This is ink drawing by the Medieval Japanese master artist Sesson Shūkei dates from around 1570 and represents my favorite elements of this type of art. Called “Gibbons in a Landscape,” it shows the animals trying to take hold of the moon’s reflection in the water. You can see a closeup in the second slide with some of the gibbons making a chain down from a tree towards the water.
Sesson Shūkei was a Zen monk-artist, and had studied the ink expression of art from China that became beloved in his time in Japan. Like all master artists, Sesson came up with his own style. The theme of the ink painting, which measures about 5 feet by 11.5 and was made with an accompanying screen panel, echoes Zen Buddhist ideas — the gibbons are seeking something that they will never find, and which is only an illusion, like the delusional mind.
I love the art from Sesson Shūkei and his era, with the themes of nature and the way that the ink markings can seem whimsical and yet precise.
Source(s): The Metropolitan Museum of Art, accession number 1982.1.,.2. Public domain.
