SMILE OF THE BUDDHA investigates the impact of Asian worldviews, and Buddhism in particular, on the art of Europe and America, an impact that has been far greater than historians and critics generally recognize. Conceptually sophisticated yet disarmingly personal, the text is accompanied by over 100 full-color illustrations that advance and solidify the author's arguments. Too often Buddhism is subsumed within general studies of "the spiritual in art," or is linked with occultism. But occultism is a Western phenomenon - ostensibly comprehensible only to those already enlightened. In contrast, Buddha taught that wisdom is available to everyone through an acceptance of the inevitability of change, and the concomitant realization of the interdependence of all beings. Understanding is reached through simple meditative practices that allow the mind to experience the nature of existence. In the words of the French Symbolist painter Paul Gauguin, "all people, by virtue of the attainment of wisdom, are able to become Buddhas." SMILE OF THE BUDDHA covers one hundred and fifty years of art history, divided into five major categories: Impressionism and Symbolism, Abstraction, Expression, Beyond the Visual and Light and Insight. It focuses on twenty artists, from household names such as Claude Monet, Vincent Van Gogh and Georgia O'Keefe, to those whose work is less well-known outside of art circles such as Robert Irwin, Ad Reinhart, and Agnes Martin.
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