Recently in tibetan art Category

Following my last posting on the Snow Lion doll designed by Susie Vickery and Tibetan artisans at the Dropenling handicrafts center in Lhasa, Susie wrote from Lhasa enclosing some photos of prototypes for next season that she is working on.

Seen here are two new glove puppets with Tiger and Snow Lion designs. These will be on sale in Dropenling next year. The gentleman in the center is Arthur Holcombe, founder of the Tibet Poverty Alleviation fund and the Dropenling center. He is not for sale.

Exceedingly friendly, in a tongue-hanging out kind of way, this is the new snow lion from the Dropenling Handicrafts Center in Lhasa, run by the Tibet Artisan Initiative.

He was created by Susie Vickery, a former RSC costume designer, who visited Lhasa last year to work with traditional Tibetan tailors and applique workers to create the snow lion and other Tibetan dolls. The artisans are using traditional applique skills that are used for making religious banners and door hangings, but applied in a new way.

The snow lion is a traditional animal in Tibet, the seat of Vaishravana (Namtose), the god of wealth and the King of the Northern Direction, often seen in paintings in both secular and religious contexts, as well as in sculptures around Lhasa.

The snow lion has been such a hit that Susie is back in Lhasa right now, designing new animals for next year. The Dropenling team will be visiting Beijing later this month and attending some of the pre-Christmas bazaars and bringing some snow lions with them. I will be posting a list of the bazaars we will be attending later this month.

The Tibet Artisan Initiative's website is at www.tibetcraft.com

For those that can't wait, I have a few of these guys in my Torana store in the Kempinski hotel in Beijing.

On Thursday this week I will be giving a talk for the Beijing International Society. The BIS is open to foreign passport holders in Beijing: talks are free for members, but non-members may also attend (one-time fee: 50RMB, please bring your passport since the talk is inside an embassy compound) There are more details about the BIS on their website:
www.beijinginternationalsociety.com

Here is the talk outline from the BIS flyer:

Tibetan Textiles: Reviving Traditional Skills
Illustrated Lecture
By Mr. Chris Buckley
7.30pm, Thursday, 6 November
Embassy of Kuwait
科威特国大使馆
光华路23号

Keweite Dashiguan
23 Guanghua Lu


Throughout its history, Tibet has been largely pastoral, with its herds of yaks, sheep and other animals providing the material for producing a variety of textile products, including blankets, tents, clothing and, of course, carpets.  However, in recent years many of the traditional skills have been lost.

Chris Buckley, working together with the Tibet Artisan Initiative in Lhasa, has spent the past three years working to recover some of the traditional Tibetan natural dyeing methods.  He will talk about Tibet's rich history of textile manufacture (whether in small-scale cottage industries or larger, commercial enterprises), as well as textile uses.  He will also discuss the sometimes unexpected environmental and social issues relating to dye choice and textile manufacture in Lhasa and area.  

Chris Buckley has lived in China since 1995.  He made his first trip to Tibet in 1996, from which time his interest in Tibetan art and culture developed.  He received a PhD in chemistry from Oxford, training which has proved beneficial to his latest researches into traditional dyeing technologies.

Membership desk opens 7.00pm for 7.30 pm lecture

Brian Wallace and his team at the Red Gate gallery, one of Beijing's longest established art galleries, have put together a second exhibition of contemporary Tibetan art.

The show, which is at their newer 798 district gallery (not the original gallery at the watchtower) includes works by Gade, Keltse, Gongkar Gyatso, Tsering Nyandak, Tsewang Tashi and Nortse, who painted the striking self portrait shown here. Their works fuse elements of contemporary Chinese style with its emphasis on bold and colorful works, with Tibetan elements and themes ... in Nortse's case the mandala and prayer slips (lungta) that flutter around the artist's head.

The exhibition runs from Saturday October 25th until the 16th November, 11am-6pm (closed Mondays). The 798 gallery is at 797 East street, 798 art zone, No. 2 Juixianqiao Lu, Chaoyang district, Beijing.
Tel 6438 1005
website: www.redgategallery.com

illustration: Self portrait, Red Flower by Nortse, 2008, mixed media

The art show ShContemporary runs from 11th to 13th September, and this year features a number of international galleries, including Rossi and Rossi from London, who this year will feature work by Tibetan artists.

Tibetan contemporary art is a relatively new field, with international exhibitions including Tibetan works for the first time in the last 2-3 years. The origin of the current crop of Lhasa-based artists can be traced to the Gedun Choephel gallery, situated on Lhasa's Barkhor square and founded by a professor from the Lhasa university. One of the first major exhibitions of works by artists from this group was sponsored by Ian Alsop, who invited artists to paint on the theme of the Lhasa Train, the new line for which was being completed at the time. Ian has also shown Tibetan artists work at his Peaceful Wind gallery in Santa Fe.

More recent shows have included the Red Gate gallery's show Lhasa - New Art from Tibet at their Beijing gallery in the 798 district and shows by Rossi and Rossi in London. Both were excellent, and the catalogue from Brian Wallace and Tony Scott's  798 show is a must-have for those interested in this field.

Gade is a particularly interesting figure amongst this group: his paintings (such as the one shown here) depart from the styles normally seen amongst young Chinese artists and incorporate tradtional objects such as the handmade paper used for traditional Tibetan books. I was particularly struck by a "performance" piece of an ice Buddha melting in the Kyichu river at Lhasa at the 798 show and bought one of the prints that recorded the work.

I am not sure that I will be able to attend the Shanghai show (I will be in Shanghai the day before giving a talk to the Royal Asiatic Society, but need to head back to Beijing for another appointment...) but I would be interested to hear feedback from any Shanghai residents who go to it. It's in the Shanghai Exhibition Center (ie the Russian-looking building with the pointy spire on top!) on Yan An road.