[Buddha-l] LA County Museum exhibit of art: The Way of the Elders

[Geoff Morrison]

Rumor to the contrary, the are, in fact, many art lovers on this list. Thanks for letting the rest of the list members know about the Los Angeles County Museum of Art's (LACMA) exhibit, "The Way of the Elders: The Buddha in Modern Theravada Traditions," consisting of slightly more than a dozen items from LACMA's Southeast Asia Collection, but definitely worth a visit to LACMA for the value of this exhibition alone, IMHO. If you happen to live in Southern California or will be visiting same by March, 2012, the representations of Buddha await you at LACMA. As Leo, the Lion, advises art lovers, at the beginning of any MGM film, by roaring out "Ars gratia artis," or "art for art's sake," credited to Théophile Gautier, who was supposed to have been the first to use "l'art pour l'art" as a slogan, which Louis B. Mayer, the "M" in MGM, Latinized for Leo's benefit, in the lion's cameo appearance inside the MGM Logo. If any of the list members are interested in
 viewing this exhibit of modern renderings of Buddha, "roar" on over to LACMA to have a look. (No play upon words intended here, of course.)

Metta, 

Geoff Morrison


________________________________
From: JKirkpatrick <jkirk at spro.net>
To: 'Buddhist discussion forum' <buddha-l at mailman.swcp.com>
Sent: Monday, July 11, 2011 6:11 PM
Subject: [Buddha-l] LA County Museum exhibit of art: The Way of the Elders

If there are any art lovers on this list, which I rather doubt
but just in case, please see this LA County Museum website on the
Way of the Elders:
http://lacma.wordpress.com/2011/07/11/highlights-of-the-way-of-th
e-elders/

The page opens with a wonderful image of the walking Buddha, a
rarely seen sculptural concept (in India anyway) except in Burma,
and sometimes in Thailand.
My guess as to why is that the southeast Asians developed sitting
and walking meditation beyond what the Indians practised--Indian
iconography of Buddha emphasises the sitting posture. Walking
meditation is as important in SE Asian Buddhism as sitting.  In
Bagan, northern Burma, there are wonderful carved wooden figures
of the walking Buddha in several of the big famous pagodas. 

From the above website: 'Cloth banners were commissioned and
donated to monasteries for hanging inside the temple walls until
production ceased around the beginning of the twentieth century.'

So Tibetans weren't the only group to decorate their temples with
painted cloth banners, albeit gigantic ones designed to cover an
entire outside wall. Inside, usually it was painted
murals-----whereas the Thai painted cloth banners were designated
(according to this site) for indoor temple décor (and
edification, of course-- like the temple décor of all Buddhist
architecture everywhere). 

Joanna






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