The exhibition “Zen Mind/Zen Brush: Japanese Ink Paintings from the Gitter-Yelen Collection” opened at the Boston Museum of Fine Arts on October 1, 2008 and will run until January 4, 2009. Special events in conjunction with the exhibition took place on Friday, October 24th, with a special reception followed by a dinner in the Koch Gallery attended by many museum professionals, scholars, friends, and family.
The following Saturday offered a full-day symposium on Zen arts featuring:
- Professor Stephen Addiss, University of Richmond, “The Transformation of Japanese Zen Painting”
- Professor John Stevens, Tohoku Fukushi University, Sendai Japan, “Personal commentary and disussion in MFA galleries”
- Professor Bernard Faure, Columbia University, “Zen History, Art, and Ritual in Pre-modern Japan”
- Dr. Matthew Welch, Minneapolis Institute of Arts, “Annihilating False Zen: The Powerful Art of Zen Master Nantenbo”
- and collectors Kurt Gitter and Alice Yelen on the history of the collection and enduring the hardships of Hurricane Katrina at the collection’s home in New Orleans.
