Max Gimblett

Aotearoa New Zealand, b.1935

enso flower – dawn for Hakuin

  • 2009
  • Sumi ink on Arches Cover black 100% cotton mouldmade paper (France)
  • The Max Gimblett and Barbara Kirshenblatt-Gimblett Gift
  • 1130 x 768mm
  • 2011/137

“All mind – no mind. You empty your mind, and you don’t have any activity, and you operate out of your body in that space in relation to your soul where you’re poetic and soulful. You just let it come.” —Max Gimblett The enso is the Zen circle of enlightenment. As a practicing ordained Rinzai Zen priest, Max has made the enso a central motif in his work, along with the quatrefoil. Enso is a simple yet complex form. There’s the in as the brush meets paper, and the out as it lifts away and the enso is finished. There is no beginning and no end; one full line that is continuous and infinite. The enso is empty and full at the same time, and symbolises unity, enlightenment, elegance and eternity. (Max Gimblett: Ocean Wheel, 1 August – 15 November 2020)