Buddha Mind in Contemporary Art

co-edited by Jacquelynn Baas and Mary Jane Jacob

Published by University of California Press, 2004.

Buddha Mind in Contemporary Art documents the growing presence of Buddhist perspectives in contemporary culture, a shift that began in the nineteenth century and is now pervasive in many aspects of everyday experience. In the arts especially, the increasing importance of process over product has promoted a profound change in the relationship between artist and audience. But while artists have been among the most perceptive interpreters of Buddhism in the West, art historians and critics have been slow to develop the intellectual tools to analyze the impact of Buddhist concepts.

This timely, multi-faceted volume explores the relationships between Buddhist practice and the contemporary arts in lively essays by writers from a range of disciplines and in revealing interviews with some of the most influential artists of our time. The authors include artists, curators, art critics, educators, and Buddhist commentators in psychology, literature, and cognitive science.

Extending earlier twentieth-century aesthetic interests in blurring the boundaries of art and life, the artists – including Ann Hamilton, an installation artist whose work often incorporates sensory experiences and explores the relationship between the body and space; Maya Lin, renowned for her minimalist designs and memorials, including the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington, D.C.; and Bill Viola, A video artist known for his immersive installations that explore themes of consciousness and spirituality – view art as a way of life, a daily practice, in ways parallel to that of the Buddhist practitioner. Their works and others woven throughout the book, richly convey how Buddhism has been both a source for and a lens through which we now perceive art.

Elucidating common ground between the creative mind, the perceiving mind, and the meditative mind, Buddha Mind in Contemporary Art tackles essential questions about art, life, and their relationship.