The Third Mind: American Artists Contemplate Asia

From January 30 – April 19, 2009, the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum [New York] will present The Third Mind: American Artists Contemplate Asia, 1860–1989, an exhibition that considers the dynamic and complex impact of Asian art, literature, music, and philosophical concepts on American art. ... The Third Mind proposes a new art historical construct, challenging the widely accepted view of the development of American modern art as a dialogue with Europe by alternatively focusing on artists’ prolonged engagement with forms and ideas aligned with Asia. The exhibition will illustrate how Asian art, literature, music, and philosophical concepts were incorporated, interpreted, and mediated to inspire new modes of experiential, contemplative, process-oriented, and interactive art. The exhibition ventures beyond standard accounts of the history of American modernism in which Asian influence is reduced to stylistic appropriations of Japanese forms among Impressionists, Post-Impressionists, and artists involved in the Aesthetic and Arts and Crafts movements. The project’s scope will include the impact of the classical arts of India, China, and Japan, and the systems of Hinduism, Taoism, Tantric Buddhism, and Zen Buddhism. Read Article