Karma Gadri Style
[The following article is from Art Daily online, February 2009,]
New York -- Rubin Museum of Art Presents First Exhibition Devoted to
Historical Tibetan Artist
The same year that Sir Joshua Reynolds painted Samuel Johnson, a venerable lama
in the southeastern-most province of Tibet ordered silver finials for a set of
paintings on cloth called thangkas. By that time in 1772, the
72-year-old Situ Panchen Chökyi Jungne [1700-1774] had already
single-handedly revitalized an entire Tibetan artistic tradition.
[His Eminence, the 8th] Situ Panchen’s artistic achievement and influence will
be explored by the Rubin Museum of Art from February 6 to August 17, 2009 in
Patron and Painter: Situ Panchen and the Revival of the Encampment Style.
As the first exhibition ever, anywhere, to examine the oeuvre of a historical
Tibetan artist and his workshop, the exhibition paints a picture of a brilliant
polymath who greatly influenced the painting, literary arts, and medicine of his
time, and served also as the charismatic leader of an
influential Buddhist sect *during a
particularly volatile period in Tibetan history.
It is commonplace in Tibetan studies not to be able to link a work of art with
the name of an artist, for artists often labored anonymously within monastery or
court settings. Partly for this reason, exhibitions of Tibetan art typically
examine objects from the perspective of
iconology or religion. Co-organized by Dr. David Jackson, one of the world’s
foremost authorities on Tibetan culture and history, and Dr. Karl Debreczeny,
curator, Rubin Museum of Art, Patron and Painter departs from convention
by exploring the influence of a real historical figure from the point of view of
artistic style and history.
“Such a path-breaking study is only possible because of tremendous advances in
the scholarship of Himalayan art in recent years,” says Dr. Martin Brauen, Chief
Curator of the Rubin Museum. “David Jackson’s decades-long research into Tibetan
primary textual sources and his dedicated search for and study of far-flung
paintings and sculptures
have helped to galvanize this effort.”
“Situ’s advocacy of the existing artistic lineage known as the ‘encampment’
style is hugely important in Tibetan art, for his paintings and commissions
spread throughout the Himalayas through diligent copying, and continue to be
copied to this day, shaping how the Buddhist faithful in the region imagine both
stories and doctrine,” says Jackson.
“Distinctive for its embrace of Chinese painting conventions, the encampment
style can be said to have opened up Tibetan art, introducing a freer, more fluid
way of painting,” Jackson continues. Tibetan painting always had been heavily
indebted to Indian art, but, with this movement, figures migrated out of their
hierarchical spaces (even as they retained the iconography of eastern Indian and
Nepalese art) and began to inhabit landscapes in which details demonstrated a
robust interest in the natural world.
Fifty paintings, sculptures, and illuminated manuscript pages from the 12th to
the 19th century are on view in Patron and Painter, drawn from collections
ranging from the Los Angeles County Museum of Art to the Basel Ethnographic
Museum.
Three featured thangkas are attributed to Situ’s own hand—a number are from his
workshop, but most are copies of famous images from his multiple thangka sets,
copied after the demise of the master and his workshop. A few of the works on
view, predating Situ, serve to illustrate the early development of the
encampment style.
“We hope to convey the magnificence of the multiple thangka sets of 18th century
Tibet,” says co-organizer Karl Debreczeny. “Through David Jackson’s research, we
know that 12 sets of thankgas can be firmly attributed to Situ or to his
monastery seat.” This exhibition represents ten of these sets, including what
many scholars believe to be one of the master’s earliest and greatest works, a
famous set portraying the Eight Great Adepts.
Sketched, colored, and shaded by Situ himself at the age of 26, this set was
presented by the master to a local king in a bid to win permission to build his
new monastic seat. The exhibition features a lively, delicately colored portrait
of the Mahasiddha Ghantapa, executed in the 18th century after one of the
paintings in the set—which did indeed win
Situ his monastery. On loan from the John and Berthe Ford Collection of
the Walters Art Museum in Baltimore, the painting shows Ghantapa rising from a
flood, legs and arms akimbo, trailing billowing scarves. Also on view is another
imagining of this scene from the 19th century, showing the adept flying above
craggy rock formations and brilliant pastel-hued blossoms, every element
reflecting the inspiration of Chinese painting.
A brocade framed thangka of Situ in his 60s, painted during his lifetime by a
court painter and one of the few known portraits of the master, is a centerpiece
of Patron and Painter. Situ is depicted holding a book and wearing a red
ceremonial crown-like hat, which, like those of all the teachers in his lineage
group, was carefully designed to convey his
learning and status—his badge of office.
Another highlight of the exhibition is a monumental thangka thought to portray
the Ninth Karmapa, a towering figure in Tibetan history and Situ’s revered
predecessor. A partly effaced inscription indicates that the thangka was painted
during its subject’s lifetime, around the time the encampment style was born
(1555-1603).
During his course of research, Jackson discovered that Situ commissioned a set
of thangkas based on tracings of paintings in the court of the Ninth Karmapa.
Three will be on view in Patron and Painter. In one, a standing
bodhisattva, draped in flowing robes, is depicted riding a fish whose tail flaps
up from blue waves and foam. In another, a single
figure is pictured languidly reclining on a throne of rock and blossoming green
foliage: a new acquisition by the Rubin Museum of Art, this portrait of
Avalokiteshvara, the Bodhisattva of Compassion, will be newly reunited with
other images from the set for this exhibition.
The Rubin Museum of Art will host an international conference on Situ Panchen on
Saturday, February 7, and Sunday, February 8, 2009. Situ Panchen:
Creation and Cultural Engagement in 18th-Century Tibet convenes nine
scholars who will address different aspects of the master’s life. Among
the presenters are Rémi Chaix, Centre national de la research
scientifique, Paris: “Situ Panchen and the House of Derge: A Demanding but
Beneficial Relationship”; Nancy Lin, University of California, Berkeley:
“Situ Panchen and the Re-enactment of Buddhist Origins”; Frances Garrett,
University of Toronto: “Medical Literature in the Situ Panchen Tradition”; and
Kurtis Schaeffer, University of Virginia,
Charlottesville: “Situ the Scholar.”
Recordings of the conference proceedings will be made available to a wider
public through www.thirteen.org and iTunes
University.
A fully illustrated and comprehensive 304-page catalogue will present new
research on the work of Situ Panchen and the revival of the encampment style
painting tradition as well as biographical details of Situ’s life. Contributing
authors include Dr. David Jackson and Dr. Karl Debreczeny. Patron
and Painter: Situ Panchen and the Revival of the Encampment Style
will be sold in the Rubin Museum’s shop and distributed by the University of
Washington Press to bookshops worldwide. (US$ 45.00 paper/75.00 hardcover).
Rubin Museum of Art - RMA holds one of the world’s most important collections of
Himalayan art. Paintings, pictorial textiles, and sculpture are drawn from
cultures that touch upon the arc of mountains that extends from Afghanistan in
the northwest to Myanmar (Burma) in the southeast and includes Tibet, Nepal,
Mongolia, and Bhutan. The larger Himalayan cultural sphere, determined by
significant cultural exchange over millennia, includes Iran, India, China,
Central Asia, and Southeast Asia. This rich cultural legacy, largely unfamiliar
to Western viewers, offers an uncommon opportunity for visual adventure and
aesthetic discovery.
~ This article appeared online at
www.artdaily.org early in 2009.
* The Karma Kagyu denomination, see
Golden Garland. The Situ Panchen, or Tai
Situpa, or Situ Rinpoche, is one of the few eminent lamas whose role it is to
preserve the Kagyu method and tradition. He can act as "regent" during the
absence of The Karmapa, and has frequently led the Kagyu during the period
between incarnations. The current Tai Situ is the Twelfth. His seat
outside Tibet is at Sherab Ling in
Northern India.
Paintings and calligraphy of H.E. the current, 12th, Khentin
Situpa, whose seat outside Tibet is at Palpung Monastery, can be viewed at
 
        
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