| Exhibition Dates: |
June 24–December 10, 2017 |
| Exhibition Location: |
The Met Fifth Avenue, South Asian Exhibition Gallery,
Florence and Herbert Irving Galleries, Gallery 251, Floor 3
|
The complex world of Himalayan Buddhism will be unlocked in The Metropolitan Museum of Art’s upcoming exhibition
Cosmic Buddhas in the Himalayas, opening June 24. Presenting the intricate realm of the multifaceted Himalayan pantheon in a startlingly simple way, the exhibition will demonstrate the core structure of the Himalayan Buddhist belief using the gallery as a metaphor for the macrocosm. Through 18 exquisite works of sculpture and painting that were created from the 13th through the 19th century in what is now Nepal and Tibet, the exhibition will tell the story of five different Buddhas and some of their most significant manifestations as well as the Buddhas’ relationship with the four heavens. All but two of the works are from The Met collection.
The exhibition is made possible by the Miriam and Ira D. Wallach Foundation Fund.
The gallery will be arranged with the Buddha Vairochana at the center of the room and the directional Buddhas—each of which presided over a heaven in the north, south, east and west—positioned on the four walls. A half dozen seminal deities will also be installed alongside the directional Buddhas.
Highlights of the works on view include a late 13th-and-early14th-century Tibetan painting on wood—a panel from a Buddhist ritual crown depicting Vairochana presiding over the five Tathagatas (Transcendent Buddhas)—and a 15th-century painting on cloth of the tantric
Hevajra Mandala in which Hevajra appears in his three-headed and four-armed form. While most of the works emphasize the Nepalese and Tibetan traditions that flourished from the 11th to the 14th century, the exhibition will also include six works of art created from the 15th to the 19th century that evoke the heavens and represent enlightenment.
The exhibition is organized by Kurt Behrendt, Associate Curator in the Department of Asian Art at The Met. A related essay by Kurt will appear on the Museum’s website in the Timeline of Art History and as a blog.
In conjunction with the exhibition, The Met will offer a variety of education programs, including gallery tours and a ticketed lecture series in Grace Rainey Rogers Auditorium on October 4 and 11 that will also be live-streamed on Facebook.
The exhibition will be featured on The Met
website, as well as on
Facebook,
Instagram, and
Twitter.
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June 7, 2017
Image: Panel from a Buddhist ritual crown depicting Vairochana (detail), late 13th–early 14th century. Central Tibet. Distemper on wood, 11 3/4 x 5 1/8 in. (29.8 x 13 cm). The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, Purchase, The Vincent Astor Foundation Gift, 1997 (1997.152)
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