Subtle strokes of whimsy

Work by Stephen Addiss is part of an exhibit at the Art Complex Museum.

Popular in both East and West, haiku are 17-syllable poems describing a fleeting seasonal moment or some other snapshot in the seasons of life. Haiga is the Japanese art of creating a painting to accompany a haiku.

Contemporary artists have discovered haiga, and an exhibition of work by painter-poets who have given modern expression to the traditional art form opened last week at the Art Complex Museum in Duxbury.

Visual imagery and haiku complement one another and the calligraphy used to write the haiku is "the third component of the visual image," the museum states in its wall notes for the show. "The result is greater than the sum of the three individual parts - painting, poetry, and calligraphy."

Founded by art collector Carl A. Weyerhaeuser, the Art Complex is a regional museum with a strong collection of traditional Asian art and a reputation for mounting exhibits of new work by Asian and Western artists influenced by that tradition.

Traditional haiga brush paintings emphasize restraint and simplicity, according to the notes prepared by the museum staff to accompany the exhibit. The brush strokes may resemble calligraphy. The subjects of the poem and painting are frequently ordinary and unremarkable, encouraging the viewer to see the everyday anew. The works may also contain an amusing or ironic element, and cleverness and surprise are part of the haiga's aesthetic. Literally, the museum says, "hai" means comic, and "ga" means painting.

Traditional haiku are poems of three lines consisting successively of five, seven, and five syllables and including a seasonal reference. Modern appropriation of the form has built on the haiku's reliance on suggestion rather than direct statement and the use of natural imagery to suggest feelings. Less rule-bound than haiku, traditional haiga emphasizes simplicity and the use of white space in the composition of the painting.

Termed a "small, subtle show" by museum curator Craig Bloodgood, the Art Complex haiga exhibition includes works by two contemporary artists, Stephen Addiss and Reiko Yoshida.

Addiss, a specialist on Japanese and Chinese art, organized the first major exhibition of Japanese haiga in the United States in the '90s. He writes haiku in English, allowing American viewers to appreciate "the whimsical, childlike playfulness and humor of haiga," according to the museum's notes. His haiga include images of trees, animals, and the seasons.

In one of Addiss's works on exhibit, a haiku that reads "Crusty/ in February warmth/ January snow" is accompanied by a black and white image of a seated figure.

Yoshida, who lives in Nara, Japan, uses a variety of paper, ink washes, and abstract Japanese calligraphy in her nontraditional haiga, according to the museum. The exhibit will provide English translations of her poems.

In an interview on the Reeds Contemporary Haiga website (reedscontemporaryhaiga.com), Addiss said haiga's lack of formal rules makes it important for artists to ground themselves in the form's traditional Japanese aesthetic, "which arose from the brush." The aesthetic teaches that brush work reveals traces of personality.

While haiga goes back to at least the 17th century, today it is shared on the Internet, according to Addiss. Given the ease of putting haiga files online, Addiss said, people all over the world share haiga every day.

The show will run at the Art Complex Museum, 189 Alden St., through Nov. 9. Admission to the museum is free. A reception is scheduled for Sept. 21, 1:30 to 3:30 p.m. For more information go to the museum's website at artcomplex.org.

Robert Knox can be reached at rc.knox@gmail.com.