Capturing the pulse and spirit of contemporary paintings and creative concepts

By the Director of the Art Gallery, Mr. Huang Chen-Chi

Since ancient times, many of the highly accomplished and revered monks, including Muxi from the Southern Song Dynasty, the four monks at the beginning of Qing Dynasty (Badashanren, Jianjiang, Shitao and Shixi), the contemporary Buddhist master Hong Yi, and the Japanese Zen Buddhist monks Moukan Reien and Kissan Minchou also happened to be the greatest artists of their time. This was because the mastery of calligraphy and painting has been considered to be one of the approaches to cultivate oneself.

In reality, the philosophies of Zen and Tao have had a long history of influence on Eastern aesthetics; going all the way back to when Bodhidharma founded Zen in the Northern Wei Dynasty more than a millenium ago. Their influence on Western art only became apparent much later during the beginning of the 20th century. Many renowned abstract artists such as M. Tobey, S. Francis, J. C.Dumon, Pierre Tal Coat, America's F. Kline, France's G. Mathieu, H. Hartung, Soulage and so forth, have adopted the concepts of both. From their works, one could see expressions of the views, insight and actions of Zen; the concepts of non-being/beings and space of Taoism; the movements of calligraphy and the flow of the changing lines; the concept of emptiness; the sensuality of excitement; the feeling of motion within stillness and stillness within motion and minimalism. The incorporation of Zen and Tao in modern art has given birth to a new look for artistic creations, expanding the horizon for the glorification of modern art in the future.

A mysterious man

Master Sun-Don Lee is truly an extraordinary man. Though his name is still not well known in the circle of painters and artists, Master Lee is without a doubt, a renowned "superman" in the fields of religion and cosmetics. He is most well known for being the successor and Master of the third generation of Forshang Buddhism and an immensely successful promoter of Forshang Buddhism. Under his preaching and promotion of Forshang Buddhism doctrine, the religion has prospered more than ever. The Yuan-Dao Kuan-Yin Temple in Tanshui has become a famous sacred place of Buddhism across Taiwan and even throughout the world as numerous followers and visiting tourists flood the temple on a regular basis. The Forshang Buddhism's Primary Lecture Hall at Minsheng East Road in Taipei City boasts over three thousand devoted followers and has also established numerous branches overseas, rapidly expanding its preaching areas around the world. At the same time, Master Lee is also a philosopher; an educator, a literary author, a musician and a genius painter. He has written a dozen ancient swordsman novels, including one titled "Ningfeng Tianxia (Congeal the Wind and Embody the universe)" which became an instant sensation that rekindled the popularity of Neo-Zen styled martial art literature and remained in the top three bestsellers at the KingStone Bookstore for two consecutive weeks. Despite having no prior training in piano performance, he composed a piano suite titled "The Patriarch Suite: A Memoir of A Great Patriarch" in tribute to his late master. In 2003 and 2006, his piano suite was performed for the first time at the National Concert Hall, the beautiful melody of Master Lee's composition and its interpretation left a lasting impression for music lovers. But that's not all regarding this exceptional character; Master Lee is also a brilliant entrepreneur. He created the Taiwanese brand "GP Deva", which took no longer than a year to defeat global cosmetic giants such as "SKII" and "SISLEY" with its amazing sales figures. "GP Deva" offers a wide range of products including cosmetics, skin care products, health products, fitness products, jewelry, herbal beverages, daily household products, fashion products and so forth. It is truly hard to believe that "GP Deva" offers such a wide selection of merchandise.

Totems of Universe

Even more amazingly, Master Lee also happens to be a talented artist. From his own recollections, Master Lee said, "In 1993, I was once deeply engaged in my meditation and suddenly, I had a mind-vision of all beings in the universe and saw the most fundamental pattern that represents all energies. I knew right then that I finally understood the working mechanisms of all things and beings in the universe. The first totem that was revealed to me, the basic Dharani that represents the ultimate pure land of universe, also became the first and fundamental of the four major Dharma Seals of Forshang Buddhism. In the couple of years that followed, I was able to achieve a state of heightened spiritual awareness and gained true insights into the reality through meditation. This made it possible for me to present the transformations between essence and form and the intricate details of the working mechanism of the universe (termed as the ten great characters in Forshang Buddhism) vividly through the totems of four major Dharma Seals of the universe.

"Five years later, while I was on my way to America to preach the doctrines of Forshang Buddhism in 1998, I had a sudden revelation of all the changes of energies and the interactions between all the minute factors in the universe and I realized I could represent them perfectly in simple lines. Such a fundamental energy, which integrates the energies of sound, light and form, contains infinite effects that can be activated in all time and in all space of the universe. If you ask me how I attained such a fundamental understanding, I would have to say it came from within."

I guess this is known as "enlightenment" in Zen.

These totems of universe have been broadly used on landscape, interior design, furniture design, jewelry design, daily household products, and merchandise design, providing the best interpretation of "Art for Life".

Artistic accomplishments

Master Lee has creatively rendered the totems of universe he witnessed during his deep meditation into oil paintings, creating new concepts for modern paintings. He has a comprehensive understanding of the spirit and artistic concepts of Zen paintings, and yet he has transcended the limitations of overly-simplistic and rugged styles of Muxi and Liangkai (grandmasters of traditional Chinese Zen paintings). One can see the fusion of motions and passions of Van Gogh, the sentiments and sensuality of Wassily Kandinsky's abstraction, Picasso's Cubism, Chagall's dream-like qualities, Dali's surrealism, and Miro's naivety and romance in Master Lee's works. Coupled with the mysterious concepts of inexhaustible nothingness and the totems of universe he has discovered, Master Lee was able to represent the basic patterns of all energies with simple signs and line structures. Together with the mystical colors of spiritual elements, Master Lee's complete representations of the totems of universe are truly breathtaking works of art.

Master Lee's works are characterized by his unique designs, mysterious symbols and distinct use of colors. He has successfully broken free from the confines of concrete images and created totems that represent insights into the human mind, instilling a new spiritual element and adding sense of mysterious energy to contemporary art. Evidently, Master Lee has already grasped the spirit of paintings and the concepts of creativity; as well his works are no doubt new inventions in the artistic circle that deserve praise. I am deeply honored to be given the opportunity to host the world debut of Master Lee's Innate Nature Hua-Yen Totem oil painting exhibition and hereby extend my most sincere wishes for the exhibition to be a great success.