Postmodern Hotei

What makes this incarnation of Hotei so postmodern?

Postmodern Zen: Hotei offers an androgynous depiction of a maverick Zen monk of mythological dimension in China and Japan. Often depicted in oriental art, Hotei, also known as the Laughing Buddha, embodies the Eastern equivalent of Santa Claus in the West. The name itself means cloth-bag in Chinese. But where did Francis Berry's interpretation of the motif pick up its postmodern aura? Some historical context may offer a clue as to what makes this new treatment of Hotei a postmodern work of art. A quick refresher on two of the major forefathers of the mid-century sexual revolutions: Freud predicated well-being on sexuality while Marx reduced intercourse to value exchange. With its androgynous hybrid of female lips and painted toenails on a male torso, Hotei projects a new sensibility to gender politics in art. Just imagine for a moment how a cubist or surreal treatment of this icon might have looked. In comparison, Hotei deconstructs gender by plausibly combining both sexes in a she-male, double-coded figure. More generally, the monk's appeal derives from human empathy, not physical appearance; his bag brims with spiritual goods, not things. As a gesture of self-restraint and tolerance, Hotei motions an owl to spare a blue bird. To some this may suggest interference upon the "fearful symmetry" of nature as William Blake evocatively put it in his poem The Tyger; yet to others it may evoke positive stewardship guided by an appreciation of the mutual interdependence of our ecosystems. Stylistically, the painting is rendered in a humorous vein to cinch Hotei's ability to address almost anyone. As the composition revolves around the contemplative quiet of a meadow, the asymmetry of the monk at left is balanced by the bright blue bird in flight at right. In formal terms, the subject matter activates the edges of the canvas like the proverbial doughnut with a void in the middle. (Postmodern Zen: Hotei painted in 2005 in San Francisco by Francis Berry was made from a study entitled Tonic Moment: Hotei, a 2001 mixed-media drawing displayed in The Postmodern Art Gallery).