Collecting Paradise | Rubin Museum of Himalayan Art

Collecting ParadiseBuddhist Art of Kashmir and its Legacies

May 22, 2015–October 19, 2015
Rubin Museum
150 W. 17th St., NYC

Golden statue of seated figure on lotus blossom flanked by miniature buildings with very tall roofs. — Crowned Buddha Shakyamuni; Kashmir or Gilgit (present-day northern Pakistan); 8th century; brass with inlays of copper, silver, and zinc; Asia Society, New York: Mr. and Mrs. John D. Rockefeller 3rd Collection of Asian Art; 1979.044.

Kashmir, a region extending between present-day Pakistan, India, and China, was a vibrant center of cultural exchange where Buddhism flourished and artists created exceptional sculptures, paintings, and manuscripts. Beginning in the 5th and 6th centuries Kashmir and its art boasted international prestige and had significant cultural impact in the region, especially in the western Himalayas and west Tibet. Although these neighboring regions had radically different environments and cultures than Kashmir, Buddhism and art from Kashmir had profound influence there beginning in the 10th century.

Western Himalayan pilgrims to Kashmir “collected” art there and installed it in their new monasteries at home; they invited Kashmiri teachers and artists and worked together to create a new Buddhist culture there. Over time, the Buddhist art of Kashmir became deeply imbedded in the cultural identity of western Himalayan Buddhists who developed distinct artistic expressions of their own.

Collecting Paradise traces the continuity of the art of Kashmir in the western Himalayas for over a millennium. The exhibition begins with the exquisite carved ivory and metal sculptures from Kashmir that were brought to the western Himalayas during the 7th to the 12th century and highlights the notion of Buddhist art in motion.

The exhibition continues with the presentation of sculptures and paintings created by Kashmiri and local artists in the western Himalayas during the 11th to the 14th century, and concludes with examples from the 15th to 17th century when Kashmiri aesthetics were revitalized in an economic and religious revival in west Tibet.

Collecting Paradise celebrates western Himalayan Buddhists as agents of their own cultural production and the important role they played in collecting and preserving the art of Kashmir that they greatly appreciated and that would come to be valued highly by Western collectors in centuries to come.

The exhibition is accompanied by a catalogue, Collecting Paradise: Buddhist Art of Kashmir and Its Legacies.

Exhibition Audio Guide

Collecting ParadiseBuddhist Art of Kashmir and its Legacies

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