Japanese art has a notably complicated relationship with perfection. The cultural notion of wabi-sabi, for instance, embraces imperfection in art, arguing that it is far more preferable, and more beautiful, for art to have cracks and other such signs of its existence in the world. These things evoke the nature of transience, and imply an essential humanity.
Curious then, that the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s major new exhibition on more than 1,000 years of Japanese art is titled The Three Perfections. Referring to the arts of poetry, calligraphy and painting, which have at times been called by this name in east Asian cultures – this show celebrates art works that unite these three distinctive forms of expression.
