I came to this field accidentally. After attending a high school that was sociopolitically engaged, I arrived at Barnard with an interest in studying political science. To fulfill a requirement, I took an art history survey that altered my trajectory. I realized then that the arts entwine the social, 的政治, and the cultural — and have relevance and influence on our everyday lives. 然而, it is also at Barnard that I recognized the limitations of this field and what narratives, 经历, and even material have been excised from the dominant, Western-centric art scholarship in which it is still rooted.
在托莱多艺术博物馆, a new generation of curators (alongside colleagues far and wide) is actively contending with the colonial legacies of museological practice. Committed to thoughtfully broadening the collection, I recently acquired the work 罗摩 (1982)由艺术家Pacita Abad创作. Throughout her global travels, Abad would engage and learn directly from local practitioners to incorporate a range of visual and cultural traditions primarily from the Global South. This is most notable in her trapunto paintings — padded and stitched canvases — from the late 1970s and early 1980s.
After her first visit in 1983 to Indonesia, she was inspired by the 罗摩yana tales — a popular Sanskrit epic from ancient India — as performed through the ancient tradition of wayang kulit (印尼皮影戏). 在这项工作中, part of her “Masks and Spirits” series (1981-2001), 阿巴德描绘了罗摩, a central figure in the 罗摩yana tales and one of the most widely worshipped Hindu deities, 通过缝合, 蜡染, and other textiles found at local Indonesian markets and painting with vibrant, 顶部的动态颜色.
Long relegated to the margins, Abad is finally gaining broader recognition and weaves together traditions, 技术, 对象, 时间, 以及文化背景, as her work embodies the interconnected world in which we live.
Each acquisition, as seen with Abad’s 罗摩, helps shape and reshape the contours of an institutional collection. 结果是, the institution will continue to change as long as we remain responsible, 严格的, 有意识的管家.
对象的教训
