POUGHKEEPSIE, NY.- Vassar College’s Frances Lehman Loeb Art Center will present the exhibition Beyond the Threshold: Contemporary Tibetan Art, on view March 5 through July 31, 2022, in the Loeb’s Asian Gallery.
Beyond the Threshold, guest curated by Dr. Ariana Maki, Associate Director of the Tibet Center and Bhutan Initiative at the University of Virginia, draws together thirteen works from ten Tibetan artists, including a number of its pioneers. Among the major themes explored in these wide-ranging works are the impacts of globalization and commercialism on Tibetan culture, the creation and inhabitation of virtual worlds, self-representation and the questioning of identities, interconnectedness, and pushing back against expectations collectively imposed upon Tibetans as subjects of the outsider gaze.
Currently based in Australia, China, France, Nepal, the Netherlands, and the United States, each artist translates their own perspectives and experiences into material form, resulting in a rich diversity of works that draw long overdue attention to the innovations that have been taking place in Tibetan artists’ studios around the world.
Centuries of traditional Tibetan artistic expression required that viewers have an understanding of religious history and tradition, as the majority of paintings and sculptures were created according to established norms for ritual use, generating merit, or conveying history. Since the 1980s, however, those thresholds have been transcended with ever increasing regularity, as Tibetan artists continue to contribute innovative, thought-provoking creations to global discourse.
Located in the Loeb’s Asian gallery, along with a monumental scale piece in the museum atrium, the exhibition presents paintings, photographs, and sculpture by Dedron, Gade, Gonkar Gyatso, Karma Phuntsok, Marie-Dolma Chophel, Nyema Droma, Sodhon, Tashi Norbu, Tsherin Sherpa, and Tsewang Tashi. Exhibition text for Beyond the Threshold is provided bilingually, with Tibetan translations provided by Rongwo Lugyal.
The Frances Lehman Loeb Art Center was originally established in 1864 as the Vassar College Art Gallery. The current 36,400-square-foot facility, designed by Cesar Pelli and named in honor of the new building's primary donor, opened in 1993. Vassar was the first U.S. college founded with an art museum as a part of its original plans, and at any given time the galleries of the Loeb feature works from its extensive collections. The Loeb's collections chart the history of art from antiquity to the present and comprise over 22,000 works, including paintings, sculptures, drawings, prints, photographs, and ceramic wares. Notable holdings include the Warburg Collection of Old Master prints, an important group of Hudson River School paintings given by Matthew Vassar at the college's inception, and a wide range of works by major European and American 20th-century artists.
