Provenance: Galleria Duemila, Inc.

ABOUT THE WORK

A sense of calm and wonderment is often felt at the sight of a Zen garden. The stylized landscape is unlike regular gardens, it is abundant with stones and rocks, finely raked in straight lines, wavy lines, or concentric circles, and although the aesthetic presence of flowers is rarely found, it is beautified by stacked stones, perhaps a shrub or a clump of moss, and sometimes water features. Albeit minimalistic in appearance, it exudes a profound and powerful ambience. This is because in Zen art, space is important, it is understood as a reflection of how the mind should be when in meditation. The art-related tenets of Zen are exhibited in Lao Lianben’s Black Garden VI. His depiction of a garden is in line with its principles of landscape gardening, particularly the simplicity of the design. As an artist whose art is associated with Zen, it can be observed that he rendered this piece done in oil on paper in a meditative state. His brushstrokes are evocative of the raked gravel or sand in Zen gardens, owing to his masterful skill in calligraphy. In Hitsuzendo or the “Zen way of the brush,” the brush writes a statement about the calligrapher at a moment in time, one chance to create with the brush. The stroke needed not to be perfect and proportioned as long as it was created with the purpose of becoming one with the characters. For that reason, it is also likely that Lao applied in this piece the ideals of wabi-sabi, a concept in Zen art and design that finds beauty in imperfection and impermanence. A reminder to rekindle or maintain our relationship with nature is perhaps the intention of Lao for the lot at hand, inviting us to ponder upon the philosophical aspect of a garden and to see it as more than a view to be admired. (Isabella Romarate)