On Monday 14th March François Lachaud (EFEO) is talking on the topic « Une vie exemplaire : Itō Jakuchū (1716-1800), peintre bouddhiste au XVIIe siècle »

From 11:00 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. (free admission)

The painter Itō Jakuchū (1716-1800) whose bicentenary is being celebrated, has become one of the best known of Japanese artists. The last four décades of research on this painter, long considered one of the eccentric figures, and marginal, have given the opportunity to redisover his œuvre in all its originality and also in his connection - intimate and constant- with the Buddhism of the Zen schools of Kyōto and of Uji (seat of the Ōbaku school introduced by Chinese monks in the 17th century) with which he nourished his life in the course of these intimate relationships. His work as an artist examined as a biographical sketch brings to life in its wake a whole world of Chinese monks, of scholars, of collectors, of antiquarians and literati.Through his pictoral genius it makes it possible to grasp the great importance of Buddhism in modern artistic creation.  READ MORE