A spiral staircase leads to the galleries at the Rubin Museum of Art, gently mimicking the ascent one might make if he or she were to see the museum’s Himalayan paintings and sculptures in the mountains where they were originally created. But this being New York City, a staircase and a chill in the air has to stand in for icy peaks. Fortunately, the group of alumnae who visited the Rubin last Friday had a superb tour guide in Celia Gerard ’91, the manager of school programs and a teaching artist at the Rubin. They were joined by Emily Auchincloss ’96, an education assistant at the museum.
“Not too many people know about Himalayan art,” Ms. Gerard said, as the group perused a mandala — a circular image that contains symmetrical square subdivisions and figures of deities, and is seen as a representation of the universe — on the museum’s second floor. “Sometimes it looks Greek, Indian, Tibetan,” she added, noting that Himalayan art can be as varied as the region from which it comes. Ms. Gerard pointed out some of the Chinese influences in one painting; the significance of a lotus leaf in another; and how some of the Himalayan painters used perspective in the same way as Northern Renaissance painters.
As the group passed from floor to floor, there were tangkas, or portable scrolls to see, as well as sculptures of the Buddha of the Future and an exhibit on Mongolia that showcased everything from traditional masks to contemporary photographs. And there was more than art; there was Rubin artist-in-residence Pema Rinzin, a Tibetan native who is working at the museum on a mural of The Four Great Guardian Kings. Mr. Rinzin took time to answer questions and explain how Tibetan artists grind up stones such as lapis lazuli to create their intense colors.
The tour officially ended after a visit to Ms. Gerard’s favorite piece, a painting of Shri Davi, the goddess and protector of Tibet. Few of the alumnae descended to the lobby, however, preferring to remain in the galleries they had visited or climb to the ones they hadn’t yet seen, just a floor or two higher.