Fort Worth’s Kimbell Art Museum is accustomed to receiving blockbuster shows of Asian art. Last year’s “The Great Bronze Age of China” pulled record crowds.
But this fall the Kimbell will celebrate its 10th anniversary by originating a blockbuster show: “The Great Age of Japanese Buddhist Sculpture, 600-1300 A.D.” One measure of the show’s greatness is the inclusion of seven of Japan’s “National Treasures” and 35 “Important Cultural Properties,” designations that are carefully made by the Japanese ministry of culture.
But Buddhist sculptures are not all stereotypically serene, smiling, sitting Bud-dhas, says Emily Sano, the Kimbell’s Asian-art curator.
“You’re going to be really surprised by the range of sculptural form,” she says.
That range includes such magnificent carved wooden figures as The Guardian, Naraenkengo made in 1250 during one of the greatest periods of Japanese sculpture.
Because of the fragility of many of the wooden pieces, they will make only one other stop in America: New York’s Japan House. Then many of them will be returned to the Buddhist temples where they have been used ritually for centuries.
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