Landscape with the Parable of the Illusory City from the Lotus Sutra

Date1958-63

Label TextPhotographers James and Lucy Lo were some of the first 20th-century Chinese visitors to the ancient oasis city of Dunhuang in far northwest China. During their arduous trip, they found Tang dynasty Buddhist sutra manuscript fragments in the desert; examples of what they collected are displayed here. The couple later founded an artist workshop in Taipei. In a remarkable commitment to preserve knowledge of Dunhuang’s Buddhist cave temples, they painted renditions of the splendid murals using their archive of photographs. This landscape illustrates a passage from the Lotus Sutra in which the Buddha conjures a city for the respite of exhausted travelers.

James and Lucy Lo’s mid-20th century photographic archive of the Mogao cave temples in western China inspired their younger artist friends after they moved to Taiwan in the 1950s. Together they created painted renditions of the splendid murals by projecting the Los’ black-and-white slides onto the wall and consulting Lucy’s meticulous notes about details such as color and position. The copies reflect the Los’ aesthetic sensibilities and their remarkable commitment to preserve knowledge of Mogao’s ancient past through acts of reproduction. This painting was based on a section in Cave 217, known for its sophisticated landscape imagery. It illustrates a passage from the Lotus Sutra in which the Buddha conjures a city for the respite of exhausted travelers.

Object number2017.22.1

ProvenanceJames C.M. Lo (1902-1987, Luo Jimei) and Lucy Lo (b. 1920, Liu Xian), New Jersey; to Seattle Art Museum, Seattle, Washington, 2017

Photo CreditPhoto: Elizabeth Mann

Exhibition HistorySeattle, Washington, Seattle Art Museum, Chronicles of a Global East, Oct. 20, 2022 - Oct. 22, 2023.

Credit LineGift of Lucy L. Lo

Dimensions37 13/16 x 50 in. (96 x 127 cm)

MediumInk and color on paper