“The purpose of this show is to establish a benchmark for what are the finest, most beautiful objects of Himalayan art,” says Pratapaditya Pal, the visiting curator who developed the Art Institute’s new exhibit, “Himalayas: An Aesthetic Adventure.” Including 187 mostly religious pieces from Tibet, Nepal, Bhutan, Pakistan, Kashmir, and northern India, the show is the largest ever of objects from the region–many from private collections and previously unexhibited–and is the first comprehensive look at the art produced by its many interrelated cultures.
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The Himalayas cover 1,550 miles from Jammu and Kashmir to Tibet–like “a girdle hugging the hips of Asia,” says Pal–and have inspired awe and worship for ages. The region’s name means “house of snow” in Sanskrit, and its peaks, lakes, and rivers are considered sacred by its inhabitants. In Hindu mythology, Pal points out, Himalaya is “personified as the father of the goddess Parvati, daughter of the mountain.” In Buddhism too the names of the peaks are religiously charged. “Everest, to use the colonial British name, has a Tibetan name that means ‘mother of the world.’”
The art of the Himalayas didn’t have much of an impact on Indian art, but it significantly influenced Buddhist art in China–“all because in the 13th century, Kublai Khan hired 80 artists from Nepal to work in his court,” Pal explains. Yet, he adds, “this show is not about cultural context or influences. It’s pure aesthetic appreciation.”
