Yoga: The Art of Transformation Author: Visit Amazon's Debra Diamond Page | Language: English | ISBN:
1588344592 | Format: PDF
Yoga: The Art of Transformation Description
Review
The New York Times
"Stress is a holiday hazard. If you want to stay centered and keep your chakras aligned, or know someone who does, by all means pick up this catalog for an outstanding exhibition of the same name at the Smithsonian's Arthur M. Sackler Gallery in Washington through Jan. 26. Hard to believe, but the show is the first-ever survey of yoga's visual history, and those visuals are really something: monumental 10th-century sculptures of female spiritiual teachers, or yoginis; minute 17th-century manuscript paintings; and fascinating 19th-century photographs. They're all in the book, along with a wealth of absorbing ideas. Bliss." - Holland Cotter, TheNew York Times 2013 holiday gift list
Library Journal
Although more than 20 million Americans have practiced yoga at some point in their lives, many are not aware of the length and breadth of the yoga tradition. Diamond (South & Southeast Asian Art, Sackler Gallery; Garden and Cosmos: Royal Painting of Jodhpur) explores the diversity of the yoga tradition through its visual culture. The title is a play on words, as the word “transformation” not only speaks of yoga’s power to transform individuals but of how yoga itself has transformed over millennia. Diamond organized a show of the same name at Washington, DC’s Arthur M. Sackler Gallery, the first ever art exhibition covering the visual culture of yoga. Seven contributors’ essays explore the history and evolution of the practice from ancient through modern times and across cultures. They reveal that yoga is not the property of any one religion or culture but has been adapted again and again to meet the needs of its practitioners. Themed catalog entries provide further analysis of the beautiful full-color reproductions of the exhibition’s artwork. VERDICT Appropriate for students and scholars of both art history and yoga; however, prior knowledge of related philosophy and Indian history is necessary to fully comprehend the text. —Julia A. Watson, Marywood Univ. Lib., Scranton, PA
About the Author
DEBRA DIAMOND is Associate curator of South and Southeast Asian art, Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery. Her exhibition catalogue for Garden and Cosmos (fall 2008) received two major awards for scholarship: the College Art Association's Alfred H. Barr award and the Smithsonian Secretary's Award for Research. She has published on yoga imagery, new methods in Indian art history, contemporary Asian art, and various aspects of the Freer|Sackler collections.
- Hardcover: 360 pages
- Publisher: Smithsonian Books (December 3, 2013)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 1588344592
- ISBN-13: 978-1588344595
- Product Dimensions: 12.2 x 10.2 x 1.3 inches
- Shipping Weight: 5.6 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
For those who missed the splendid yoga exhibition in Washington, DC, this book is a perfect opportunity to appreciate the richness and variety of the yoga tradition at its very best; and for those who were fortunate to see it, this lavish volume is an invaluable souvenir and a source of inspiration. The editor of the book, Debra Diamond (associate curator of South and Southeast Asian art at the Freer/Sackler gallery of the Smithsonian), who is also the curator of the exhibition, says that she wanted to make a visual presentation of yoga as a discipline aimed both at perfecting the mind-body connection and as an agent affecting society; accordingly, the title “Yoga: The Art of Transformation,” perfectly encapsulates the nature of the exhibit. After close to four years of preparation, which included the selection of around 140 pieces, coming from more than 30 different places from around the world, and the coordination of the contributions from a group of 17 different scholars, the result is much larger than the sum of its parts.
The first part of the book has seven main essays, written by distinguished scholars that present a comprehensive but succinct overview of the evolution of yoga, from the “Yogi” seal of the Indus civilization (the oldest reference about yoga, ca 2600-1900 BCE) to recent materials showing pictures of practitioners in the National Mall in Washington, DC and Times Square . Debra Diamond explains how yoga found successfully proper expressions in different religious and cultural contexts, from Hindu, Buddhist, Jains, Moslem, to the modern secular times. David Gordon White (University of California, Santa Barbara and author of "Yoga in Practice") offers a clear overview of the historical development of the classic yoga and Tantric traditions. Tamara I.
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