The Three Perfections: Japanese Poetry, Calligraphy and Painting @ The Met

Dear Dharma Drink friends,

Let us visit The Met museum to view the new exhibit that has come on display: The Three Perfections: Japanese Poetry, Calligraphy, and Painting from the Mary and Cheney Cowles Collection.

Meetup details:
Date: 9/8/2024 (Sunday)
Time: 1 pm to 4 pm
Location: The Met Fifth Avenue (Galleries 223-232)

We will meet at 1 pm in front of the museum (by the stairs) and meet and greet until 1:30 pm. At 1:30 pm, we will go into the museum. If you arrive later than 1:30 pm, meet us directly at the galleries.

"In East Asian cultures, the arts of poetry, calligraphy, and painting are traditionally referred to as the “Three Perfections.” This exhibition presents over 160 rare and precious works—all created in Japan over the course of nearly a millennium—that showcase the power and complexity of the three forms of art. Examples include folding screens with poems brushed on sumptuous decorated papers, dynamic calligraphy by Zen monks of medieval Kyoto, hanging scrolls with paintings and inscriptions alluding to Chinese and Japanese literary classics, ceramics used for tea gatherings, and much more.

The majority of the works are among the more than 250 examples of Japanese painting and calligraphy donated or promised to The Met by Mary and Cheney Cowles, whose collection is one of the finest and most comprehensive assemblages of Japanese art outside Japan."

Exhibition details:
https://www.metmuseum.org/exhibitions/the-three-perfections-japanese-poetry-calligraphy-and-painting-from-the-mary-and-cheney-cowles-collection

For ticket details:
https://www.metmuseum.org/plan-your-visit

The Guardian newspaper published an article recently on the "Three Perfections" exhibit. A few lines in it read:

"Each of the exhibit’s 10 galleries establishes a different mood and takes viewers to a different historical time period, offering a wealth of insight into Japanese aesthetics. For instance, one gallery is filled with the hypnotic and entrancing sounds of poems being chanted out according to practice in 11th century. “It’s so melodious and very calming,” said Carpenter. Hearing the poetry chanted out transforms its rhythms and meanings, just as much as seeing it inscribed into art through the practice of calligraphy.

Another room lets viewers be witness to a poetry contest in which poems are recited in a competitive atmosphere, in an attempt to transport viewers back to eras when such gatherings were commonplace. Yet another showcases lacquers made by monks, which were originally interactive objects of worship that countless believers would lovingly touch and caress at Shinto shrines and Buddhist temples. “You can see the marks where people’s hands have rubbed the lacquer off over years and years,” said Bincsik."
For the full article, click this link:
https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/article/2024/aug/12/metropolitan-museum-japanese-art-exhibit

Hope you will join us to see this magnificent exhibit.