Here's a shot from the REB's show about three years ago.They use white foam for the partitions and try to create a tokonoma effect for at least half of the displays. While this is not my idea of the best display I have ever seen, it does show some preplanning and ideas that they are serious about bonsai display, and want to try to show their plants to the best advantage possible. This is about as close to a three point display as one could get.

Best regards, Bonsai-al

BTW notice the nice strip of wood at the top of the back panel. This is what I mean about details. This brings the tokonoma effect to life.

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I missed the 45th convention. They did a much better job at the 40th (though the lighting was bad, they did have their own room at least). I do take your point. I think it has more to do, perhaps, with the level of bonsai appreciation, than skill of the artists.

A similar discussion has been taking place on the IBC mailing list, about the need for bonsai outreach in the US. (right Andy?)

Until people start taking it seriously as art, it remains merely a curiousity and gets relegated to affordable (rather than proper) areas for display.

As for wiring every branch, I have only two words: Ernie Kuo.

I guess my question then is how does the reception of bonsai as an art compare in Europe to America? Is it possible that that would make a significant difference in the level of artistry?

Doug

In my PM to Andy I talked about the three best artists in the USA today, as far as I am concerned. Kathy Shaner, Boon, Ernie Kuo. These are the only three really accredited artist from Japan we have. There are others, but they don't seem to make the impact these do. Of the three I think Boon pushes that hardest for bonsai as art. I think he pushes about as hard as Andy, maybe harder....

All compleated their course of studies through the help of GSBF.

hmm.... imagine that.

I'd agree. That is a good list, especially for that generation. The older generation (many of whom we have lost) did a lot to bring bonsai to America, but they don't have the vibrancy of the younger generation anymore.

I suspect the same is true of Japanese artists.

The other artist whose work I like very much and has had a great impact on me is Warren Hill.

Cheers,
Doug

Al,

What you are talking about with bonsai display is true of ALL art is the US. Nobody here seems to understand that how art is displayed is as important as the piece to be displayed. Part of the reason for this is our view of art as a commodity, as a way to attract and exploit a paying audience.

For example, I went to the Monet exhibit at the Portland Art Museum a couple of years back, and the displays were atrocious. There were these gigantic 20-foot canvases, and the furthest you could view them from was about 20 feet away, and you could only do that by walking through two other galleries and peering across multiple rooms full of people. I still managed to increase my appreciation for the works on display, but I was constantly chafed by the ineptness and callousness of the museum in displaying the paintings like that. I felt it exposed their true motive in bringing paintings by Monet to Portland: $bling$bling$, collect the dough-nations and move 'em through.

My point is that there is an underlying deficiency in the American attitude towards art, and until that is corrected, bonsai will never enjoy the status or attain the quality of bonsai from regions of the world where art is treated as a necessity and a treasure rather than as a commodity.

Salix (and all)' the issue that you bring up is important and desrves thought, but isn't there an even wider issue with our Bonsai: is not as "art" just a part of how we may view them?

I feel that for me, personally, my bonsai are not just art; in fact, I'm not sure that's even their most important aspect. I suppose , they are really more like our family's Shelties, which, if you're a dog show fan, are a form of art, also. What my bonsai represent is a piece of nature, tamed and brought close where the wonder of the natural world can be observed at close range.

Perhaps an even better analogy is that I feel myself, in many ways, more akin to a model railroader than to Leonardo DaVinci or Claude Monet.

I suppose any potted plant has the qualities I've spoken of and in extolling them, I'm open to the charge of missing what's unique and significant about bonsai. I don't think so. I think the bonsai treatment of a potted tree adds hugely to its fascination and enhances the qualities I just spoke of.

I suppose this quality of being "petlike" is what attracts many of us "little people" to the cultivation of Bonsai. I know that for me, it is more important than the level of artistic refinement it attains. I love, not just what I can make them into, but being around them while I try to create the beauty I have seen created by real Bonsai artists with the trees they have developed.

Please do not think that this means I don't like the discipline that art entails or are from the school that holds anything goes as long as we, personally are willing to claim we like it. As I said earlier I am a HUGE supporter of "the rules" and learning how to do Bonsai "right" At the same time, I think that what draws "little people" with humbler aspirations to Bonsai is not necessarily what is most important to the top artists in the field. We just want to create reasonably good bonsai that we can enjoy and wonder at while we live with them.

And, I believe the great artists and "little people" can and should live in harmony and mutual support.

Fred

Fred,

Excellent points, but you're really talking about two different things that intersect in a way that artists in any medium find inconvenient at best.

First, you have the artist's relationship to his or her work, exemplified by your comparison of bonsai and animal husbandry. I think it is fair to say that potters, painters, sculptors, writers, and really any other artist feels something similar about their work, that it's not about what anyone thinks or feels, except themselves. For the true artist, creation occurs in the soul, and is a deeply personal process that is necessarily self-centered. In the case of bonsai, the act of communing in a structured way with a tree is almost therapeutic, and can seem like an end in and of itself.

Then, you have the artist's relationship to the audience, which occurs through the viewing and interpretation of the artist's finished work. Many artists would like to remove themselves from this relationship, because it involves exposing something intensely personal and self-representative to the criticism and (mis)interpretation of the outside world. This is a very difficult process, but I submit that it is inseparable from the act of creation, and as a writer (ex-freelance), I don't feel that a piece is done until someone else has read it, reacted to it, and had their reactions factored into the final work.

Dog breeding is an interesting example to bring up, as it has many parallells with bonsai. Many years of careful planning, training, care and work go into producing a quintessential representation of a perfect form, and the quality of both the subject and the trainer are put to the test in exhibitions that owners may choose to participate in or not. Both fields attract a certain number of people who take the whole thing very seriously as well as people who dismiss the whole thing and choose to own, but not exhibit, the fruits of serious professional pursuit. The question to ask of this latter class of people is, are you a breeder? Either they say that they are, or they aren't. You either produce or you own, or neither.

So here's the question for bonsai enthusiasts: Can you fully participate in Bonsai without displaying your trees? Can bonsai exist in a personal vacuum?

My thoughts on the 'Art' of this thread are not to much to the likeing of others but I do have an opinion on the last thought brought up by Salix.



My answer is yes! I enjoy my trees. I enjoy the hunt for new trees. I enjoy my attempts at improveing my trees. I enjoy looking at my trees. I do not think they will become show quality. If they do, I do not know if I will show them, although I possible will. But if they do not, I will not be upset. I am doing Bonsai for me! I bring my trees to club meetings to ask advise not to show them. I want to learn so as to be able to produce a better tree not to show a better tree.

I believe there are a lot of other individuals who do Bonsai for themselves!

I go to shows, I participate with ideas, but I do not show!

Can you fully participate in Bonsai without displaying your trees? Can bonsai exist in a personal vacuum?

Those are the two extremes of the issue. Can you fully participate without showing your trees? I think the answer is No.

I also think it can't exist in a personal vacuum, meaning you have no external standards at all for your trees.

I think most of us strike a balance between the two. One doesn't need to show one's trees to participate meaningfully or feel fulfilment from the activity.

I often come up with pet names for my trees, for example. Usually they are silly and affectionate. (Does anyone else do this, by the way?)

Of course I would never show them with a little card saying

Juniperus rigida
Needle Juniper
"Spike"

But that is part of the personal attachment for me.

Doug

The more I read and re-read this post, the more I keep seeing stuff that I missed the first time round...

The remark that sticks out most to me yours, Walter.


I now realise I have been coming to the same conclusion myself, over the last few months or so. I want to do bonsai for bonsai's sake, not art's sake. I realise that many people say the two go hand in hand, and that you can't have bonsai without art. Well for me, the art aspect of bonsai is one that is not a major part of my hobby. Like Fred says, I just love being around bonsai. Now, you can argue that I would not enjoy it so much if the bonsai were not created artistically, and I would struggle to find an answer. All I can say is that I think that there can be too much dissection of the hobby of bonsai. It kind of spoils it.

Salix, in response to your last question, I am like Jay, I am quite happy doing bonsai in relative isolation from other enthusiasts. I do it for myself, not for an audience. If I want help or input form others, I'll get it. If I don't want it, I'll still listen if it's offered.

Boy, this thread just runs and runs...

BTW Doug... err no...

Regards,

TB