The fruitful relationship between the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, and the Gitter-Yelen Collection began in 2015 with the exquisite exhibition Unfolding Worlds: Japanese Screens and Contemporary Ceramics from the Gitter-Yelen Collection. Since then, the Museum’s galleries have been enhanced by numerous loans from Dr. Kurt Gitter and Alice Gitter-Yelen; in 2020 the Gitters generously enriched the Museum’s permanent collection by gifting and making possible the acquisition of more than seventy Japanese paintings spanning nearly seven centuries. Many of those works, as well as works still in the Gitters’ private collection, feature in the present catalogue and related exhibition, None Whatsoever: Zen Paintings from the Gitter-Yelen Collection.

Dr. Gitter began building this collection in the 1960s, and the fascinating story of growth and evolution over nearly sixty years is revealed in the collector’s statement for this catalogue. The strength of Zenga in the Gitter collection inspired Yukio Lippit, The Jeffrey T. Chambers and Andrea Okamura Professor of History of Art and Architecture at Harvard University, to propose this exhibition. In his essay, he delves into the origin of Zenga, or Zen Buddhist painting, with a focus on the seminal artist Hakuin Ekaku, and the efforts of scholars, collectors, and historians to create a lineage of Zenga centered on him. Bringing a modernist perspective to the tradition, Bradley Bailey, The Ting Tsung and Wei Fong Chao Curator of Asian Art at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, provides an essay about Daisetz T. Suzuki and the American reception of Zen in the art of the postwar period of the twentieth century, highlighting the influence of Zen thought and painting in examples from the Museum’s permanent collection. As co-curators of None Whatsoever, Lippit and Bailey have written descriptive texts of the sections and explained the organizing principles of the exhibition and this catalogue.

For the past several decades, the Gitter-Yelen Collection has been regarded as the most important collection of Zen painting outside of Japan—and in Japan itself the collection has been exhibited, published, and celebrated on numerous occasions. We are pleased to present many of these prized works to audiences in Houston through this exhibition, and, through this online publication, to the scholarly world. The exhibition was generously supported by Luther King Capital Management; E. Rhodes and Leona B. Carpenter Foundation; Anne and Albert Chao; Mitsubishi Corporation (Americas); Eddie and Chinhui Allen; Mr. and Mrs. Russell M. Frankel; Kathy and Glen Gondo; Milton D. Rosenau, Jr., and Dr. Ellen R. Gritz; Miwa Sakashita and Dr. John R. Stroehlein; and Nanako and Dale Tingleaf. As a digital resource, this catalogue will allow for the publication of new research and discoveries as they are uncovered. We hope that it will spark additional interest in the topic and lead to ever more revelations about these important works of art.

A decade ago, legendary collectors of Japanese art Sylvan Barnet and William Burto introduced me to Kurt Gitter and Alice Yelen. Like Kurt and Alice, I regret enormously that Sylvan and Bill are no longer with us, but my gratitude to them is eternal. Without doubt, they would have delved into this catalogue with relish, and shared with us their copious and brilliant insights.

Gary Tinterow

Director

The Margaret Alkek Williams Chair

The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston