This has been a busy travel week for me! I started the week in Houston, Texas for the American Association of Museums conference, made a pit stop back at work for three days, then was off to Providence, Rhode Island for Brown’s commencement ceremony. While in Houston, I was able to visit the Museum of Fine Arts and of course scout out some really great exhibitions on Indian and Chinese Art. They have a magnificent exhibition that places traditional/ancient works next to (or with) contemporary pieces- truly showing that art from this region is still alive and thriving. I was only able to capture two photos of our favorite Hindu Deities, Ganesh and Shiva before the security guard scolded me:
Surprisingly, there was a large video screen showing “Painting in Himalayan Art” produced by the Shelley & Donald Rubin Foundation in the gallery, so there was a little piece of home all the way in Texas. The Arts of China Gallery is NOT TO BE MISSED! Though small in number, the pieces are elegantly set against the backdrop of a Cai Guo-Quain (think exploding cars + Guggenheim) gunpowder piece that wallpapers the room. I was able to find a small picture from the unofficial MFA blog here and a write up and slide show of the creation here from the Houston press.
Four days later I found myself on the campus of the Rhode Island School of Design (RISD) and at the marvelous RISD Museum. Of course no trip to a museum is complete unless I scour the building for Himalayan Art, and again I was pleasantly surprised to find an excellently displayed group of Himalayan works in the Asian Art exhibition.
The best surprise (though not quite Himalayan) was finding this Japanese Buddha in a solitary room. Looking at pictures of this Buddha on the web doesn’t do it justice- it’s HUGE. Just so can sense the scale of this excellent sculpture, I found it necessary to pose in front of it (remember, I’m 6’3”)
