Opening: Thu Jun 11, 2026, 7 pm, Introduction (in German): Jan Marc NOTTELMANN-FEIL M.A. and Jörg ZIMMERMANN. Musical accompaniment (shakuhachi): Riley LEE, Alexandra KRAUS (participation only with confirmation; information and registration: kuhl[at]eko-haus.de)
The paintings by Zen Master Zensho W. KOPP featured in this exhibition are unique in their own right. The artist has taken up the theme of an ancient 12th-century Zen classic, “The Ten Ox-Herding Pictures,” and reinterpreted it in a way that resonates with our modern understanding. The exhibition illustrates the spiritual path to enlightenment through paintings and poems with annotations, telling the story of a shepherd searching for his lost ox—his true self. Zensho W. KOPP, born in 1938, studied in the 1950s under the painter Adam WALLAUER, who was strongly influenced by Expressionism. Through Zensho’s interest in the teachings of Zen Buddhism, he came into contact with Chinese and Japanese ink painting, which inspired him and broadened his artistic understanding. Since then, he has been bringing together the artistic traditions of the West and the East. For example, Zensho ingeniously succeeded in using details from the ink drawings of the important Japanese Zen painter JIKIHARA Gyokusai (1904–2005) as collages and transforming them into modern Zen paintings alongside the poems of the Chinese Zen master KAKUAN Shien (12th century). The paintings of Zen Master Zensho touch us in our innermost being with their mysterious, moving effect. They are an expression of his high spiritual realization and reveal a new path to our true self.
Zensho W. KOPP, who studied Zen at the Antai-ji monastery in Kyoto in the 1970s, is one of the most prominent spiritual masters of our time and teaches a contemporary path to spiritual realization. Numerous spiritual books and audiobooks have made him internationally renowned. He instructs a large community of students at the Tao Chan Zen Center in Wiesbaden.
Ill.: Zensho W. Kopp: Homecoming on the Back of the Ox, mixed media on canvas, 2025