Madhu Patel
Hindus worldwide have welcomed the Israel Museum, the “largest cultural institution in the State of Israel”, with its exhibition on various Hindu gods in the holy city of Jerusalem; a remarkable interfaith gesture
The exhibition, titled “Body of Faith”, which will run through June 10, displays 14 sculptures of Hindu deities; including Shiva, Vishnu, Surya, etc. The exhibition announcement notes that all Hindu believers “share a responsibility to maintain the benevolent world order through their daily decisions and actions and with the help of the gods”.
Art had a long and rich tradition in Hinduism and ancient Sanskrit literature talked about religious paintings of deities on wood or cloth.
Rajan Zed, President of Universal Society of Hinduism, urged major art museums of the world; including Musée du Louvre and Musée d’Orsay of Paris, Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, Los Angeles Getty Center, Uffizi Gallery of Florence (Italy), Art Institute of Chicago, Tate Modern of London, Prado Museum of Madrid, National Gallery of Art in Washington DC, etc.; to frequently organize Hindu art focused exhibitions
The sculptures shown in this exhibition are made of bronze, porphyritic basalt, stone, etc. Miriam Malachi is the curator and Ronit Cernica is the designer of this exhibition.
Hinduism, oldest and third largest religion of the world with a rich philosophical thought, has about 1.2 billion adherents, and moksh (liberation) is its ultimate goal.
Founded 1965, Israel Museum, with a collection of nearly 500,000 objects, is said to be ranked among the world’s leading art and archaeology museums. It reportedly houses encyclopedic collections, including works dating from prehistory to the present day, in its Archaeology, Fine Arts, and Jewish Art and Life Wings; and features the most extensive holdings of biblical and Holy Land archaeology in the world; and also holds the Dead Sea Scrolls, the oldest biblical manuscripts in the world; as well as rare early medieval biblical manuscripts. Denis Weil is the Director and Isaac Molho is its Board Chairman.
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