Fergus McCaffrey Tokyo is delighted to announce the opening of Seeing without a Seer, a drawing exhibition by eight artists: Joe Bradley; Cecily Brown; Sam Francis; Marcia Hafif; Natsuyuki Nakanishi; Brice Marden; Cy Twombly; and Jiro Yoshihara.
The eminent Japanese philosopher Kitaro Nishida (1870 – 1945) devoted his career to exploring and expanding upon the Christian-infused Western metaphysical tradition by adopting a Buddhist perspective on explorations of consciousness. Nishida often spoke about the phenomenon of Seeing without a Seer to touch upon the ‘pure experience’ of nothingness, when rational thought and self-consciousness have been negated so that the creators’ authority submits to a new openness.
Drawing is often considered to be the most direct and unmediated expression of an artist’s hand and mind, and successive generations of Eastern and Western artists have adopted different mental strategies and physical practices to access unfamiliar creative territory. From Twombly’s left-handed drawings to Nakanishi’s two-meter-long drawing stick; Seeing without a Seer reflects upon three generations of artists stripping away at familiarity in the pursuit something new.
Fergus McCaffrey Tokyo
3 Chome-5-9 Kita-Aoyama, Minato City, Tokyo 107-0061, Japan
