The Cleveland Museum of Art

Collection Online as of April 20, 2024

Haboku (Flung-ink) Landscape

Haboku (Flung-ink) Landscape

c. 1510
(Japanese, 1440?-1529)
Japan, Muromachi period (1392–1573)
hanging scroll; ink on paper
Image: 59.5 x 26.9 cm (23 7/16 x 10 9/16 in.); Overall: 151.1 x 40.6 cm (59 1/2 x 16 in.)
Purchase from the J. H. Wade Fund 1976.59
Location: not on view

Description

This vague but energetically rendered landscape highlights the brush: the messenger for a moment’s emotional or spiritual state. The painting represents one of many subjects and styles Shugetsu studied and absorbed from the great practitioners of Ming-dynasty China in the late 1400s and early 1500s. The technique of "flung ink," or haboku, disguises purposeful composition as an almost random, distracted series of brushstrokes. Close inspection reveals tonalities and strokes brushed onto a soft, absorbent paper in a range from heavy and wet to crisp ink charges. Not surprisingly, amateur and professional Zen monk-painters favored this "impressionistic" style as an exercise in seeing meaningful detail slowly emerge from what at first seems unclear.
  • Hirayama
    Tanaka Gohei
    ?-1976
    (Gatodo Gallery Co., Ltd., Tokyo, Japan, sold to the Cleveland Museum of Art)
    1976-
    The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH
  • Lee, Sherman E. "The Year in Review for 1976." The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 64, no. 2 (1977): 39-78. no. 142 www.jstor.org
    Lee, Sherman E., Michael R. Cunningham, and Ursula Korneitchouk. One Thousand Years of Japanese Art (650-1650): From the Cleveland Museum of Art : Catalogue. [New York]: Japan Society, 1981. no. 35
    Cleveland Museum of Art. Tōyō kaiga no seika: Kurīvurando Bijutsukan no korekushon kara : tokubetsuten. 1998. p.107, cat. no. 71
    Sesshū. Sesshū: botsugo 500-nen tokubetsuten = Sesshu, master of ink and brush : 500th anniversary exhibition. [Tokyo]: Mainichi Shinbunsha, 2002. exh. cat. 125, p. 185.
    The Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art/1978. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1978. Reproduced: p. 376 archive.org
    Tōyō kaiga no seika: tokubetsuten: Kurīvurando Bijutsukan no korekushon kara [東洋絵画の精華: 特别展: クリーヴラント美術館のコレクションから= Highlights of Asian painting from the Cleveland Museum of Art]. Nara, Japan: Nara National Museum, 1998. Reproduced: p. 107, no. 71
  • Streams and Mountains Without End: Asian Art and the Legacy of Sherman E. Lee at the Cleveland Museum of Art. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (June 27-August 23, 2009).
    Main Asian Rotation (G121). The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (October 26, 2003-March 12, 2004).
    Sesshu, Master of Ink and Brush: 500th Anniversary Exhibition. Kyoto National Museum, Kyoto, Japan (March 12-April 7, 2002).
    Highlights of Asian Paintings from The Cleveland Museum of Art. Nara National Museum (organizer) (February 21-March 29, 1998); Suntory Museum of Art (April 28-June 21, 1998).
    Object Lessons: Cleveland Creates an Art Museum. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (June 7-September 8, 1991).
    Byobu: The Art of the Japanese Screen. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (December 8, 1987-January 10, 1988).
    Suibokuga: Japanese Ink Painting. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (October 1, 1985-February 24, 1986).
    Visions of Landscape: East and West. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (February 17-March 21, 1982).
    One Thousand Years of Japanese Art (650-1650) from the Cleveland Museum of Art. Japan House Gallery, New York, NY (March 25-May 17, 1981).
    茶の美術 : 特別展 (Art of the Tea Ceremony). Tokyo National Museum, Tokyo, Japan (organizer) (October 7-November 24, 1980).
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  • {{cite web|title=Haboku (Flung-ink) Landscape|url=false|author=Shūgetsu Tōkan|year=c. 1510|access-date=20 April 2024|publisher=Cleveland Museum of Art}}

Source URL:

https://www.clevelandart.org/art/1976.59