This exhibition unites for the first time approximately one hundred works of Naxi religious art primarily acquired by Quentin Roosevelt, grandson of President Theodore Roosevelt, and botanist-explorer Joseph Rock in the early to mid-20th century.
The Naxi—one of China’s 55 ethnic minority nationalities—traditionally practiced the Dongba religion. Dongba has distinct artistic expressions, though it reflects influences from Bon, Buddhism, Taoism, Confucianism, Mongolian shamanism, and popular cults. The religion’s ritual corpus, comprising some one thousand ceremonies, is contained in manuscripts filled with Dongba script—the only living pictographic language in the world. Examples of these manuscripts, as well as funeral scrolls, altar sticks, thangka paintings, and ritual objects reveal Naxi art as it was found in Lijiang before China’s Revolution in 1949.
Curated by Cindy Ho, Christine Mathieu, and Martin Brauen
Martin Brauen, PhD, is a cultural anthropologist, curator, and author. From 2008 to 2011 he was chief curator at the Rubin Museum. Since his retirement he has independently curated several exhibitions, including Bill Viola: Passions at the Cathedral of Bern and The Cosmos at the Museum Rietberg, Zurich, and published A Sameness Between Us: The Friendship of Charmion von Wiegand and Piet Mondrian in Letters and Memoirs.
This exhibition was funded, in part, by the Peco Stacpoole Foundation.
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