South Asian Art
Does LACMA Have a Looted Art Problem?
Michael Phillips — producer of The Sting, Taxi Driver and Close Encounters of the Third Kind — learned in early January 2023 that a Buddha sculpture he owned was plundered. An anonymous online activist collective, Lost Arts of Nepal, had publicized a previously published photo of the object, residing on a low glass table in his Beverly Hills living room, alongside another, older picture revealing it ensconced at the base of a temple monument in Bungamati, a town in the Kathmandu Valley known worldwide for its ancient culture. “FAITH STOLEN,” the group announced on social media: “LOOTED GODS.”
“It was a sad shock,” Phillips recalls of the revelation. He’d purchased the piece more than a decade earlier from Swiss dealers based in New York. “I was enjoying living with it. But the minute I found out it was ‘stolen,’ I couldn’t live with it.” He contacted Nepal’s embassy, which soon repatriated it.
This was a first for Phillips, 80, who’s collected antiquities for half a century. “Nepal happens to be a weak spot in my knowledge as a lover of Asian art,” he acknowledges. “I have very little connection to it. I love to look at it, but as a collector, it’s too late for me in the story of the Buddha image,” he says. “After the first millennium, I’m just not interested.”
Read more: https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/lifestyle/arts/lacma-looted-art-problem-1235823663/
John Gilmore Ford, an interior designer and South Asian art collector, died of heart failure on Dec. 21 at his North Baltimore home. He was 95.
“John had a brilliant eye. He found magnificent pieces in the 1960s,” said Gary Vikan, former Walters Art Museum director. “He also had the courage as a collector to go into unfamiliar areas, specifically, the arts of the Himalayas. “
Mr. Ford donated his works to the Walters in 2001, and it is the most important art gift given to the museum after its original collection amassed by William and Henry Walters, Mr. Vikan said.
It may be widely used now but the term “Asian American” is only a few decades old, being coined in 1968 by UC Berkeley activists Emma Gee and Yuji Ichioka, as they sought an umbrella identity for their student organization, eventually hitting on the Asian American Political Alliance. The term caught on in part because it replaced the term “oriental”, widely considered to be racist and associated with aggressive campaigns of colonialism, and partly because it allowed the wider community of immigrants from Asia to band together to wield greater political influence.
The term remains popular but it has faced its share of criticism, among other things for obscuring the realities of those from less economically powerful and geographically centered Asian nations. An intriguing new art exhibition currently on show at New York University’s 80WSE Gallery seeks to interrogate and deconstruct the term while bringing forth an extremely wide variety of art created from within the community.
Read more: https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2024/nov/07/legacies-new-exhibition-asian-american-art
Northwest London’s neighbourhood and entertainment district kicked off the celebrations at London Designer Outlet on Friday 1st November, with enlivening Bhangra beats and free body decorations by local henna artists. A high-energy performance by BollyRed Dance Company and musicians playing the double-headed dhol drum then set the tone for the weekend’s dynamic lineup of performances, interactive workshops, and cultural showcases.
On Saturday 2nd November, the ‘Diwali Utsav: A Celebration of South Asian Arts’ festival took place at the Sound Shell stage on Olympic Way, with artists from across South Asian communities worldwide taking to the stage.
Read More:https://www.londondaily.news/three-day-diwali-spectacular-hailed-as-huge-success-in-wembley-park/
