Just because you have looked at something doesn’t mean that you have seen it. – Dr. Jennifer Roberts
Art Demands constant observation. – Vincent Van Gogh
You can observe a lot by just watching. – Yogi Berra
Introduction
There are a number of bonsai exhibitions coming up in the next 3-4 months – the Pacific Bonsai Expo in Oakland, the Taikan-ten and Gafu-ten in Kyoto, the Winter Silhouette Bonsai Exhibition in North Carolina, the Sakafu-ten and the Kokufu-ten in Tokyo, the Trophy in Belgium, to name a few of the most prominent ones. When I attend a show, it can be difficult (for many reasons) just to look at every display much less to really see them. Thanks to digital cameras and exhibition albums, many of the images from these bonsai art exhibits are widely available for viewing later. Being able to take the time to study an image has advantages but viewing a photo or even a video is not the same as seeing a bonsai in person.
Can we really study a bonsai at an exhibition? There have been some excellent recent posts about how to look at bonsai at an exhibition, but the focus was on comparing trees, about judging. I’ve been thinking recently about a different approach, that is to concentrate my attention on the particular tree in front of me, to slow down and look carefully, without thinking about comparing it to other trees. Such a systematic/thorough approach to looking may take longer, but the hoped for payoff is an increased understanding and enjoyment of the art form, one that may lead to improvements in my own bonsai practice.
Looking at Bonsai with Artistic Concepts in Mind
A recent article in the New York Times encouraged readers to spend 10 minutes looking at just one art work (it was a test of our ability to focus our attention for longer than the time it takes to look at an image on our social media feeds before scrolling to the next one). The author mentioned that the idea for the exercise came from Professor Jennifer Roberts, an art historian at Harvard University, who assigns students the task of looking at a single artwork for 3 hours before reading or writing about it for her class. I am not suggesting that any of us do that, but the worksheet that she gives her students is a useful checklist to guide our looking. This inspired me to create a list to guide me when I view a bonsai.
Using Roberts’ student worklist as a template I came up with my own list of methods and descriptive categories that I can use to guide my bonsai observations. (I would suggest trying this approach for the first time with a bonsai that you find interesting or that grabs your attention for whatever reason, one that you want to spend some time with).
Before I started writing, I reread Basic Bonsai Design by David De Groot, a talented bonsai artist and former curator of the Pacific Bonsai Museum. (Now available from Stone Lantern publishing). De Groot’s book is about much more than looking. In it he both describes the artistic concepts that underlie bonsai design (the why) and also explains how they can be applied.
I also consulted The Practice and Science of Drawing by Harold Speed. This book goes into great detail about how visual artists use line, volume, mass, rhythm, proportion, variety and unity to create compelling art works. Speed demonstrates these art world concepts using simple line drawings and then shows us how they were actually applied in masterpiece artworks.
My Guide to Seeing Bonsai (A Work in Progress)
Harvard’s Roberts advises us to first “set aside any assumptions that you might bring to the object…to approach it as if you were a visitor from another planet with no prior knowledge of the configuration or content of earthly art.” Many people have decried the idea of “cookie cutter” bonsai. We all have some of these images in our heads. Certainly we have absorbed the “styles of bonsai“ put forth by the early teachers of bonsai in America along with the idea that a certain type of tree should look a certain way. Try to forget the “rules of bonsai” that you may have learned about. If a “problem” such as a bar branch is present, imagine the tree without one of those branches – would it be an improvement? Maybe the artist needed both of those branches for balance, etc. It would be useful to clear these stereotypes from our brains, if only while we are focused on the bonsai in front of us, so that we can observe it with “fresh eyes” and without pre-conceptions.
Measurement and proportion: Note the overall dimensions of the bonsai, and how it relates to the size of your body (see my post Scale and Bonsai). View the bonsai from up close and from further away. How does this change how you feel about it? if it is a large bonsai, note how you had to move in order to see all of it. If it a shohin size tree or display move in closer to make sure that you see all of the detail. Harold Speed notes in his book that “smaller artworks paradoxically contain more detail than large ones” because that would be too overwhelming for the viewer of the larger artwork.
Proportion: As De Groot wrote, “If a bonsai is to be successful in creating the illusion of a large, aged tree it must follow the basic artistic principle of proportion.” We are all familiar with basic relationships/proportions such as the height of the tree compared to the width of the trunk, the thickness of the branches at the top of the tree compared to the bottom, the width of the foliage to the width of the trunk, the changes in the lengths of the internodes as they approach the branch tips, the sizes and depth of the pot compared to the tree, etc. As DeGroot wrote, “A tree’s age can be implied by its, proportion, form and texture.” Note the proportions that seem to be the most prominent in the tree you are observing. How do these proportions define the tree?
Materials used: Note the type of tree or trees, is it planted on a rock, a slab or in a container? Is the tree combined with other plants, is the soil covered with moss, how is that applied, is the tree wired or not? Is it on a display table or on a slab of stone or wood? If planted on a rock, how was it secured? Do the roots extend down into the soil? Does the tree display deadwood, if so, where? How was that emphasized or deemphasized?
Line: Lines are important because they are associated with feelings, energy, and movement based on their characteristics. A line can be clearly defined (the trunk line of an upright tree, a branch of a deciduous tree, especially after leaf fall) or it can be implied (see below). Lines can be vertical, horizontal, or diagonal. Straight or curved. Parallel, converging, perpendicular or crossing. Thick or thin. Continuous or not.
Try to identify the dominant lines in the bonsai (don’t forget the lines that form the edges or surface of the pot or other container, or the “ implied lines” of the outline of the foliage pads, for example). Look for movement. Note any feelings that you may have (e.g horizontal lines are commonly described as restful, vertical lines are more formal, even moral, literally “upright”)Fig. 1. Curved lines have more energy. Lines can have more than one character at a time (curved and upright). Lines with different characters when combined in a composition can create a feeling of action, even agitation. Lines can serve to connect areas or features of the bonsai. Repeated, parallel lines can reinforce movement.
Mass(es): The concept of mass (or volume) in bonsai most obviously (to me) relates to the foliage pads, the mass of the trunk, with live- and deadwood, the pot and its relation to the tree(s) and the overall composition, and also the mass of a rock in a rock planting. (Flowers and fruit can also fit in here). As with line, a mass can also be implied. This occurs with areas of “empty space” that our brains interpret as volume or mass. Look for geometric patterns such as triangles and circular shapes. Look for repetition. Repeated elements and lines can provide rhythm that reinforce the feeling associated with the masses or lines.
Color: Color is another complex artistic concept. De Groot explains it well in his book. Trees have two main colors, that of the bark and of the foliage (foliage color changes with the seasons). Foliage color can be a sign of health. Fruits and flowers also play a seasonal role in providing color. Colors can be warm or cool, have a dark or light tone, and can be complementary (red-green, blue orange, yellow purple). The tone or shade of the color can affect its visual weight, colors with dark tones seem heavier for example.
Consider the color of the tree and the color of the container. Does the color combination highlight the trunk or the foliage? Identify color relationships throughout the bonsai (container, plant overall, foliage, trunk, flowers) to try to understand what the artist was trying to accomplish (e.g. is the whole bonsai color scheme monochromatic, abstract and restful, or full of contrast that adds energy?).
Unity: This artistic principle applies to bonsai in 2 main ways. The main one is that we are dealing with a natural, living object and although we train or manipulate its growing conditions to create a desired structure and image, our goal is to create an image of a tree that was created by the natural environment, by natural forces. These forces affected the entire tree. For example, if the image is of a windblown tree, the trunkline, the branches and the apex should move in a similar direction as a result.
The other way it applies is that all of the artistic principles previously discussed should “work together” in a unified fashion to support whatever impression or story the bonsai (bonsai artist) is trying to tell us.
Conclusion
Taking the time to really see a bonsai requires effort since so many of us (myself included) have become accustomed to looking briefly at images or videos on Instagram and other social media sites.
Hopefully, this guide will encourage us all to focus, at least for 2-3 minutes, and carefully observe a bonsai. It should help you to answer these questions: Based on your observations of a bonsai, what does the bonsai represent to you? Does it tell a story? How well does it do that? Are there any ambiguous features of the bonsai that remain after your observations? Did you encounter anything that surprised you about the bonsai?
Finally, remember that seeing a bonsai is just the first step in appreciating it. For information on appreciating a bonsai, please see previous posts: Appreciating Bonsai as Aesthetic Objects and Judgement Day.
Bibliography
- De Groot, David. Basic Bonsai Design. Pullyup, WA: American Bonsai Society, 1995.
- Speed, Harold. The Practice and Science of Drawing. New York: Dover, 1972.
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