Messages Beyond Words:
Lee Sun-Don's Impromptu Performance of Oil Painting - Italy

2007.7.25

Aldo Carrozza (Aldo Carrozza is an artist and celebrated art critic, publishing multiple publications on art, including System of Art, Zero Absolute of Art, and Complexity and Simplicity of Art. His literary criticism incorporates philosophy, science, and history, demonstrating an interdisciplinary aesthetic scope.)

We have just assisted in a demonstration of a message that not only can be transmitted through words, but also can be transmitted through the realization or completion of a work of art. We were also able to hear his Buddhist philosophies in order to understand.

Master Lee desired to travel the world in order to demonstrate that Buddhism is a particular form of being and it is this concept that we must stop and reflect on.

Perceiving the Universe with Zen Concentration

Buddhism gives us a demonstration to how it is possible to come to the realization of the conscience reality-not only through science that uses experimentation, but with another form, namely concentration. Our religion gives us the knowledge on how to behave. However, the Asian religion gives you the possibility to grasp here on this earth a little portion of the divine mind. The Asians are able, through their own procedures, to live in the Divine reality, the essence of being, while still living amongst us. We, as Westerners, can be a bit egocentric. We will forever be skeptic because we always have to refer back to the teachings of Einstein and our grand theologists. Our true reality is what is dictated to us by our scientists. This is not so in the Asian state of mind, where there lives the truly gifted scientists. They veer towards the reality of living life with the procedures of meditation. The art of meditation can be a path to realization.

The Dialogue between Illusion and Reality

To understand what we mean by the true reality of the universe, I must say two things. The first is that even us Westerners understand that there is what we perceive to be real and what is actually real. We understand this through Plato. Then, we must attempt to explain a portion of Buddhism and that is the Japanese Zen which has always seemed to somewhat intrigue us.

Master Lee's message is that even through the illusions we can still grasp the true meaning of everything. As Master Lee has shown us that there is a constant game between illusion and reality. We often lose ourselves, thinking that we live in the reality when in fact we live in the illusion, and vice versa. This dualism between reality and illusion was not missed by the great thinkers as Buddha or Plato. Plato as we know was a great Greek philosopher and the Greek philosophy is the base of our Western thought.

Plato's Conception of Reality and Illusion

Plato teaches us that the reality we see is not the true essence of the universe. The reality we live is simply an illusion of the real world which was not a part of our world which Plato refers to. In this other world, there are the real concepts and ideas. If we were to see something that is beautiful, we could only understand the smallest fraction of what beauty really is. The true concept of beauty only truly exists in this other world. And we are able to live within the copies of these concepts.

Plato explains this with the story of the cave. In this cave, there lived the slaves who never were able to leave this place, therefore never knew the reality that lay outside the cave. The cave to them was reality. Within this cave was a hole which allowed the sun to shine through and create shadows on the walls of the cave. These slaves who were turned away from the light saw these images on the wall and believed that the shadows were reality. They believed the reality of the movements when in fact all it is was an illusion of the real truth outside the cave. With this example, Plato showed us that we have the capacity to realize that there is a reality that is not directly accessible. We need to understand that the world that surrounds us is faulty and not everything surrounding that seems real is. We need to use our minds to be able to look further. And this is the western world.

Even Within One Grain of Sand Lies the True Essence of Reality

In the Asian world by means of the Zen philosophies, one can obtain a true sense of reality. In these Zen philosophies, they teach us that a person can achieve the essence of the universe through specific methods. One should not fight against reality in all of its varied forms. Reality, although it expresses itself through many forms, is really only one. So we should not allow these differences to blind us. If I want to understand the essence of the universe I must immerse myself into this world of differences. And this can be achieved through meditation.

There are two forms of meditation. One can be done through traditional way as was done by Buddha, which one must liberate oneself mentally of these problems, contradictions, and oppositions of this world to allow one's spirit to collect the unitary essence of the universe. (The other is Zen Buddhism.) The great Zen master explains that if we pick up one grain of sand, and look at it with great concentration, one can find the true essence of reality. We Westerners simply understand this Zen concept as within small things lay the answers to the big thing. These concepts were grasped by the Asians as a means of enlightenment. In the Zen philosophy, everything is important, even a small grain of sand. Because even though that grain of sand is part of a smaller reality, in the great scheme of cosmic harmony, all things act as one to create this perfect essence of enlightenment.

Uncovering Truth through Symbology

In other words what we have to understand is that this art that the Zen Master wishes to bring is a path that allows us to better understand the teachings of Buddha through certain symbolism. And in order to free one's spirit and collect the true sense of everything, we might take the path of meditation. Through the paintings, we want to see the semantics, the meanings of the symbols. Master Lee explains that the meaning of these symbols should therefore bring us closer to the sense of harmony within the universe and this is done by overcoming the dualism between illusion and reality. You have seen, how easy it is to lose yourself in the demonstration of the eventual reality.

When he painted the vase of flowers ("The Harmonized Oneness of Illusion and Reality"), he turned it around so that it almost looked like a reflection of the sunrise. He showed us in a tangible way how we can immediately conclude that what we see is the reality. Then by changing the painting again we come to the conclusion that we know the reality. By doing this he confuses us like a magician and this is how we must do as well. We should not believe in the appearance of things because probably the real truth of things is only through our own capacity to understand the message of Buddha or the ability to gather the significance of a painting, or as what is just discussed, being open and tolerant to all the differences in the world.

Human Solidarity as Transcending Differences

Master Lee's message is one of human solidarity. Master Lee through the teachings of Buddha brings this message to us in the west where we are very distrustful of the differences that surround us. Instead, we should embrace this diversity because all of the differences in the universe are really just one. Master Lee has begun his discussion by saying that everything that seems different in reality is one, and by utilizing the symbols of the infinite, he has shown that the infinite in the end is a mirrored image of unity

This symbology from Master Lee is a symbol that from an artistic standpoint can be compared to the reality of signs that was produced in America and Italy during the 50s. What he does is that he puts far more importance into the significance of the symbol and that he sees the significance of the symbols not just in their own forms. And for this we must thank Master Lee for this message of solidarity and for illustrating the unity of the universe. Thank you Master Lee.

Case Illustrations

Color Symbology

I want to add one more thing of the various parallels that can be done between Master Lee's art and our art. His messages always start with the emergence of Buddha, to tell us that we must live our lives in a harmonic manner with nature, because it is Buddha who tells us so. Therefore there is symbolism that surpasses the illusion in order to bring us closer to reality. This concept was grasped in the West that we call theosophy, the religious science about God.

There have been followers of theosophy in the West, painters like Kandinsky, who invented the abstract art in 1910, as well as others such as Mondrian, who drew colors of red, white, and blue, who I'm sure you've seen before somewhere. What these painters did through theosophy was to demonstrate that the color red or the color blue is important. What we have to do is to put symbolism behind the colors which can be our way of communicating the essence of the universe. These painters such as Kandinsky, through spirituality, and Mondrian, through the sense of geometry of the world, spoke of a conscience that could be obtained not just through forms, but also through colors. The color has its own symbology. If I look at a green lawn, all I see is a lawn and that that is all it is. These theosophic artists put an importance on the selection of a red or a yellow or green because green means a determined thing while so does red.

Master Lee does the same thing. It is as if a theosophist comes to us to tell us that the message of Buddha is a strong message that has to be transmitted through this gestural art. A line can have certain significance depending on whether it's yellow or red. We entrust the importance of the selection of colors. Looking at this picture ("A Bosom Friend Is Hard to Come by"), you can see a faded picture of the Buddha as if it were coming to us from the depths of the universe and telling us what there is in front of us. If the Buddha was darker, it would give the image of a mask. And in Buddha, we shouldn't see a mask; we should see a friend that comes from the depths of the universe and that is why it's beautiful. He left it this way, keeping it soft while he gave strength to what is the symbology. In other words, the fact that in the painting he has been giving more importance on the symbolism, meaning that he was able to affirm the message of Buddha. He makes it more available through the symbolism.

See, we critics can not look at a painting with virgin eyes. We associate what we see with the universe that is familiar to us and when we do this and see movements that we like, we enjoy them because an artist not only speaks of the reality but of the reality through codes that have also been expressed by other artists. When we affirm this beautiful ability of the artist to play well with these codes, by means of these enchanting movements, we steal away the meaning that the painter wants to convey.

I would like to draw your attention to the beauty of this painting, "With Compassion and Quality to Deliver All Beings". See how he uses an ochre background, using colors in an unconventional way. He does not always paint the nose and the eyes in the same manner. Instead, he rather alternates the darker with the lighter colors to portray the nose and the eyes of the two over-imposing figures. This is a game of counter proportion of the two characters and a symbolism of the white and the background. The purpose is to create a sort of intermediary between reality, the background and the characters. Please note that it is actually an ochre treated with brown and with a slight orange connotation. This is the best picture from a western taste perspective, very close to the Italian painters of the trans-vanguard era of the 1980s. However, the artist adds to such evocation of the human figure the flavor of semantics. This implies that the form must explode in the meaning.

Delivering Full Message in Depth

Common in the western culture is the so-called Opera aperta ("Open Work") expressed by Umberto Eco, an Italian intellectual and writer, also known for the novel The Name of the Rose. According to the Opera aperta, the artist has to create works which need to be completed by the user. This is to say that the artist is only supposed to give introductory hints of his message; it is then up to the observer to fully develop the artistic meaning or message of the work, in other words, to complete his work. This is the philosophya of the Opera aperta.

However, the thesis of Opera aperta makes the artist little or no effort to deliver his own messages. In this instance we are now catching up with the effort toward the significance of the artist's work introduced by the artist himself. The artist stops giving these few hints and resumes full responsibility for delivering the full message in its depth, no longer requiring the observer the task of completing the interpretation of the work.

Can you see that picture, "Non-Emptiness in Emptiness, The Wondrous Out of Emptiness" He, the artist, is telling us that because room is limited and I am conveying the mind in a limited space, how do I prove that a "small mind" can conquer its place in a huge universe? Well, he has placed on the other side of the rock a huge universe. So he has now developed dualism. We are used to interpreting things and events in a dualistic manner, "becoming" as opposed to "being," as expressed by Hegel. We probably feel that it is within "becoming" that reality develops, with or thanks to dualism, which though is not everlasting, as the small contemplative mind is lost as it is in the reality of the universe.

The profound meaning that the Master intends to convey represents a story of reaffirming the semantics. We were about to lose the courage and energy that the artist is reaffirming the message and meaning of their own ideas. How many times we have heard questions such as: "Excuse me. Are you the artist? Could you please explain what does this picture mean?" And the artist replies, "Whatever you wish it to mean, the work speaks for itself." Once we also said that this form of poetry is legitimate and well founded. But now it is time to stop this! We now must have the courage to see that the artist resumes his role in representing and expressing clearly his messages. That is why we like this message of the Master and we think it shouldn't be revised.