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The Mystic Eye: Art of the Himalayas
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20531 |
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Section : |
THE ARTS
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| Issue
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11 / 1992 |
1,970 Words |
| Author
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Joseph M. Dye III
Joseph M. Dye III is curator of Asiatic art at the Virginia
Museum of Fine Arts, Richmond. He is the curator for the
exhibition Mystic Visions. |
This year the art of Tibet and Nepal has been the focus of an unprecedented array of exhibitions. Art of the Himalayas, an exhibition touring American museums through October 1993, features Nepalese and Tibetan artworks selected from a distinguished New York private collection by Pratapaditya Pal, senior curator of Indian and Himalayan art at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. Mystic Visions, on view at the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, Richmond, through December 27, showcases over a hundred Himalayan works of art from the seventh to the nineteenth centuries culled from the holdings of that museum. Wisdom and Compassion: The Sacred Art of Tibet is completing its international tour at London's Royal Academy of Art this December.
The first two exhibitions can both be seen at the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, which houses one of the world's finest collections of Himalayan sculpture, painting, and ritual objects. Assembled over many years, these exotic holdings grew dramatically in 1991 when the museum acquired over seventy Nepalese and Tibetan works of art from the collections of Berthe and John Ford of Baltimore and the Jack Zimmerman family of New York City.
Visits to these two exhibitions offer the opportunity to learn a great deal about the unique beauty and profound meaning of Nepalese and Tibetan art. Fashioned by generations of anonymous artists, these paintings and sculptures were intended to serve the ritual and devotional needs of Buddhists and Hindus living in this mountainous region. Although both religions originated in the Indian subcontinent, Hinduism and Buddhism are different in many ways, and some knowledge of them is necessary to appreciate the complexities of Himalayan art.
Hinduism is a religion almost as old as India itself. Its followers believe that a person lives more than one life: One is born, lives, dies, and is born again according to the actions taken during his past life. The goal of life as a Hindu is to escape the needless rounds of rebirths so that one can merge with the Absolute Reality that causes and permeates the universe. There are many ways to attain salvation or release from rebirth; almost all of them involve the worship and honor of Hinduism's many gods. Among these are the complex and contradictory god Shiva, the creative-destructive Devi, the powerful and kindly Vishnu, and a host of lesser divinities.
Unlike Hinduism, which has no historic founder, Buddhism was established in India by the teacher Siddhartha Gautama (c. 563-483), called the Buddha (Enlightened One). He taught
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