PENS AND THE POST FAMILY FESTIVAL
Demonstrations and activities about letter-writing. Really, not everyone texts. Saturday 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. National Postal Museum, 2 Massachusetts Ave. NE.
postalmuseum.si.edu. Free.
OnExhibit
A trove of Cambodian treasures
by Michael O’Sullivan
There are only 36 works on display in the
Arthur M. Sackler Gallery’s latest exhibi- tion, “Gods of Angkor: Bronzes From the National Museum of Cambodia.” Maybe twice that, if you count all the extra arms and heads. Gods, you see, are not like us. The show — a jewel box of mostly small-
ish sculptures in three tiny galleries — cen- ters on devotional figures of Shiva, Vishnu and other Hindu deities, several of whom are depicted with anywhere from four to 10 arms, and as many as five heads. One, in the case of Shiva’s son Ganesha, has the head of an elephant. There are also several statues of the Bud-
dha. I know: Buddha is not technically a god. Still, he has often been revered as though he were one. And his various bodhisattvas —the quasi-human, quasi-godlike embodi- ments of such virtues as wisdom and com- passion — are themselves considered to be deities. (In an interesting twist on certain Western stereotypes, wisdom, represented by the bodhisattva Prajnaparamita, is female; compassion, in the person of Avalo- kiteshvara, is a male.) So Buddha makes the cut. The show, which also features two or three human fig- ures, includes a number of rarely seen ritu- al objects from Buddhist and Hindu wor- ship: a bell, a mirror, a lotus flower, a conch. Yet despite its name, “Gods” isn’t exactly
a show about religion. Nor is it simply a cel- ebration of the bronze-caster’s art. Though it covers centuries’ worth of art from the Khmer people — from late prehistory through the Angkor period (802 to 1431 A.D.) — there’s precious little technical in- formation about how the pieces were made. Instead, the show is a tip of the hat from one museum to another. One favor in ex- change for another. In 2005, experts from the Sackler helped
set up the National Museum of Cambodia’s first metal conservation lab, with financial support from the Getty Foundation. Today, in conjunction with its ceramics and stone conservation shops, the Cambodian mu- seum operates one of Southeast Asia’s pre- eminent art conservation facilities. The beautiful works in “Gods of Angkor”
are evidence of that. In other words, the National Museum of Cambodia got the gift, but here in Washing- ton, we are the beneficiaries.
osullivanm@washpost.com
GODS OF ANGKOR: BRONZES FROM THE NATIONAL MUSEUM OF CAMBODIA
Through Jan. 23 at the Arthur M. Sackler Gallery, 1050 Independence Ave. SW (Metro: Smithsonian). 202-633-1000 (TDD: 202-633-5285).
www.asia.si.edu.
Hours: Open daily 10 a.m. to 5:30 p.m.
Admission: Free.
IMAGES FROM NATIONAL MUSEUM OF CAMBODIA, PHNOM PENH
THE STORY BEHIND THE WORK
It’s hard to tell which celestial being is depicted in one of the bronze figures in “Gods of Angkor.” After all, he has lost his head.
It could be the Hindu god Shiva. Or it could
be Avalokiteshvara, a bodhisattva, or manifestation, of the Buddha. Both religions flourished, side by side, in Cambodia’s Khmer culture. Also missing: two of the figure’s four hands, which might have once held clues to its identity. Another figure — clearly identified because of what he’s holding — juggles Vishnu’s trademark conch, mace, discus and ball, representing the Earth. Look behind him, and you’ll notice what looks like a butterfly on his tush. A nearby statue of Shiva
has one, too.
No, the butterfly doesn’t stand for patience or some other virtue. It’s probably just a palace fashion trend — a fancy bow — that found its way from the closets of the living to the closets of the gods. Which doesn’t sound all that surprising when you consider that the face of one of the bronze Buddhas on view is said to bear a strange resemblance to the face of Jayavarman VII, the king of the Khmer empire under whose reign it was made.
— Michael O’Sullivan
A figure of Vishnu holds, clockwise from upper right, a conch, a mace, a ball representing Earth and a discus.
43
The Sackler’s 36-piece exhibition includes bronzes of Shiva’s elephant-headed son Ganesha and a crowned Buddha, above, from the 12th century.
THE WASHINGTON POST • FRIDAY, MAY 28, 2010
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