Sengai Gibon, The Circle, Triangle, and Square, early 19th century

Guggenheim Senior Curator of Asian Art Alexandra Munroe’s self-deprecating description of her new exhibition, The Third Mind, as an “arbitrary animal” seems an appropriate way of thinking about a show that encompasses James McNeill Whistler, Georgia O’Keefe, and Bruce Conner. However, Munroe’s modesty aside, the exhibition’s wide array of artists only reflects the extent of its ambitions. The Third Mind, opening today at the Guggenheim, explores Asian influence on American artists from the 1860s to the 1980s. A gargantuan curatorial endeavor that includes more than 250 works from over a hundred collections, The Third Mind elucidates a century of Western fascination with Asia. Its title, borrowed from William S. Burroughs and Brion Gysin’s 1977 cut-up, alludes to the countless ways in which movements from minimalism to Fluxus drew influence from and appropriated creative ideas from the East. If The Third Mind shies away from addressing the problematic political aspects of America’s relationship with Asia (Japan, the main focus of the show, is mainly seen as a source of ethereal dreams), its wealth of eerie conceptual works provides plenty to chew on; didactic pairings of artists like Sengai Gibon and Walter de Maria are counterbalanced by open-ended, contemplative moments such as the unearthly Death of James Lee Byars (1982/94).

The Third Mind: American Artists Contemplate Asia, 1860-1989 is on view through April 19 at the Guggenheim New York.

James Lee Byars, The Death of James Lee Byars, 1982/1994

Allen Ginsberg, Sea of Japan, 1963

KEYWORDS: art, Asia, Guggenheim