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Mongolian art at Oglethorpe: Exotic world illuminated
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Jerry Cullum - For the Journal-Constitution
Sunday, March 19, 2006
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REVIEW
 "Portals to Shangri-La: Masterpieces From Buddhist Mongolia"
Through Aug. 6. $5. Noon-5 p.m. Tuesdays-Sundays. Oglethorpe University Museum of Art, 4484 Peachtree Road, Atlanta. 404-364-8555, www.oglethorpe.edu
Verdict: Another blockbuster show of Buddhist art at Oglethorpe, this time from Mongolia.
Mongolia attracts lovers of mystery and history alike.
Eight hundred years ago, Genghis Khan created a Mongol empire that ultimately stretched from China to Central Europe. His grandson Kublai made Tibetan Buddhism that empire's national religion. And portraits of Kublai Khan's Buddhist guru, Chogyal Pakpa, appear in "Portals to Shangri-La," the Oglethorpe University survey of Mongolian Buddhist art.
So does a unique 600-year-old wall hanging made of woven silk and yak tail hair. So does a portrait of a legendary mystic of Shambala, the earthly paradise known in American pop culture as Shangri-La.
The inclusion of a nomad tent in this exhibition also feeds a sense of the exotic. But the masterpiece paintings on the walls unveil a sophisticated culture, suited to the world empire that flourished during Europe's Middle Ages.
The Buddhist ideas and imagery will be familiar to many Atlantans, thanks to Oglethorpe's superb past exhibitions of Tibetan art. But the style of these mystical aids to meditation is distinctly Mongolian.
Mongolian religious art tends toward sturdiness, with delicacy underlying the bold lines. Exhibition curator Glenn Mullin's wall texts make this "sense of ephemeral transcendence" viewer-friendly.
Who could fail to be charmed by headings like "An Angel With a Bite," describing Nairatmya, the female disciple of Buddha who transmitted a secret teaching? (In case you were wondering, she also symbolizes both wisdom and "the secret gate in the orgasmic sexual experience" wherein all experience becomes one.)
Mullin's brilliantly witty mini-essays thus escort us through art history and religious ideas that could otherwise be intimidating.
The art itself may charm viewers for other reasons. For example, the "horses racing through pink clouds" (Mullin's words) in a painting of "The Five Inborn Guardian Angels" are, to an American sensibility, irresistibly cute. That this is only a cross-cultural accident doesn't change our emotional reaction. Their profound meanings can come later.
Americans may love one of the "Sixteen Superheroes" (another inspired Mullin translation) as much as Mongolians do. Of all these saints empowered by Buddha, Chudapantaka, depicted here in a 17th-century devotional painting, represents "the limitless potential of the little guy." Unable to remember long meditational chants, he was given a broom by Buddha and told to sweep, saying, "Out with the dust; out with the delusions." It worked.
"Portals to Shangri-La" is itself a superheroic act. The Mongolian government collapsed an hour before its minister of culture was to authorize the long-planned export of works from the Mongolian national museum. The original show was canceled.
In two weeks' time, Mullin created an even broader-ranging exhibition with works lent by American collectors. The show opened on time two weeks after that, a feat that made headlines. |
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