabi and yugen. I had heard of wabi-sabi before, specifically during a lunchtime lecture last year, but that mainly focused on the artist's personal work and had never heard of Yugen. I believe these aesthetics are very unique to Japan and because of that extremely interesting and I want to learn even more. We had touched on these subjects briefly in my Global Studies class but not substantially so it was nice to continue to learn more about it. I still want to know the difference between wabi and sabi because I always hear them referred to as the same thing so I would like to further research their similarities, differences, and why they're joined together. Most of her lecture was grounded in conversation about Tanizaki's essay from 1933, In Praise of Shadows. This essay discusses the changes in Japanese aesthetics in the modern age, with influence from the West. In it, Tanizaki mourns the loss of traditional aesthetics and mentions the beauty of everyday things. I thought that I got to understand each aesthetic even more through looking at the objects and architecture she showed us, as well as the different types of theater. Personally, I really connect to the idea of wabi which finds beauty within imperfections and embraces issues and mistakes. This can be seen within the tea ceremony and the life cycle of a cherry blossom tree. I feel like this aesthetic can be seen everyone's life and it should be embraced. I know I will pay more attention now to seeing these aesthetics in my everyday life and in my art. The idea of wabi sabi can help me let go of perfection in my art and focus more on enjoying myself and the beauty in mistakes. I wonder where in contemporary art have artists purposely used these aesthetics? Overall I thought Adams' talk was filled with important information and made great connections to my life and possible uses in my art. Here is a link to a pdf version of In Praise of Shadows by Tanizaki.
1 Comment
MM
11/7/2018 07:08:26 am
Good work. I particularly enjoyed these things that you wrote:
Reply
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. Archives
June 2021
Categories |