Currently on view at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, The Missing Peace: Artists Consider the Dalai Lama is a traveling multimedia exhibition that brings together 88 artists whose work reflects the principles or essence of the Dalai Lama. Organized by the Committee of 100 for Tibet and the Dalai Lama Foundation, the exhibition has a remarkable roster of contemporary artists, including Laurie Anderson (Season 1), Jenny Holzer (Season 4), Marina Abramovic, Christo and Jeanne-Claude, Spencer Finch, Pat Steir, Santiago Cucullu, Lewis DeSoto, Anish Kapoor, and El Anatsui to name just a few.
Photographs of the Dalai Lama taken by Chuck Close, Herb Ritts, and Richard Avedon begin the exhibition under the heading “Interpreted Portraits.” An abstract portrait painted by Ken Aptekar‚Äîbased on Charles Demuth’s 1928 painting The Figure 5 in Gold‚Äîis also included in the introductory space. Though organized in nine sections, objects and themes overlap in their shared threads of Buddhist philosophy such as peace, unity, tolerance, impermanence, and unity.
On view at YBCA until March 16, 2008, The Missing Peace is “intended to be simultaneously educational, inspirational, and transformative; its goal is to engage and heal,‚Äù writes curator Randy Jayne Rosenberg. Visit The Missing Peace website for a full list of artists, venues, and a virtual tour; see a NY Times slideshow of works in the exhibition; or become part of Making Peace, an associated community-based project using mobile phones.
