In the final week of The Rubin Daily Offering, artists with ties to the Himalayan region share creative practices that inspire their work, inviting us to think creatively and collaboratively.
In this episode, Rubin Museum Executive Director Jorrit Britschgi describes a standing prayer wheel. Artist Youdhistir Maharjan then shares his labor-intensive artistic practice. While staying at home, Maharjan is cutting each individual letter out of Gabriel García Márquez’s book One Hundred Years of Solitude, showing that the repetitive and mundane can become a form of meditation.
Prayer Wheel; Tibet; 19th - 20th century; Wood, metal, and pigments; 94 × 33 1/4 × 32 in. (estimate); Rubin Museum of Himalayan Art, Gift of Thomas Isenberg; SC2010.32a-h
Kanha; Central Tibet; 16th century; Copper alloy; 14 1/8 × 9 7/8 × 8 1/4 in.; Rubin Museum of Himalayan Art; C2003.23.4
Fourth Demo Rinpoche, Lhawang Gyeltsen (1631–1668); Tibet or China; Dated by inscription, 1667; Pigments on cloth; 101 x 64 x 3 1/4 in. (256.5 x 162.6 x 8.3 cm); Rubin Museum of Himalayan Art, gift of the Shelley and Donald Rubin Foundation; F1997.45.2
Pelden Lhamo Dusolma; Bhutan; 19th century; Pigments on cloth; 24 3/8 × 18 1/2 in. (estimated); Rubin Museum of Himalayan Art, gift of the Shelley and Donald Rubin Foundation; F1996.11.4
Jorrit Britschgi has served as the Rubin Museum’s Executive Director since 2017. Before joining the Rubin, he served as Head of Exhibitions and Publications at the Museum Rietberg in Zurich, Switzerland, where he was manager of the exhibitions program and curated numerous exhibitions. Mr. Britschgi also served as publisher of Artibus Asiae, one of the leading scholarly journals in Asian art and archaeology, for over a decade.
Jorrit Britschgi graduated from Zurich University with an MA in art history and Sinology (2005) and a PhD, with highest honors, in East Asian Art History (2009). Besides his research activities, he’s taken part in archaeological excavations in Eastern China and Bhutan, and curated numerous exhibitions on paintings from the Indian Himalayan region. Mr. Britschgi has received grants from federal and private foundations to pursue his studies and research. He is a 2017 alumni of the Getty Leadership Institute, and shares his expertise in an advisory capacity with other museums and individuals.
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