Shibunkaku participates in TEFAF Maastricht 2023.
NIHONGA is telling stories from the roots of our being.
An analytical approach to the self and the other, the law of the excluded third that separates true from false, and a dualist type of thinking allowed humankind to achieve an ever-increasing rate of progress. At the same time, things that are excluded from such patterns harbor a multitude of problems, bringing us closer to a critical junction.
At the root of NIHONGA is wanobi, the Japanese understanding of beauty. The character wa in this case means “Japan.” As an archaic term for our country, it represents the peculiarities of the Japanese nation, from its earliest mentioning in the opening passage of Japan’s first constitution by Prince Shōtoku in the 7th century. Wa also evokes the idea of absorbing what is different, to make it one’s own and thus create new energy. It is the notion of the identity of subject and object, according to which we are part of a wholesome nature that surpasses human reason by far, a world of the innumerable gods and spirits of the Shinto belief, while we accept its absurdities and state of constant flux. This notion is even ingrained in the structure of the Japanese language that tends to omit the subject of a sentence, or nihonga, where compositions often lack a unified viewpoint. Through the succession of countless generations, it is embedded in our genes.
Nihonga uses enduring mineral pigments made of pulverized natural ores and shells. Support is either paper or silk. Nihonga materials avoid anything synthetic. The brush reveals the spiritual dimensions of its motifs, from birds, flowers and the aspects of climate and season, to the landscapes, the lights and the shadows. It is the sublimation in beauty of the eternal flow of the Japanese soul.
The world today is permeated a sense of dread, looming crisis and general unease. While we are looking for a way to move forward, we have to question what is human under the confines of the cycle of nature and our glimpses of time that are life. Probing the true qualities of life, we hope that NIHONGA will contribute to address these fundamental questions.
We are excited to welcome you to Shibunkaku at TEFAF Maastricht 2023.
TEFAF Maastricht 2023
March 11-19, 2023
MECC Maastricht ＜Google Maps＞
Stand 191
