Buddhist Art of the Himalayas

On Friday I met my friend Bonnie at the Norton Simon Museum in Pasadena.  After lunch overlooking their glorious sculpture garden and lily pad covered pond, we visited the downstairs exhibit "In the Land of Snow:  Buddhist art of the Himalayas."

This exhibit is the first large-scale exhibition of Himalayan Buddist art from areas around the Himalayan region.  Almost all of the Museum's "thangkas" (flat field paintings) are on display plus some loans.  The central focus of the exhibit is the 20 foot high "thangka" depicting the Buddha of the future, Maitreya, flaked by the Eight Dalai Lama and his tutor.  This is constructed of appliqued silk.  This is only the second time it has been unrolled and displayed by the museum.

The Museum informational plaque states that the Himalayas, the "abode of snow" span much of the northern Asian continent and have long connected he cultures of India, Nepal and Tibet.  Vajrayana or Tantric Buddhism was practiced by various group through out the area.  Vajrayana Buddhism teaches that enlightenment can be achieved in a single lifetime through direction from a guru and intense and arduous practice.

Other art pieces include iconic sculptures of the Buddha and of Buddhist deities.  Here are my photos of some of the art:

Buddha Sakyamuni, Nepal, 13th century

Mandala of Chakrasamvara, Nepal, Kathmandu, 1648 opaque watercolor on cotton.

Mandala of Dorje Phurba, Tibet, mid-18th century

Ritual Dagger, Tibet or China, 18th century

Thangka of the Buddha Maitreya (twenty feet high)

Closeup

Descent of the Buddha, Tibet, Kham, 19th century, opaque watercolor and gold on cotton with silk border.

The Russians, Chinese, and Finns at the Bowl

Last Thursday night, Colleen and I were hosted in a premium box at the Hollywood Bowl by Linda and Jim.  We were treated by the return of Esa-Pekka Salonen as conductor at the bowl, first time since he left us six years ago.  He was greeted with vigorous applause and led the orchestra in creations of two Russian composers, Prokefiev and Shostakovich and their first symphonies and piano concertos.

The program began with Prokofiev's Piano Concerto No. 1 written when he was 19 in 1911 during a time of revolutionary fervor in Russia.  He wrote his symphony six years later.   Shostakovich wrote his first symphony when he was 20 in 1925 and his first piano concerto seven years later.  All four were played with vigor by the L.A. Phil under Solonen's leadership.

The star of the evening was the 28 year-old Chinese pianist, Yuja Wang.  Her playing was exciting and her dress matched her style.  As Mark Swed in the L.A. Times wrote:  "She took off like a rocket, all glitter and rhythmic sass."  Swed wrote that the orchestra was in top form with great solos from Joanne Pearce Martin, pianist, concertmaster Martin Chalifour, cellist Robert de Maine, clarinetist Burt Hara, and Joseph Pereira, timpanist.  Swed wrote that this was a timpani concerto too at one point.

Here are a few pictures from the Times and a couple of mine:

Esa-Pekka Salonen, Conductor Laureate of the L.A. Phil

Yuja Wang, first act

Martin Chalifour, Principal Concertmaster

Yuja Wang, coming out for her second act.

Marion Arthur Kuszyk, Associate Principal Oboe

Robert deMaine, Principal Cello

Burt Hara, Associate Principal Clarinet 

Yuja Wang in full form.

Bellevue, Washington Arts Museum on July 15, 2014

My friend Chris introduced me to the Bellevue Arts Museum last Tuesday.  Together we explored the creative works on display.

We were greeted in the lobby with two sculptures by Erich Woll seen below:

This sculpture by Erich Woll entitled "Mistakes Will Be Made" loaned from the Museum of Glass in Tacoma.

The artist worked for Dale Chihuly for six years and learned his skills of glass sculpture.  This sculpture by Erich Woll is entitled "In My Neck of the Woods." 2014 made of glass with acrylic

The other sculpture in the lobby is called "The Tag Project" made of 120,000 replicas of the paper identification tags that Japanese-American internees were forced to wear when they were being relocated to camps during World War II. The ten relocated centers were located throughout the West and in Arkansas.  The artist is Wendy Maruyama, a third generation Japanese-American from San Diego.

The Art of Gaman, arts and crafts from the Japanese American internment camps, 1942-1946 was also on display including some of the bird sculptures Jim and I had seen at an exhibit in Pasadena.

An exhibit entitled "Folding Paper, the Infinite Possibilities of Origami" displayed over 140 works by 45 master folders from around the world including Japan, U.S., Uruguay, and Russia.

Here are some of my favorites:

The most famous origami form is the crane and has been a popular form for more than 400 years.  Since the 1950's the crane has been linked with the struggle of Sadako Sasaki, 1943-1955, a young Hiroshima girl who was two when the atomic bomb was dropped by the Americans.  When she was twelve, she was hospitalized with leukemia cased by the bomb's radiation.  A friend told Sadako that anyone who folds one thousand cranes would be granted a wish, so she began folding cranes with the hope of recovering from her disease.  Sadly, although she was able to fold more than one  thousand cranes, she died in October of 1855.
A monument to her was erected to her in the Hiroshima Peace Park and permanently embellished with garlands of colorful cranes folded in her memory by school children from around the world, now placed in glass cases around the statue.  The origami crane is now a symbol of world peace.

Akira Yoshizawa, (1911-2005), Japanese with one of his original origami designs. 

"Prayer," and "Buddha," 2010 by Giang Dinh (b. 1966) Vietnamese American made with watercolor paper.

"Cyrus" by Joel Cooper (b. 1970 American) made with Elephant hide paper, "Mask" by Joel Cooper, "Characters from the Kubuki Play "Renjishi" by Makoto Yamaguchi (b. 1944, Japanese) made from Yuzen paper, "Mask" by Eric Joisel (1956-2010 French).

"Cardinal" and "Crane" by Roman Diaz (b. 1968 Uruguay) and "Coral Sponge," by Vincent Fioderer (b. 1981, France).

"Out on a Limb" by Bernie Peyton (b. 1950, American)

"Summer Ikebana," 2010 by John Blackman (b. 1955, American) of colored and textured paper.

"The Plague," by Sipho Mabona (b. 1980, Swiss South African) 2012 made of uncut square of US currency sheets.

"Double Wave," 2007 by Goran Konjevod (b. 1973, Croation American) made of one 24 inch square of elephant hide paper.

Below is a photo of a sculpture in an exhibit called "At Your Service" made from plates.

Items made from an Delft Blue earthenware plate by Gesine Hackenberg, Amsterdam, The Netherlands.

The next exhibit, "Under Pressure," traces printmaking's rise to prominence in postwar American art.

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"Between the Clock and the Bed," edition, 10/32, Lithograph by Jasper Johns (American, b. 1930)

"Signs," edition 44/250, 1970, by Robert Rauschenberg (American, 1925-2008)

"Traffic!" 1999 edition 47/75 by Red (Charles Roger) Grooms (b. 1937 American).  Grooms pokes fun at cultural icons in a good-natured way.

"Bull Profile Series," edition 14/100, 1973 by Roy Lichtenstein (American, 1923-1997)

Seattle's Chihuly Garden and Glass

In Seattle, Washington, on Sunday morning, July 13, Rick and Roberta picked me up from his sister's family where I was staying and took me to the new Chihuly Garden and Glass exhibit in the Seattle Center, just below the Space Needle.  I have loved the glass sculptures designed by Dale Chihuly since I first enjoyed them at the Phoenix, AZ Desert Botanical Garden about five years ago with Rick's mom and dad.  I enjoyed them again this spring when a new Chiluly exhibit opened in the Phoenix garden with lights for spectacular night viewing too.

So it was a renewed joy that I felt while viewing these wonders of color and form.  The first part of the exhibit we viewed beautifully lit sculptures inside.  Then we strolled through an amazing Glasshouse with a 100 foot long suspended sculpture that we viewed while looking up through the glass ceiling to the famous Space Needle from the 1962 Worlds Fair.
The outdoor sculptures are complimented by beautiful flowers and landscaping.  This combined beauty made our spirits soar.  Research has shown that viewing beauty elevates the mood.  We were surrounded by beauty and we were elated.

Dale Chiluly is from Tacoma, Washington, just South of Seattle, which houses his studio/glass factory and museum.  He has about 100 employees who create the sculptures under his supervision.

Here are my pictures of what we thoroughly enjoyed:

The "Glass Forest" was created by Chihuly when is was an instructor at the Rhode Island School of Design in 1971.  The glass stalks or stems are illuminated with electrically charged neon and argon.

These sculptures were inspired by Navajo textiles and baskets and the artist's experience in weaving.

This photo and the ones below are of a 15-foot "Sealife Tower."  The Tower and vessels in this room include forms such as starfish, octopus, conch shells, sea anemones, urchins and manta rays.

The "Persian Ceiling" was begun in 1986 and presented in 1992.  It is lit from above and rests on a flat glass pane.

This giant sculpture, "Mille Fiori," which is Italian for a thousand flowers, fills a large room. I roamed around the sculpture and took pictures from several angles.  

These photos are of "Ilebana and Float Boats."  Chihuly used two wooden rowboats, one filled with Ikebana elements and another with Niijimo Floats.  Their origins date to 1995 in Nuutajarvi, Finland, where the artist experimented with temporary installations along the shore of the river and tossed glass forms into it to see how the glass would interact with water and light.  Local teenages gathered the drifting glass in rowboats, inspiring Chihuly to create a new type of installation.

Chihuly began the "Macchia" series in 1981 with the desire to use all 300 colors available to him in the hot-shop. Each work is speckled with color, which comes from rolling the molten glass in small shards of colored glass.

My friends Rick and Roberta enjoyed this glass house with the amazing sculpture.  

This is the Space Needle viewed from inside the glass house.

These are a few of Chihuly's many chandeliers.  In one exhibit in Venice, Italy in 1995, he hung thirteen chandeliers in outdoor sites throughout the city.  He was inspired by the Murano Glass factory in Venice early in his career.

This photo and those following show the beautiful interface of Chihuly's sculptures with the flowers and architecture around the gardens.