Art museum in Tennessee develops exceptional travelling exhibition on Lord Vishnu

First Center for the Visual Arts in Nashville (Tennessee, USA) has organized a “travelling exhibition” titled “Vishnu: Hinduism’s Blue-Skinned Savior”.

Center claims that it “will be the first major museum exhibition to focus on Vishnu”. Opening in February 2011 and presenting approximately 120 paintings and sculptures that were made in India between the fourth and 19th century, this exhibition will serve as a brief survey of Hindu art styles as well as an examination of the Vaishnava tradition, it adds.

 
Hindus have applauded Frist Center for developing this Hinduism focused exhibition. Acclaimed Hindu statesman Rajan Zed, in a statement in Nevada (USA) today, said that art had a long and rich tradition in Hinduism and ancient Sanskrit literature talked about religious paintings of deities on wood or cloth. It was a laudable step for Frist Center to provide opportunity to the world to further explore Hinduism and its concepts, Zed pointed out.

According to the Center, the first section of the exhibition will introduce Vishnu in his primary form with subsections dedicated to his attributes, his consorts, and his legends. The second section will examine his avatars (incarnations), as a group and then individually. The avatars that are more frequently celebrated in art will be more fully represented in the exhibition, with substantial subsections dedicated to Rama and Krishna. The third section will show some of the ways that Vishnu has been worshipped, with images of temples and ritual objects.

This exhibition is organized by guest curator Dr. Joan Cummins from Brooklyn Museum (Brooklyn, New York). It will be accompanied by a fully illustrated catalogue with essays and object entries by Cummins and other distinguished scholars in the areas of religious studies and anthropology. The currently planned venues of this travelling exhibition include Frist Center (February 25 to May 29, 2011), Brooklyn Museum (June 24 to September 18, 2011), and Portland Art Museum in Oregon (October 2011).

Rajan Zed, who is president of Universal Society of Hinduism, urged major art museums of the world, including Musee du Louvre and Musee d’Orsay of Paris, Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, Los Angeles Getty Center, Uffizi Gallery of Florence (Italy), Art Institute of Chicago, Tate Modern of London, Prado Museum of Madrid, National Gallery of Art in Washington DC, etc., to frequently organize Hindu art focused exhibitions, thus sharing the rich Hindu art heritage with the rest of the world.

The vision of the Frist Center is to inspire people through art to look at their world in new ways. William R. Frist is Board Chairman and Katie Delmez is Curator. Vishnu is “preserver” in the Hindu triad with Brahma and Shiva as the aspect of the Supreme. He had ten incarnations to establish dharma (divine law).

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