The Curated Object

Exhibitions Honolulu. The Dragon's Gift: The Sacred Arts of Bhutan. The Honolulu Academy of Arts. The Curated Object

Buddha Vajrasattva
16th century
Dongkarla Kunzang Choling, Paro
Sculpture
PA 12.01


Bodhisattva Manjushri, 18th century
Ink and mineral colors on cotton
Height: 201 x Width: 100 cm
Trashigang Gönpa, Thimphu
(Cat. no. 20)


Monks of Trashigang Goempa assisting
the exhibition team in the examination
of thangkas, 2006

   

The Dragon’s Gift: The Sacred Arts of Bhutan
February 26 - May 23, 2008

To most outsiders, Bhutan is a land of mystery. Known in Dzongkha, the official language of Bhutan, as Druk Yul (Land of the Thunder Dragon), Bhutan is situated in the Himalayas, east of Nepal and west of Myanmar (Burma), between Tibet and the Indian state of Assam. On its northern border, Bhutan is flanked by some of the highest mountains in the world.
The Dragon’s Gift: The Sacred Arts of Bhutan is a major exhibition that focuses on the Himalayan kingdom’s Buddhist art and culture. The exhibition explores Bhutan’s cosmology and worldview through the window of its sacred visual arts and ritual dance (Cham), using Buddhism and the local pre-Buddhist religion (which includes elements of animism and shamanism), as lenses through which to explore Bhutanese culture.

The exhibition, coordinated by Guest Curator Terese Tse Bartholomew (Curator of Himalayan Art at the Asian Art Museum of San Francisco) and Assistant Exhibition Curator John Johnston, includes over one hundred works of art, the vast majority of which have never been seen before outside of Bhutan. Shown here are thankas (paintings), gilt bronze sculptures, textiles, and ritual objects, all made for use in a Vajrayana (Tantric) Buddhist context. These works of sacred art range in date from the seventh through nineteenth centuries A.D.

The Dragon’s Gift introduces such key Buddhist masters in Bhutan’s history as Padmasambhava (also known as Guru Rinpoche, 8th century, who first brought Tantric Buddhism to Bhutan), Pema Lingpa (1450–1521, a famous “Treasure Revealer”), Drukpa Kunley (1455–1529, the “Divine Madman”), and Zhabdrung Ngawang Namgyel (1594–1651, the unifier of Bhutan), and such key religious figures as Buddhas, bodhisattvas (including the powerful female deities Tara and Prajnaparamita), and wrathful deities (including Mahakala and Yamantaka).

Organized by the Honolulu Academy of Arts in conjunction with the Department of Culture, a branch of the Ministry of Home and Cultural Affairs of the Royal Government of Bhutan, the exhibition coincides with the end of the lunar year marking the one hundredth anniversary of the Royal Wangchuck Dynasty. The exhibition’s timing is significant as it opens in 2008, during which Bhutan will transform itself into a democratically elected constitutional monarchy.

For more information please visit: The Honolulu Academy of Arts
-Joanne Molina    

Exhibitions Honolulu. Hawaiian Modern: The Architecture of Vladimir Ossipoff. The Honolulu Academy of Arts. The Curated Object

Robert Wenkam
Blanche Hill House, main view, 1961
Courtesy of Tad Wenkam and Ossipoff, Snyder &
Rowland Architects


Robert Wenkam
Ossipoff House, exterior view of lanai, 1958
Courtesy of Tad Wenkam and Ossipoff, Snyder &
Rowland Architects

Hawaiian Modern: The Architecture of Vladimir Ossipoff
November 29, 2007-January 27, 2008

Over his six-decade career, Vladimir Ossipoff (1907–1998), who was Russian-born and raised in Japan, designed numerous projects throughout Hawai‘i including houses, schools, churches, private clubs, and most notably, his role as the chief design architect of the 1970s modernization of the Honolulu International Airport. Ossipoff’s work reflected a deliberate attempt to enact a concern for both the cultural and climatic specificity of these unique islands relative to the technical and aesthetic progress of western modernism. Credited in particular for designing the iconic modern homes in Hawai‘i, Ossipoff often synthesized elements of domestic Japanese architecture with local materials combined with the functionality, economy, and open plan of European modern architecture. His work was featured in many design journals of the 1950s and ‘60s including Architectural Record, L’Architecture d’aujourd’hui, Casabella, and House Beautiful as representative of a modern architecture expressive of the aesthetic and cultural values of the islands.

Hawaiian Modern: the Architecture of Vladimir Ossipoff is guest-curated by Dean Sakamoto, principal of Dean Sakamoto Architects, LLC and Critic in Design and Director of Exhibitions at the Yale University  School of Architecture. This original Honolulu Academy of Arts exhibition is based upon Sakamoto’s original research of Ossipoff’s personal and professional archives; local museum and newspaper archives; and interviews of his family, colleagues, former employees, and clients. Featured will be reprinted archival photographs, original drawings, historical publications, newly commissioned architectural models, photographs by Victoria Sambunaris, and a documentary film on Ossipoff by KDN Films. Hawaiian Modern is the only in-depth study of this architect and the modern architecture in Hawai‘i that he helped to foster. The exhibition and accompanying catalogue, published by Yale University Press in association with the Academy and co-edited by Sakamoto with Karla Britton and Diana Murphy, explore how Ossipoff’s Pacific modernism evolved in dialogue with Lewis Mumford’s critique of the International Style, demonstrating how Ossipoff’s work is a self-conscious adaptation of European modern architecture to the regionalist concerns of the Hawaiian Islands. Ossipoff’s contributions are shared, in this regard, with a group of architects throughout the tropics in the 1950s and ‘60s who successfully adapted European modernism to their own climate and culture, from Sri Lanka’s Geoffrey Bawa and Carlos Raul Villanueva in Venezuela to Mario Romanach in pre-Castro Cuba, Paul Rudolph and the Sarasota School, and Pietro Belluschi in the Pacific Northwest. Exploring the reception of Ossipoff’s work in the American and European architectural press, Hawaiian Modern reveals Ossipoff as an architect intent on adapting a mid-century modern architecture to a burgeoning and geographically isolated region of the United States in the era of the pax Americana.

For more information please visit: The Honolulu Academy of Arts
-Joanne Molina