An Intercultural Process, a New Definition of Painting

Since her long sojourn in Tokyo/Japan (in the early 80s) Claudia Hirtl has investigated the connections and intersections, the approximations and differences, which make visible a continuous process, the translation and new connotations of notions and images appearing in and between cultures.

In Tokyo Hirtl studied Nihonga (literally, "Japanese image, pure mineral pigment on paper"), Japan's most important tradition of painting. In the philosophy of the Kyoto School Hirtl found a conceptual premise for an encounter between Japanese philosophy and sign language on the one hand, and Western abstraction on the other. The Kyoto School connects traditions of East Asian thought, especially Zen Buddhism, with Western, European phenomenology, and thus it promotes an intercultural way of thinking.

Foto: www.c-ljubanovic.com