Rubin Museum of Art

ICON Conference: October 8-9, 2010
Exhibition on view: October 5, 2010 to March 7, 2011

An upcoming exhibition at the Rubin Museum of Art in New York City will examine intriguing correspondences and differences between Eastern Orthodox Christian icons and Tibetan Buddhist thangkas (paintings on cloth). Embodying the Holy: Icons in Eastern Orthodox Christianity and Tibetan Buddhism sheds light on parallels between the Eastern Orthodox Christian and Tibetan Buddhist sacred traditions in function, subject matter, composition, and story telling strategies, pairing some 63 icons from important private collections and The Museum of Russian Icons, Clinton, Massachusetts, with 26 from the Rubin Museum of Art and other collections. A good number of works on view are canonic representations of Christian saints, teachers, and other archetypal figures. Specific to the Russian Orthodox Church is an image of Saint Nil of Stolbensk holding on to his crutches in order to remain upright and in prayer, and a c. 1750 painting of Saint Cyril and Saint Methodius.

From October 8 to October 9, the Rubin Museum will host a two-day ICON Conference to coincide with the opening of Embodying the Holy. The conference will bring together leading experts on the power of religious symbolism, including a keynote discussion moderated by Kent dur Russell, Curator, Museum of Russian Icons, Clinton MA and workshops with University Distinguished Professor of Art History Emerita Southern Methodist University, Dallas, TX, Annemarie Weyl Carr; Director, The Walters Art Museum, Baltimore MD, Gary Vikan, and others.

For more information, visit www.rmanyc.org