Vietnamese Folk Song (Pham Duy/Stephen Addiss)

In the early 1980’s, I took an Asian Art survey course offered by Stephen Addiss at the University of Kansas, called “Art and the Human Spirit.” It was one of the most amazing and influential courses I’d taken. Since then I’ve used the idea of “Art and the Human Spirit” as a kind of binding agent for the seemly different activities I have engaged.

Stephen Addiss is an exemplar artist. He is a composer, musician, poet, painter, and Japanese art historian. he studied with John Cage while attending the New School for Social Research in New York, from 1958 to 1960.

Addiss’ work has been shown in numerous one-person and group exhibitions, including the Queens Museum, St. Louis Museum of Art, the University of Virginia Art Museum, and museums in Korea, China, and Taiwan. Additionally, he is the author of thirty-five books, including How to Look at Japanese Art, The Art of Zen, The Art of Chinese Calligraphy, and 77 Dances: Japanese Calligraphy by Poets, Monks, and Scholars, 1568 - 1868.

[ Smithsonian Folkways: Stephen Addiss and Bill Crofut ]

You can find limited preview of several of his books at Google Books

[ Tao te ching ]

Thomas What I am Looking at