Photo Courtesy of the Morikami Museum and Japanese Gardens
It might seem odd that a retired research biologist would become an artist so he could express the intricate relationship between science and Buddhism, but that’s exactly what Iwasaki Tsuneo did.
The Japanese visionary artist, whose series, “Painting Enlightenment: Experiencing Wisdom and Compassion through Art and Science,” is on exhibit at the Morikami Museum and Japanese Gardens in Delray Beach through Sept. 19, breaks down distinctions between image, text and thought with imagery characteristic of both scientific phenomena and Buddhist principles. Using characters from the sacred Buddhist text, the Heart Sutra, Tsuneo created beautiful images.
After he retired from a career as a biologist, Tsuneo, who died in 2002 at age 85, expanded his practice of copying sacred texts, called "shyakyo" — a form of devotion with a long history in Japan. Rather than separating the verses written into vertical blocks, Tsuneo reconfigured them into images such as bubbles, atoms, ants, DNA and lightning bolts.
His paintings range from ephemeral beauties of nature and microscopic and telescopic wonders to classical Buddhist iconography. Embedded in each work are insights into the healing power of compassion and wisdom.
The exhibit, which opened in May, was organized by the Louisiana State University Museum of Art with guest curator, Dr. Paula Arai, professor of philosophy and religious studies at LSU.
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