Ellen Bayard Weedon Lecture on the Arts of Asia

Visual Narratives in Himalayan Art: Let me Tell You a Story, In Two Versions

Please feel free to join us for the first of two Ellen Bayard Weedon lectures on the Arts of Asia, held on Wednesday, October 30, 2019 at 6:00pm, in the UVA School of Architecture, Campbell Hall 153.

This event is FREE and open to the public!

Elena Pakhoutova (Ph.D. in Asian Art History from the University of Virginia) is Curator of Himalayan Art at the Rubin Museum of Art. Her background in Tibetan Buddhist studies informs her interdisciplinary approach to art history. Her research explores dialogues in the visual traditions of Inner Asia, art and ritual, art production and patronage, text and image, and narrative in Tibetan visual culture. Among her other interests are cross-cultural exchange, material culture, and contemporary Tibetan art. 

At the Rubin Museum, her thematic exhibitions introduced and contextualized Tibetan, Himalayan, and Nepalese art. These include “Gateway to Himalayan Art,” “Once Upon Many Times: Legends and Myths in Himalayan Art,” “Collecting Paradise: Buddhist Art of Kashmir and Its Legacies,” “The Second Buddha: Master of Time,” and co-curated exhibitions “Nepalese Seasons: Rain and Ritual” and “The All-Knowing Buddha: A Secret Guide.” Her cross-cultural exhibitions “Count Your Blessings: The Art of Prayer Beads in Asia” and co-curated “Illuminated: The Art of Sacred Books” presented Himalayan artistic expressions as part of the universal material and ritual culture. Her most recent exhibition “The Power of Intention: Reinventing the (Prayer) Wheel” brings together traditional and contemporary works of art and deconstructs core Buddhist concepts with contemporary new media, immersive, and impermanent media art.

Her talk “Let me tell you a story, in two versions,” will focus on visual narratives in Himalayan art.