context: painting > sources

The Art of Zen by Stephen Addiss

Subtitled 'Paintings and Calligraphy by Japanese Monks 1600-1925', which gives you a decent clue as to what to expect. The blurbs on the back are from Robert Motherwell and John Cage, which should be worth something. It's too heavy on biographical detail of the key figures, with an intellectual's equivalent of a 'what a man! Can you believe this story!?' kind of tone, and a bit light on treating them as artists, for my tastes. You can in places read for pages about one artist without encountering anything to suggest that he might have a connection to any of the arts. More accurate subtitle: 'EXTRAORDINARY MONKS! Oh, and any Art They Might Have Done Too, a bit'. If that's what you want, this is excellent, written with great expertise and intelligence, albeit with too many dismally pointless anecdotes and fragments of information. I should note that it is actually extremely good on art and calligraphy, when it gets around to it.

Sorry, can't find it on Amazon.