The Art of Devotion, From Myanmar at Asia Society

THE CHARLOTTE OBSERVER
By Hollard Cotter
A statue of Buddha, dated 1628, in bronze and gold leaf, at the "Buddhist Art of Myanmar" exhibit, Asia Society in New York. RUTH FREMSON NEW YORK TIMES
NEW YORK---Religious images live switched-on, switched-off lives. I remember walking through the National Museum in Kyoto, Japan, some years back, taking in its rows of Buddhist sculpture, and being stopped by one piece, not because it was especially beautiful – it wasn’t – but because a vase with a single fresh flower had been placed in front of it, like an offering in a temple. That dynamic is worth keeping in mind at the quietly majestic exhibition “Buddhist Art of Myanmar” at Asia Society. You won’t see offerings of flowers, but hands-on, eyes-on, minds-on devotion is what much of the art is about. [link]