In 1965, when journeying to Taiwan on a Fulbright Scholarship to study traditional Chinese painting and the Imperial styles, Kagle fell in love with the images from Buddhist hell which were found in villages, temples and private homes. The color and violent subject matter almost seemed contemporary.
Therefore for aesthetic reasons and reasons of pocketbook, since the people's art was inexpensive at that time, Kagle began to collect the work of artist/craftsmen. From 1970 to 1976, as Chairman of the Art Department at the University of Guam, Kagle journeyed repeatedly to Taiwan, and in 1974 he met Dr. Wolfram Eberhard of USC Berkley, who had written Guilt and Sin in Traditional China. Eberhard directed Kagle to I-Lan, on the eastern coast of Taiwan, where the last of the traditional Hell painters still lived. Over a year's time of talking and planning, a new set of old scrolls was created. From an exhibit of these at the National Chinese Cultural College in Taipei, Kagle was directed to other collectors of the hell scrolls which he collected.
The actual search for Buddhist hell and the hell scrolls can only be described as a pleasant journey of discovery. It was a journey through many small villages, a shrine at Peitou, a Taoist temple at Mucha and always moving in the circular realms of Buddhist hell.
Buddhist hell has been dedicated since the Sung Dynasty, under Hwei-tsung (1101-1126). In the Sutra of the Sea of Triple Darkness leading to the vision of Buddha, hell is divided into 10 divisions with 18 sub-divisions, or 180 levels of hell. Each master painter of hell followed this sutra but added his own character (as does any storyteller or artist of worth). It is the small derivation of style which kept Kagle collecting these marvelous folk images in the 1970s.
Chinese Buddhist Hell Scroll
30 1/2" (77.5cm) x 57" (144.7cm)
painted on paper-mounted
Price: $500.00
Chinese Buddhist Hell Scroll
30 1/2" (77.5cm) x 57" (144.7cm)
painted on paper-mounted
Price: $500.0
Chinese Buddhist Hell Scroll
30 1/2" (77.5cm) x 57" (144.7cm)
painted on paper-mounted
Price: $500.00
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