Ellen Pearlman - Nothing and Everything: The Influence of Buddhism on the American Avant Garde: 1942 - 1962

Copyright 2012 by Ellen Pearlman. All rights reserved. No portion of this book, except for brief review, may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any meanselectronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwisewithout written permission of the publisher. For information contact EVOLVER EDITIONS c/o North Atlantic Books.

Published by EVOLVER EDITIONS, an imprint of North Atlantic Books
P.O. Box 12327
Berkeley, California 94712

Ibram Lassaw, Pencil on Paper, 1949. Permission to reprint from Denise Lassaw. Michio Yoishihara, Gutai, 1955. Naaomi Yoshihara. Courtesy of the Ashiya
City Museum of Art and History.
John Cage, Freeman Etudes; Copyright 1981 by Henmar Press, Inc. Used by
permission of C. F. Peters Corporation. All Rights Reserved.

Allen Ginsberg circa. 1948. Allen Ginsberg Estate; reprinted with permission.
Daizo Yamaguma, 1988. Ellen Pearlman.

Art direction and cover design by michaelrobinsonnyc.com

Nothing and EverythingThe Influence of Buddhism on the American Avant-Garde: 19421962 is sponsored by the Society for the Study of Native Arts and Sciences, a nonprofit educational corporation whose goals are to develop an educational and cross-cultural perspective linking various scientific, social, and artistic fields; to nurture a holistic view of arts, sciences, humanities, and healing; and to publish and distribute literature on the relationship of mind, body, and nature.

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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Pearlman, Ellen, 1952
Nothing and everything : the influence of Buddhism on the American avant-garde, 19421962 / Ellen Pearlman.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references.
eISBN: 978-1-58394-379-3
1. Buddhism and the artsNew York (State)New York. 2. Avant-garde (Aesthetics)New York (State)New YorkHistory20th century. 3. New York (N.Y.)Intellectual life20th century. I. Title. II. Title: Influence of Buddhism on the American avant-garde, 19421962.
BQ4570.A72P45 2012
700.411dc23

2011024383

v3.1

Modern art, to me, is nothing more than the expression of the contemporary aims of the age we are living in All cultures have had means and techniques of expressing their immediate aims Today painters dont have to go to subject matter outside of themselves they work from a different source. They work from within. It seems to me the modern artist cannot express this age, the airplane, the atom bomb, the radio in the old forms of the Renaissance or any past culture I paint on the floor. That is not unusual. The Orientals did that.

J ACKSON P OLLOCK

Nothing and Everything is about the relationship of Eastern thought, particularly Buddhism, to the arts in post-war New York City. In a relatively brief period of timefrom the early 1940s to the early 1960sa handful of individuals brought about major changes in music, performance, dance, theater, installation, video, mixed media, painting, and sculpture, as the evolution from modernism to postmodernism broke down the idea of art as a practice devoted to a particular medium. The worldor life itselfbecame a legitimate artists tool, aligning with Zen Buddhisms emphasis on enlightenment occurring at any moment.

Buddhism originated in India, then migrated to China and Japan. The Japanese form of Buddhism, supplemented by more esoteric Tibetan Buddhism, influenced many in the New York avant-garde during the 1950s. Few artists had the resources or access to journey eastward, and were initially exposed to Buddhism either through the books and classes of Dr. D. T. Suzuki, the famed Japanese scholar and translator, or through sharing knowledge with one another. Simultaneously, parallel movements were occurring in post-war Japan: the artist groups Gutai, Hi Red Center, Group Ongaku, and others were also dealing with the breaking down of artistic boundaries. Though their philosophical basis started at different ends of the spectrum, within just a few years these groups became aware of each another and even collaborated.

This book begins by examining the life of D. T. Suzuki and explores the content of the groundbreaking classes he taught to the public in the mid-1950s at Columbia University. shifts to the life of Suzukis most famous student, the music composer John Cage, and traces how Buddhism helped formulate aspects of his oeuvre. After studying with Suzuki, Cage taught a course in experimental composition at the New School for Social Research. From that class sprouted the art movement Fluxus and the birth of event scores and happenings. Participants from Fluxus and other groups mixed with the artistic ferment occurring at the Judson Church in Washington Square as well as in dance, performance, and theater, and interacted with different Japanese groups.