Ties that Bind: Henri Matisse's _Ivy in Flower_
GENERAL DESCRIPTION
The "tendrils" of Henri Matisse's Ivy in Flower bind the Dallas Museum of
Alexandre Hogue's _Drouth Stricken Area_
GENERAL DESCRIPTION
The Dallas Museum of Art's long history of supporting local artists is highlighted by this important work, Drouth Stricken Area, a Dallas Art Association purchase in 1945.
Jina
GENERAL DESCRIPTION
This seated figure of one of the twenty-four liberators (Jinas, or tirthankaras) of the Jain faith is shown with his hands folded in the gesture known as dhyana mudra, the gesture indicating meditation.
Durga Mahishasuramardini
GENERAL DESCRIPTION
The Hindu goddess Durga is a form of the Great Goddess, Shri Devi. While she is sometimes identified with Parvati, the wife of the god Shiva, she also has aspects of Kali, the terrifying Hindu goddess of destruction and death.
A Relief of the Hindu Goddess Durga
GENERAL DESCRIPTION
This very high relief, typical of sculptures on temples in Rajasthan and central India, depicts the goddess Durga. Durga is probably represented here in her form as Bhadrakali, a benevolent form of the goddess Kali, whose name means "time" and therefore is associated with death, change, and destruction.
Shiva Nataraja
GENERAL DESCRIPTION
This sculpture depicting Shiva as Lord of the Dance was produced during the period of Chola dynasty rule during the 11th century. Although bronzes from south India seldom bear dated inscriptions, their dates may be determined by comparison with stone sculptures on temple walls.
Gerald Murphy in Dallas
GENERAL DESCRIPTION
It was not until 1960 that Murphy's painting was again in the limelight, and it happened in Dallas. Murphy was approached by Douglas MacAgy, Director of the Dallas Museum of Contemporary Arts (DMCA), who was organizing an exhibition of the work of American modernist artists. Entitled American Genius in Review: I, the show not only presented the rediscovery of Gerald Murphy's work but marked the artist's first comprehensive exhibition in America.
Vishnu as Varaha
GENERAL DESCRIPTION
Vishnu assumed the form of Varaha, his third of ten incarnations (avatars), in order to rescue the earth, which had been submerged beneath the primordial sea by the demon Hiranyaksha. Following a great battle, Varaha successfully returned the earth, here personified as a female figure (Bhudevi) clinging to one of his tusks, as is typical in images of Varaha.
Pillar Figure
GENERAL DESCRIPTION
This figure of a female mounted on a monsterlike creature is very much like the females appearing on the pillar uprights of a railing from the site at Mathura known as Bhutesar. Those females also stand on monster-like figures, albeit ones more clearly human than this. Those, too, have observers peering out from a veranda at the top of the pillar, though in the case of the Bhutesar figures, it is always a playful pair.
Lokapala and burial practices in Tang dynasty China
GENERAL DESCRIPTION
Two glazed pottery guardian figures, heavily armored, with elaborate bird-crowned headgear and ferocious facial features, stand in dynamic poses with arms raised in threatening gestures. One stands on a bull and the second tramples a demon. Scientific tests indicate that despite their near new appearance they are almost 1,300 years old. One wonders how such elaborate objects sculpted in fragile pottery could have survived so long. What are they?