風外慧薫筆 達磨図 Portrait of Daruma

Daruma (Sanskrit: Bodhidharma) is the first patriarch of Zen Buddhism, who, according to legend, sat in continuous meditation for nine years in a cave in northern China. Following the medieval tradition of monochromatic depictions of Daruma, the Sōtō sect Zen master Fūgai Ekun created numerous minimalist, powerful paintings such as this. The extensive blank space both accommodates an inscription and suggests a metaphysical state of nothingness.

Credit: Gift of Florence and Herbert Irving, 2015