SECRETS OF BUDDHIST ART: TIBET, JAPAN, AND KOREA' To Open Today

This winter and spring, visitors to the Frist Center will enjoy opportunities to examine the art of Buddhism in depth. Organized by the Newark Museum exclusively for the Frist Center, Secrets of Buddhist Art: Tibet, Japan, and Korea explores one of the great faiths of the world through paintings and sculptures made by Japanese, Korean, and Tibetan artists. The exhibition provides a basic understanding of these artistic objects' function within the esoteric or "secret" Vajrayana branch of Buddhism. On view in the Center's Ingram Gallery from February 10 to May 7, 2017, the exhibition's thematic groupings will encourage viewers to compare the cultures' interpretations of Buddhism and their distinguishing aesthetic forms and styles. Below, some points of interest:

· In Secrets of Buddhist Art, nearly 100 paintings and sculptures reveal a complex array of both human and divine figures made between the late thirteenth and early twentieth centuries.

The Newark Museum's world-renowned collection of Buddhist art includes more than 5,000 objects.

· This is the first time that a selection of traditional Korean art-including a major depiction of the Geumgangsan Diamond Mountains on a folding screen, as well as 15 other pieces-will be presented in Nashville.

· On Friday, February 10, Katherine Anne Paul, PhD, curator, Arts of Asia, Newark Museum, will give an illustrated lecture titled "Unlocking the Secrets of Buddhist Art: Tibet, Japan, and Korea."

· Seven Tibetan monks from Drepung Loseling Monastery in India will construct a sand mandala in the gallery. Beginning on Friday, February 10, visitors can watch the monks carefully place millions of grains of colored sand into an elaborate design. The mandala will remain on view for the duration of the exhibition.

On Sunday, May 7, the monks will return for the Frist Center's Free Family Festival Day, ritually destroying the mandala in a closing ceremony that symbolizes impermanence.

· Representations of Buddhism, the 2016-2017 Asian Studies Symposium at Belmont University, will be held Monday-Friday, February 13-17, and will support Secrets of Buddhist Art: Tibet, Japan, and Korea, with speakers on divergent facets of Buddhism in art, literature, popular culture, social activism, and personal journeys.