RubinArtMuseum

Mark Memorial Day in a Different Way at the Rubin Art Museum

Filed under: Events, Art

Memorial Day is the only national US holiday that focuses squarely on death -- remembering fallen members of the armed forces, to be exact, and many people will visit cemeteries and memorials this weekend in their honor.

If that's not quite your brand of vodka, might I suggest that you mark the holiday by visiting the Rubin Museum of Art in New York City? The museum is running a provocative exhibit called Remember that You Will Die, which upon reflection seems just right for such a holiday.

The RMA focuses on Himalayan art, and it's one of the city's newer museums -- it opened its doors in Chelsea in 2004. Remember that You Will Die exhibits 84 works of art and artifacts on the theme of death and the afterlife, gathering works from the East (Tibet) and the West, medieval and early Renaissance Europe along with one contemporary work, a video by American artist Bill Viola. I visited yesterday found a Tibetan apron made of bone and an English physician's walking stick topped with a skull pommel from circa 18th century to be particularly compelling.

Tags: art, death, memorial day, museum, museums, RubinArtMuseum, tibet