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Rubin Museum: Sacred Symbols Across Two Cultures

Filed under: Art

A museum is not the best place to view religious art. To get the full import of images with profound religious meaning you need music, chanting, incense, no buzz from the outside world. Museums by their very nature can't reproduce the ambiance of a monastery or a cathedral, but they can gather materials you might never have the chance to see elsewhere. The Rubin Museum's new show Embodying the Holy presents two distinct religious traditions, Eastern Orthodox and Tibetan Buddhist, in the most reverential manner possible in a museum in the heart of New York City.

To contrast the Eastern and Western traditions in subject matter, story telling, and iconography, the Rubin Museum curators have selected Orthodox icons, crucifixes, and paintings and juxtaposed them with Buddhist religuaries and thangkas, cloth scroll paintings used in Tibetan monasteries and family altars. As you walk through the exhibition, be sure to listen to the audio guide which contrasts and compares how the two traditions treat similar themes and concepts -- the battle of good versus evil, the notion of heaven and hell, miracles, visions, universal symbols among others. The similarities are a surprise, especially for those unfamiliar with either tradition.

Tags: christianity, Green Tara, iconography, icons, Mahakala, museum exhbits, museum exhibition, Padmasambhava, religion, st. george, Tibetan Buddhism, virgin mary

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Own a Piece of the Statue of Liberty

by Lisa Palladino (RSS feed) —

Filed under: Auctions

You can buy anything these days, especially in New York City. To wit, Guernsey's auction house said a copper chunk of nose crafted to fit the Statue of Liberty's face during her 1980s restoration will be auctioned on September 24 at the Park Avenue Armory. The two-foot-long section was one of four created to replace the Statue of Liberty's nose, and it's the only one that likely ever will be sold. Of the other three, one currently adorns the statue, one was destroyed, and another is in a private collection.

Other iconic items up for auction that day include a motorcycle from President John F. Kennedy's Dallas motorcade, James Dean's sunglasses, the last home run ball from the original Yankee Stadium, Barbra Streisand's first test record and a photo negative from Marilyn Monroe's nude calendar shoot.

Tags: auction, auctions, guernseys, guernseys auction house, icon, icons, New York, New York City, NYC, Statue of Liberty