Sacred Visions: Early Paintings from Central Tibet

Rating:
Summary: Please --- Envy Me!!!
Review: Lucky me. I spent the better part of today at the Metropolitan Museum of Art standing before fifty-five incredible 11th through the mid-15th century paintings from one of the great Buddhist civilizations of Asia. I've got to go back tomorrow. Luckily, in the meantime, I have Sacred Visions.If you can, see this exhibition and do not leave the Museum without the accompanying catalogue with wonderful reproductions and essays by noted scholars such as Steven M. Kossack, of the Met, Jane Casey Singer, Tibetan Art Historian, and Robert Bruce-Gardner, from London's Courtauld Institute. One will learn how Buddhism spread from India through Tibet and the effect the religion had on Tibet's people and, hence, its art.The details of the beautifully reproduced works of art are chosen to help illustrate the subtle and important aspects of the Tibetan artist while diagrams, such as for the Vajravarahi Mandala, further explain the iconography. I brought the book into the exhibition to gleen as much information as I could while standing before each work.If you have any interest in Tibet, rush to this exhibition (it closes 1.17.99) to see some beautifully presented mandalas, book covers, etc. If you cannot, you are not "settling" by any means to peruse the catalogue as you will witness Taras, portraits of Lamas, that are not only unique for their beauty and intelligence, but for the remarkable fact that we have them to admire.

Rating:
Summary: Please --- Envy Me!!!
Review: Lucky me. I spent the better part of today at the Metropolitan Museum of Art standing before fifty-five incredible 11th through the mid-15th century paintings from one of the great Buddhist civilizations of Asia. I've got to go back tomorrow. Luckily, in the meantime, I have Sacred Visions.If you can, see this exhibition and do not leave the Museum without the accompanying catalogue with wonderful reproductions and essays by noted scholars such as Steven M. Kossack, of the Met, Jane Casey Singer, Tibetan Art Historian, and Robert Bruce-Gardner, from London's Courtauld Institute. One will learn how Buddhism spread from India through Tibet and the effect the religion had on Tibet's people and, hence, its art.The details of the beautifully reproduced works of art are chosen to help illustrate the subtle and important aspects of the Tibetan artist while diagrams, such as for the Vajravarahi Mandala, further explain the iconography. I brought the book into the exhibition to gleen as much information as I could while standing before each work.If you have any interest in Tibet, rush to this exhibition (it closes 1.17.99) to see some beautifully presented mandalas, book covers, etc. If you cannot, you are not "settling" by any means to peruse the catalogue as you will witness Taras, portraits of Lamas, that are not only unique for their beauty and intelligence, but for the remarkable fact that we have them to admire.