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player ready...In the 8th century, an artist in Kashmir created a brass sculpture of Buddha intricately woven with copper and silver. Northwestern University art history professor Robert Linrothe said the piece is one of the finest representations of metalwork art — but its original use was to adorn a Buddhist temple and reflect the Buddhist teachings.
That sculpture will be among more than 40 Buddhist artifacts including metal, ivory and wood pieces; manuscripts; and textiles in a new exhibition at the Mary and Leigh Block Museum of Art at Northwestern University in Evanston.
Called “Collecting Paradise: Buddhist Art of Kashmir and Its Legacies,” the exhibition unveils layers of spirituality, art and the complicated culture of collecting. The exhibit runs through April 19, with an opening celebration from 2 to 5 p.m., Jan. 17. Linrothe will speak at the free, public event. A smaller complementary exhibition, “Collecting Culture: Himalaya Through The Lens,” which focuses on two prime collectors of Buddhist art, will also be open.
“This is one of the most ambitious exhibitions to open at the gallery,” said Lisa Corrin, the Ellen Philips Katz Director of the Block Museum. “It is new for us to be doing Asian art. We’re also dealing with objects from the 7th to the 16th centuries. We are bringing art from across time and cultures to the museum.”
The exhibition pieces are being borrowed from museums and private collections throughout the nation. The Block exhibition “will be the only place where all these pieces can be viewed together,” Corrin said.
They include “some of the most spectacular paisley shawls from Kashmir I have ever seen. They’re huge. The traditions of making them are all but lost. People who love textiles will be truly awestruck by their beauty.”
Choosing to focus on the art of the Himalayas and Kashmir hinges on the fact that Linrothe is one of the country’s top experts on the subject, Corrin said. In addition, the exhibit “is intended to put a spotlight on a glorious artistic past, which is left out of very unhappy stories” of the Kashmir region today, which focus on border disputes and civil conflict.
“We are also raising some important questions about what it means for these objects to be relocated from the tops of mountains in remote locations in Buddhist temples to an art museum,” she said.
Beginning in the 6th century, Buddhist artists in Kashmir, called a paradise on earth, created fine works including ivory carvings to adorn their temples.
Beginning in the 10th century, Buddhists from the bordering Western Himalayas visited Kashmir to learn about their artistic techniques and began a collaboration to create more exquisite artifacts for their temples.
As Kashmir’s heyday declined, the region became poorer, leaving an opening to collectors in the 20th century to acquire these spiritual artifacts.
Linrothe spent three years gathering the artifacts for the exhibition. He has visited the western Himalayas at least 20 times since 1983. “I have seen this art in its intended context, in Buddhist shrines. And then I have seen it in museums. That led me to investigate how it got here.”
In the early 1930s, for example, American zoologist Walter Koelz, supported by the University of Michigan, brought textiles, jewelry and paintings from Kashmir and the western Himalayas, Linrothe said.
“He came at a time when people were extremely poor there, so he was able to extract some of the art,” he said. “I’ve been to some of the same monasteries today where he got this art.
“When we look at these objects in a museum, we don’t think about how they got here. It’s not always pretty, but just because it isn’t pretty, should we ignore it? This exhibition is part of a larger movement to understand how collecting has taken place in the West and at what cost to us, and at what cost to the people who produced it.”
In his travels, Linrothe has spoken with Buddhists about featuring their spiritual art in museums. “They are somewhat puzzled because for them, the primary purpose of these objects is to convey a Buddhist message.” But they are also proud that these pieces will be seen by people in the United States, he said.
After its premiere at the Block, “Collecting Paradise” will travel to New York City’s Rubin Museum of Art, one of the foremost museums of Himalayan art in the U.S.
‘Collecting Culture: Himalaya Through The Lens’
through April 12
Mary and Leigh Block Museum of Art at Northwestern University, 40 Arts Circle Drive, Evanston
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Free screenings, music and lectures related to the exhibition are being held through April 8.