New York exhibits celebrate mandalas

Two exhibits featuring mandalas are showing in New York. Japanese Mandalas: Emanations and Avatars is at the Metropolitan Museum, and Mandala: The Perfect Circle is at the Rubin Museum. The two shows give a taste of the diversity of this art form. Mandalas are made from a broad range of materials, and can be either two-dimensional or three-dimensional. And, depending on the culture, they are executed in wildly different styles. Continue on for the full story and additional links. A New York Times review described the Met’s Japanese mandalas as “a tonal mist of white, black, and brown with scintillations of silver and gold,” whereas “their Tibetan equivalents [at the Rubin] are sharp and bold: the paintings jump with spicy colors, the gilded sculptures are sheer Himalayan bling.”

Mandalas originated in India and arrived in Japan from China in the early ninth century, along with the introduction of Vajrayana Buddhism. In Japan, several sects of esoteric Buddhism developed and, collectively, these sects are called Mikkyo, or the secret teachings. Sinéad Kehoe, assistant curator in the Met’s department of Asian art, explains that the Chinese prototypes for the first Japanese mandalas have long since vanished and that the form of those prototypes “is carefully preserved in Japan alone. At the same time, Japanese mandalas evolved in entirely new directions…often incorporating Shinto elements.”

The most celebrated mandalas at the Met’s show are a pair of thirteenth-century hanging scrolls—The Womb World and The Diamond World—on loan from the Brooklyn Museum. They are meant to illustrate the core teachings of Mikkyo Buddhism—the former mandala representing reality in the realm of the conditioned and the latter representing reality in the Buddha realm. According to Mikkyo, enlightenment can be achieved in this lifetime, and these two mandalas show the path and the fruition.

The most famous mandala at the Rubin’s show is on loan from Musée Guimet in Paris. Originally from Dunhuang, China, it was probably painted in the eighth or ninth century when the area was controlled by Tibetans. It depicts a crowd of deities, and is beautifully detailed, with fine faces on the figures and flowers on their clothes. But the Rubin’s chief curator,  Martin Brauen, says he’s personally fond of the computer-animated mandalas on display.

Japanese Mandalas closes November 29. The Perfect Circle runs until January 11.

Sample some of the art appearing in the Metropolitan Museum exhibit here: http://www.metmuseum.org/special/japanese_mandalas/images.asp

and from the Rubin’s exhibit here: http://mandala.rma2.org/