Art Is: A Journey into the Light

Painter Fujimura (Art + Faith) weaves meditations on the meaning of art into a luminous if meandering chronicle of his painting career. He deliberately abandons the “clear outlines of an argument” for a digressive, multilayered approach that mimics nihonga, the painting method he uses that originated in 16th-century Japan and involves applying many layers of refractive minerals and hide glue to create a prismatic effect. Nihonga, he writes, reveals how art can “draw us out toward the eternal light” and create beauty from broken things. Undergirding these musings is an account of the author’s life, from a scattered childhood in Boston, Sweden, and Japan; to his discovery of art as a kid; and his initial resistance to connecting with his Japanese heritage, before a visit to a collection of Japanese paintings in Boston’s Museum of Fine Arts spurred him to start painting in the nihonga style. He also details how making art after collective traumas like 9/11 serves as both a source of emotional catharsis and an “act of intuitive peacemaking.” While the hazy, elliptical nature of the narrative can frustrate, Fujimura provides especially valuable insights into the role of artists as guardians of beauty in a world where “currents of utilitarianism and commodification” threaten to erode it. The result is an impassioned artistic manifesto. (Oct.)