Mark Tobey, First American Zen Artist in the U.S.

Zen has influenced art in America.

Very few artists or critics will admit it.

Greater than the separation between church and state, in the United States is the separation between contemporary art and “religion”.

I don’t think of Zen as a religion. No deity, no prayers no belief system.

The folks in the art business do not agree.

Deep in the psyche of fine art business is the old communist belief that religion is the opiate of the people. Serious, professional artists cannot be religious. Reason and belief in science are the signs of intelligence and sophistication from the “fine arts” perspective.

Of course fine art is not a product of simple reason. Art comes from a deeper place in the mind, the unconscious.

There is no better practice than meditation for discovering the beauty, terror, brilliance and depth of the unconscious mind.

Mark Tobey was the first known fine artist in the United States to be influenced by Zen.

Tobey had an early interest in Asian religions. In 1923 Tobey was introduced to Chinese calligraphy by Teng Kuei a Chinese painter living in Seattle. In 1934 Tobey visited a Zen Monastery near Kyoto to practice Zen, study Haiku and calligraphy.

Toby created a calligraphic abstract painting style called “white writing”. His style influenced other painters in the Seattle area. They became know as the “mystical painters of the Northwest.” “Mystical painters of the Northwest” was a kind of code for “not to be taken too seriously” by the art elite of Manhattan.

In 1944 Tobey’s work was shown at the Willard Galley in New York. Jackson Pollock saw Tobey’s show. Pollock went back to his studio and eventually created his famous Blue Poles: #11. A work very clearly influenced by Tobey’s style.

In Tobey’s work the influence of Zen is tangible. The sense of self recedes. It’s the first time in in American modern era of painting that the persona of the artist is vague. The image on the canvas is not recognizable as an object. The audience is left simply with the texture and color of the paint and canvas, left with their own feelings emotions, projections and experience.