Director’s Foreword and Acknowledgments

Anderson, Maxwell L.

Save Cite Share

Free

Director’s Foreword and Acknowledgments

Maxwell L. Anderson

The Arts of India, Southeast Asia, and the Himalayas at the Dallas Museum of Art

~~Since the acquisition of the Tibetan Manjushri sculpture in 1955, the Dallas Museum of Art has collected, exhibited, and championed the arts of South and Southeast Asia. From numerous early exhibitions of Asian art at the DMA, culminating in The Arts of Man international exhibition in 1962, from which...

Author

Maxwell L. Anderson

PublisherDallas Museum of Art

Stable URL: https://aaeportal.com/?id=-20049

Director’s Foreword and Acknowledgments

Since the acquisition of the Tibetan Manjushri sculpture in 1955, the Dallas Museum of Art has collected, exhibited, and championed the arts of South and Southeast Asia. From numerous early exhibitions of Asian art at the DMA, culminating in The Arts of Man international exhibition in 1962, from which several South Asian works came to the DMA, the Museum’s collection of South Asian art has expanded remarkably. This growth has primarily been made possible thanks to the generosity of many dedicated donors and supporters of the DMA.

This volume is the Museum’s first publication devoted solely to its South Asian collection. It is also, following the publication in 2009 of The Arts of Africa at the Dallas Museum of Art, the second in a series of catalogues documenting the treasures to be found in our encyclopedic collections.

I am especially grateful to David Owsley, to whom this book is warmly dedicated, for his connoisseurship, discernment, and unswerving support over the many years of his productive relationship with the Museum and with Dallas. David has enriched the DMA’s collection of South Asian art with personal gifts, via the Alconda-Owsley and the Alvin and Lucy Owsley foundations, and through a number of intended bequests.

I would also like to thank all the past and current trustees and donors who have guided and cared for the Museum’s collecting vision, and to thank my predecessors and their staffs who have cultivated the programs and furthered the growth of the collection through gifts of art and funds. I sincerely thank all the generous donors who over the years have nurtured and augmented our South Asian collection: the Acquisitions Holding Fund, the Alconda-Owsley Foundation, the Art Museum League Fund, the Asian Art Fund, Anna Michlin Beck, Alta Brenner, Joe B. Brooks, Mrs. E. R. Brown, Lena Mae Caldwell, Caltex Petroleum Corporation, George V. Charlton, Margaret Jonsson Charlton, James H. Clark, Lillian B. Clark, the Dallas Art Association Purchase Fund, the Dozier Foundation, Annabelle Drane, Rupa Dutia, Stephen M. Farr, E. E. Fogelson, the E. E. Fogelson and Greer Garson Fund, Greer Garson, the General Acquisitions Fund, Ann Gray, the Cecil and Ida Green Acquisition Fund, the Cecil and Ida Green Foundation, Patsy Lacy Griffith, Mrs. J. William Griffith, the Hamon Charitable Foundation, Leon A. Harris Jr., Leland F. Henderson, the Hoblitzelle Foundation, Sarah Dorsey Hudson, Mrs. John Leddy Jones, Junior Associates Members, the Elbrun and Peter Kimmelman Foundation, Inc., Arnold H. Lieberman, Linda Marcus, Stanley Marcus, the Mr. and Mrs. Stanley Marcus Foundation, Mrs. Eugene McDermott, Marie Scott Miegel, Manu Narang, Rama Narang, the Alvin and Lucy Owsley Foundation, Alvin Owsley, David T. Owsley, the Owsley Discretionary Fund, Floyd C. Ramsey, Virginia Ramsey, the Virginia C. and Floyd C. Ramsey Fund of Communities Foundation of Texas, Inc., the Virginia C. and Floyd C. Ramsey Fund of the Dallas Community Chest Trust Fund, Inc., the Wendy & Emery Reves Foundation, Inc., Carlton C. Rochell Jr., Michael L. Rosenberg, Franyo Schindler, Gustave Schindler, J. Donald Walp, Dr. Robert S. Walzer, Mrs. Robert S. Walzer, Mrs. Denni Davis Washburn, and the Wendover Fund.

Gratefully I acknowledge the acumen and expertise of the scholars who have contributed to the success and depth of this catalogue: Frederick Asher, who wrote many of the entries for the Hindu objects in the collection, Catherine Asher, who wrote the entries for the Mughal objects, Robert Clark, who wrote entries for the Gandharan and Himalayan objects, and Nancy Tingley, who wrote entries for the Southeast Asian objects. I would also like to thank Molly Aitken, Emma Bunker, Vidya Dehejia, John Huntington, Janice Leoshko, and Darielle Mason for their scholarly advice and input.

I offer great thanks to Dr. Anne Bromberg, The Cecil and Ida Green Curator of Ancient and Asian Art, for her leadership role as author and editor of this publication. Anne selected the objects, amassed a vast store of research notes, references, and bibliographic material, contributed the connective historical and art historical narratives to the text, and orchestrated the book’s overall look and content. For her dedication, expertise, and many contributions to the enrichment of the DMA’s South Asian collection, we offer our most sincere appreciation.

It is with deep gratitude that Anne Bromberg and I acknowledge the contributions of staff who have helped to bring this publication to fruition: Tamara Wootton-Bonner, Associate Director of Collections and Exhibitions, for her contributions in shepherding the planning of the publication; Jessica Beasley, former Curatorial Administrative Assistant, for laying the groundwork and coordinating the numerous facets of such a complex undertaking; Auriel Garza, Curatorial Administrative Assistant in the Ancient and Non-Western Art division, who coordinated work on the publication and kept everything running on a smooth course; Eric Zeidler, Publications Manager, for overseeing all aspects of photography, galleys, and textual review; Giselle Castro-Brightenburg, Imaging Manager, for coordinating the publication’s photography in all its complexity; Brad Flowers, Staff Photographer, who worked meticulously on the photography of most of the objects so beautifully illustrated on the following pages; Vince Jones, Head Preparator, and the preparators with whom he worked, for overcoming the complicated logistics involved in moving so many objects to the photography studio on a timely basis; John Dennis, Conservator, for his assistance in fact-checking and his answers to numerous queries; Jacqui Allen, the Mildred R. and Frederick M. Mayer Director of Libraries and Imaging Services, who ably guided the smooth functioning of the involved research and photography underpinning this project; Hillary Bober for her painstaking research and fact-checking; Mary Leonard, Librarian, for her expert assistance with citations and source material; and our McDermott Curatorial Interns, without whose skills, input, and labor this project never would have seen the light of day: Robert Belanger (2004–2006), Elizabeth Myers (2006–2007), Crystal Rosenthal (2007–2008), Cara Romano (2008–2009), Madelyn Strubelt (2010–2011), and Andrea Lesovsky (2012–2013). I also offer great thanks to our editor, Dr. Kristina Youso, for her exacting and meticulous work with the text; to our proofreader, Laura Iwasaki; to our designers, Jeff Wincapaw and Ryan Polich of Marquand Books, Inc.; and to Patricia Fidler and Lindsay Toland of Yale University Press, our distributor. Finally, I would like to extend our appreciation to Alan Bromberg for allowing us to reproduce his site photography taken over the past half century in India, Southeast Asia, and the Himalayas; these illustrations provide context and grounding for the works themselves.

On behalf of the Dallas Museum of Art and its trustees, I am delighted to share these treasures with you. We hope that this catalogue will educate, enlighten, and inspire its readers to delve deeper into the Museum’s collections and further explore the arts of India, Southeast Asia, and the Himalayas in all their breadth and enchantment.

Maxwell L. Anderson
The Eugene McDermott Director

Previous chapter

Base text size -

Chapter images ()