The Pursuit of Silence & Artistic Expression



 Wang Meng (1308-1385), Yuan Dynasty: Thatched Cottage in Autumn Mountains
 Edouard Vuillard, The Dressmaker (1895) 
Agnes Martin, Falling Blue (1963)

Although, in Western art canon, we come across with expressions of silence in mostly abstract paintings (e.g. Mark Rothko, Agnes Martin, Etel Adnan), the roots of these ideas lie in mysticism and spirituality of the East. Traces of silence go back to Chinese paintings under the influence of Zen Buddhism and Taoism beginning around the 8th century. In Chinese culture, it was common and acceptable to retreat from society by escaping to mountains in chaotic time periods. Mostly in reclusion, monks and scholars painted tiny human figures, small sheds contrasting to majestic mountains, rivers and mist in a monochromatic way, affected by the ideas of Taoism which often underlines the power of silence (1). These paintings were not realistic depictions of landscapes, they were landscapes of the mind in a meditative or contemplative state. 

After the ideas of Zen Buddhism -especially the concepts of wu (not have, without) and ma (in-between space)- were settled in the culture, they influenced the aesthetics of Chinese art (then Japanese art) which led to the rise of Chan (Zen) paintings (2). Around the 13th century, landscape paintings were seen as silent poems involving ink wash technique and calligraphy which inspired abstract art and was seen as the highest form of art in China. 


Silence is also within other meditative arts such as Indian mandalas, and whirling Sufi dance. In these, the important thing is the artist’s meditative state of mind and inner prayer through the creative process rather than the end product.


In the 19th century, a shift emerged in daily life after the industrial revolution, and interiors of modernity gained importance as retreat spaces. In their paintings, a group of French artists, Les Nabis, often depicted the meditative state of a figure in solitude, doing activities like reading or nothing in silent interiors. George Mauner called this motif a “silent ritual” (3).






(1) CUNYTV. Ancient Art Links - Chinese Landscape Paintings at the Metropolitan Museum.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TIt0wBUdY5E&ab_channel=CUNYTV
(2) Victoria and Albert Museum. Masterpieces of Chinese Painting 700 - 1900 (2013). http://www.vam.ac.uk/content/exhibitions/masterpieces-of-chinese-painting/about-the-exhibition/
(3) Van Gogh Museum. Silent Ritual.
https://www.vangoghmuseum.nl/en/prints/subject/8224/silent-ritual?v=1


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