The Sound of One Hand Clapping, Pultneyville, New York

© Trustees of Princeton University

Currently not on view

The Sound of One Hand Clapping, Pultneyville, New York,

October 10, 1957

Minor White, 1908–1976; born Minneapolis, MN; died Boston, MA; active Portland, OR, and Rochester, NY

x1970-14

Paradoxical statements of questions, known in Japan as kōan, are used in Zen Buddhist meditative practice. Minor White was well acquainted with the kōan "two hands clap and there is a sound; what is the sound of one hand?," which is attributed to the monk Hakuin Ekaku (1686–1768). White wrote, "After several months of intensive work on this kōan, I saw rather than heard any sound." On seeing again The Sound of One Hand Clapping, Pultneyville, New York, the kōan sprang to White’s mind, and the other photographs were afterward added to this sequence, or "cinema of stills."

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More About This Object

Echoes of One Hand Clapping Picturing Sound in Asian Art

Information

Title
The Sound of One Hand Clapping, Pultneyville, New York
Dates

October 10, 1957

Maker
Minor White
Medium

Gelatin silver print

Dimensions

image: 25.5 x 30.3 cm. (10 1/16 x 11 15/16 in.) sheet: 35.2 x 34.3 cm. (13 7/8 x 13 1/2 in.)

Credit Line

Museum purchase, gift of David H. McAlpin, Class of 1920

Object Number
x1970-14
Place Made

North America, United States, New York, Pultneyville

Inscription

Titled, dated, and signed in graphite, verso lower left: Metal Ornament, Pultneyville, N.Y. / 1957 / Minor White

Culture
American
Type
photographs, black-and-white photographs
Techniques
gelatin silver process
Subject
abstraction, metal, circles (plane figures), industry
Negative Number
57-25

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