“Where the Deities Live” — inside the Rubin Museum of Art

Shambhala SunSpace:

"At New York’s Rubin Museum the spirit of the art is alive and cutting-edge. It’s both the world’s leading museum of Himalayan art and a hotspot of contemporary culture and thought. Shambhala Sun reports on this unique creative collision and the fascinating story behind it.

By Elisabeth Coleman

One afternoon—it was about thirty years ago now—New Yorkers Shelley and Donald Rubin were walking up Madison Avenue and passed by one of the many fine art shops that call it home when their attention was drawn to a thangka, a traditional Tibetan painting, in the window. It portrayed White Tara, the female buddha of compassion. At the time they knew nothing about Himalayan art, but it stopped them in their tracks. “Our response was immediate and intuitive,” says Donald Rubin. “When you fall in love with someone, you don’t ask for their resumé and the history of their family. It’s the same thing with art. All you need to do is to feel it, to connect with it.”

They bought the thangka and hung it in their [...]"