SESSHU SCHOOL (17TH CENTURY)

A river landscape with herons in spring and autumn distills the power and poetry of seventeenth-century ink painting. Birds and foliage are close to the foreground along the river bank, dramatically silhouetted against a misty void. Grey ink wash sets off the white herons. Birds are flying, crying, eating and sleeping; those on the ground are balanced by those in the air. There is an impression of lively vitality conveyed by the interaction of the twenty-one birds. The abstraction and emotional appeal of the screens shown here derives from the repertory of Zen paintings of waterfowl and a Japanese taste for simplification.