Zen Buddhism; Lassaw, Ibram; Hasegawa, Saburo; Artists; Eighth Street Club
摘要
My dissertation centers on two postwar artists working in New York: US based sculptor Ibram Lassaw and Japanese painter Hasegawa Saburō and their involvement with Zen Buddhism.
My work binds together the correspondence, writing, and talks of Lassaw and Hasegawa with analysis of their artwork in an effort to clarify their particular interpretations of Zen within the larger milieu of interest in ‘Asian thought’ found in Abstract Expressionism. I pay special attention to their lectures on Zen Buddhism at the Eighth Street Artist's Club, an integral site for mid 20th century artists' discourse and practice. My overall methodology focuses on issues of identity and nationalism.
