Buddhist-inspired visual art and architecture

An on-line gallery of visual art and architecture inspired by Buddhism and/or produced by practising Buddhists.

KARL MARTENS

The background for Karl’s style has its roots in his deep interest for the forms of meditation found I Zen Buddhism. Getting to know one self through attention to thoughts and emotions, and to accept the fact that we will never be fully in control of our lives are some of the thoughts he has found important. This way of thinking is not only reflected in Karl’s paintings, but has resulted in his holding workshops in Zen calligraphy, where participants get to practice identifying their emotions, resist planning and then express the emotions on paper with Chinese ink on calligraphy paper.

– When we paint from our true feelings, we all paint something beautiful.

Karl paint his birds from memory, using watercolor and charcoal on hand-made paper.

– I look at a bird and a specific expression or posture, which particularly expresses the personality of the bird, sticks in my mind. Then I paint…

http://karlmartens.se/eng/om-karl/

Gyr Falcon - Karl Martens — Karl Martens – Gyr Falcon

Video of the artist at work

TADAO ANDO

Hill of the Buddha, Sapporo, Japan

Japanese architect Tadao Ando has concealed a huge stone statue of the Buddha within a hill covered in lavender plants at the Makomanai Takino Cemetery in Sapporo.

https://www.dezeen.com/2017/08/08/tadao-ando-hill-of-the-buddha-lavender-mound-makomanao-takino-cemetery-sapporo-japan/

Buddha hill tadao ando lavender — Tadao Ando – Buddha Hill, Sapporo head detail

MIYA ANDO

Wishing Mandala 2017

Wishing Mandala 2017 – detail

Wishing Mandala 2017

Interactive installation for the Rubin Museum
72″X 72″, dyed Bodhi (ficus religiosa) skeleton leaves, monofilament, archival ragboard

http://www.miyaando.com/

Ando describes her works as “studies in nothingness.” Raised partly in a secluded Buddhist temple in Okayama, Japan, she says her spiritual practice informs her exploration of simplicity and reduction. In 2009, Ando donated her work 8 Fold Path to the Against the Stream Buddhist Meditation Society in Los Angeles. The work comprises a grid of four steel plates shaded by a thin application of patina. 8 Fold Path serves as a reminder of the dharma wheel—a visual representation of Buddhism’s noble eightfold path—for the L.A. space’s practitioners, who meditate facing the pedestal above which the work hangs.

https://www.artsy.net/article/artsy-editorial-clear-mind-meditative-spaces-created-famous-artists

8 Fold Path 2009

Eightfold Path - Miya Ando — Miya Ando – Eightfold Path

For Against The Stream Buddhist Meditation Society, Los Angeles
96″ x 96″ Patina, Pigment, Lacquer, Steel

James Turrell

http://jamesturrell.com/about/introduction/

Turrell’s medium is pure light. He says, “My work has no object, no image and no focus. With no object, no image and no focus, what are you looking at? You are looking at you looking. What is important to me is to create an experience of wordless thought.”