Joseph Bertino, Joshua Malone, Kaitlyn Menefee, Ryan Pipan

April 14, 2012

Daoism in the West: Art and Architecture

"If our youth seriously listen to such unworthy representation of gods, instead of laughing at them as they ought, hardly willing of them deem that he himself, being but a man, can be dishonored by similar actions- and instead of having any shame or self-control, he will always be whining and lamenting on slight occasions." (Republic 388d)

Homer: A Bad Influence

The Painter is therefore three times removed from the truth

"The art of imitation is a far cry from the truth. the reason it(the painter) can make everything, apparently, is that it grasps just a little of each thing- and only an image at that... paint us a carpenter, he knows nothing of the man's skill and yet he is a good painter, from a distance his picture of the carpenter can fool children and people with no judgement because it looks like a carpenter" (598b-c).

"All in all, then, what people in this situation would take for the truth would be nothing more than the shadows of the manufactured objects" (515c).

The Painter Follows Homer

"Well I imagine that audiences and spectators can take pleasure in beautiful sounds and colors and shapes, and in everything which is created from these elements but that their minds are incapable of seeing and taking pleasure in, the nature of beauty itself" (476b).

Uneducated and easily swayed led astray

The Influenced: Children and Gullible

Europa and the Bull

Art should be used for education of great citizens

“…to imitate is natural to humans from childhood, so also it is natural for everyone to take pleasure in imitations” (On Poetics 1448b5-10)

Aristotle: Agrees to Disagree

Joachim Beuckelaer“Women selling Vegetables”

Kitsch Art: Far From the Truth

Often made solely for profit; an ends to a means

Void of truth, or underlying meaning

Simulacrum Mostly copies, with no originals

Only valued for entertainment video games, movies, cartoons

What’s Wrong with Contemporary Western Art?

To explain or reveal something deeper about the relationship between mankind and the environment

Not about profit or utility Illustrate an ultimate truth (the Dao), the

secrets of naturePrimary goal capture nature’s spirit, rather

than imitate its physical characteristics

What is the purpose of art in Daoism?

Truly great artists reveal the subject’s inner qualities Energy, movement, essence, spirit qi （ the manifestation of Dao)

Woodworker Ching’s BellstandFrom the Zhuang Zi, “For there to be life, a

necessary prerequisite is that it not be separated from the physical form”

Daoism Applied to Chinese Painting

Blank spaces indicate wu 无 nonactionFocus attention on main subjectAllow the viewers mind to wander

Often black and white presence, absenceSeeing largeness in smallness Man not the center, unlike Old TestamentRivers bend, weave symbol of water

Daoist Principles Within Chinese Painting

Wang Fu (1362-1416): A Gathering of Literati in A Mountain Bower

Shan Shui “mountain-water”Style of painting emphasizes nature, uses 5

elements, in proper pairs

山水

Chinese Element Color Direction木 mu Wood Green East

火 huo Fire Red South

土 tu Earth Tan/Yellow NE/SW

金 jin Metal White/Gold West/NW

水 shui Water Blue/Black North

Tang Yin (1470 – 1523): Hermit Fisherman in Streams and Mountains

Too big! Imposes on landscape,

susceptible to natural disasters

Dominates the environment

Depends upon many foreign materials

What’s Wrong With Contemporary Western Architecture?

In respect to Daoist principles pertaining to Chinese architecture, a structure is considered an artwork that is lived in

Furthermore, the building should leave a place or clearing for truth to reveal itself to its inhabitants

Promote positive, orderly human relations This concept is absent in Western

architecture due to Le Corbusier’s “Machine Aesthetic Principle”

Differences between Western and Eastern Architecutre

19th Century Western Architecture

Charles-Edouard Jeannerette “Le Corbusier”

Believed architecture had to keep up with the technological advancements of the time

Contemporary architects now needed to 1. incorporate industrial

technology into buildings such as plumbing and heating systems

2. Have the building’s aesthetics resonate with contemporary technological advancments

Abstract Universalism The architect is now the artist

The artist is inspired by the universal laws of nature

Coincides with the philosophies of Plato and Aristotle in that there is an abstraction of forms

Forms are easily copied

Corbu takes an abstraction of these forms into what he calls “the architectural plan”

Mass Production Spirit In the 19th Century, businesses wished to maximize production

People held responsible for mass production, and are products of mass production

Unlike the Daoist conception of architecture, buildings are not necessarily artworks to be lived in.

Rather, they are like factories that house human productivity

The machine aesthetic of these buildings is easily copied and reproduced

Thus the shape and function of the building is replicated from city to city

The shape of a building should be based on the intended the purpose and function of the building

Corbu believed the plan in drawing up a building is an austere abstraction

Form should not be restricted to what form is supposed to do

Because the plan is very abstract, the function of the building did not always work out

Example the new science center

Form Follows Function

From the West to the East

The apparition of these faces in the crowd; Petals on a wet, black bough.

-Ezra Pound

In a Station of the Metro

And God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it: and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth. And God said, Behold, I have given you every herb bearing seed, which is upon the face of all the earth, and every tree, in the which is the fruit of a tree yielding seed; to you it shall be for meat. And to every beast of the earth, and to every fowl of the air, and to every thing that creepeth upon the earth, wherein there is life, I have given every green herb for meat: and it was so.-Genesis 1:28-30

Architectural understandings: West

Architectural understandings: EastHeaven and Earth are not

humane.They regard all things as

straw dogs.The sage is not humane.He regards all people as

straw dogs….

-Dao De Jing, 5

Tao is empty (like a bowl),It may be used but its

capacity is never exhausted.

It is bottomless, perhaps the ancestor of all things.

It blunts sharpness,It unties its tangles.It softens its light.It becomes one with the

dusty world….

-Dao De Jing, 4

Building merges with siteForm follows function…and

natureNature as model

BorrowingYin/yang

Interior/exteriorMan-made/natural

Space is filled with qiFengshui

Daoist View

Geography, Climate, AestheticsCities and HousesBalancing qi from nature with bodily qi

Harmony and FlowSuperstitious?Practical!(Exploited)

Fengshui（风水）

Understanding the reciprocal relationships between nature and architecture:High and LowProtruding and RetreatingOpen and ClosedSunny and ShadyExterior and InteriorSouth and NorthScattered and CondensedA and ~A

Fengshui（风水）

When Man is born, he is tender and weak.

At death, he is stiff and hard.All things, the grass as well as trees, are tender and supple while alive.When dead, they are withered and dried.Therefore the stiff and the hard are companions of death.The tender and the weak are companions of life. Therefore if the army is strong, it will not win. If a tree is stiff, it will break.The strong and the great are inferior, while the tender and the weak are superior.

-Dao De Jing , 76