A Revolutionary Artist of Tibet: Khyentse Chenmo of Gongkar by David P. Jackson

Abstract

Reviewed by: A Revolutionary Artist of Tibet: Khyentse Chenmo of Gongkar by David P. Jackson Amy Heller A Revolutionary Artist of Tibet: Khyentse Chenmo of Gongkar by David P. Jackson, with contributions by Mathias Fermer. New York: Rubin Museum of Art, 2016. Pp. xi + 361. $75.00 cloth. From the eleventh to twentieth centuries, the majority of Tibetan paintings and sculptures were religious icons produced by artists who preferred to remain anonymous. The names of famous master artists, known by reputation, are sometimes recorded in history, but there are very rarely works of art that bear a signature or that can be genuinely attributed to a given artist by virtue of historical texts contemporaneous with the person's lifetime. At present, Khyentse Chenmo (Mkhyen brtse the Great; fl. ca. 1450–1490) is the earliest Tibetan artist to have genuine historical documentation to establish a correlation between his historical existence and extant works of art—both mural paintings and sculptures—attributed to him. Furthermore, Khyentse Chenmo's works and Khyenri (his school of painting [bris]) have their distinctive and innovative aesthetic characteristics, despite the diversity in their subject matter and media. In this respect, the virtuoso artist Khyentse Chenmo and his art constitute an aesthetic revelation in Tibetan art and may be justly qualified as revolutionary. The present volume is a welcome addition to David P. Jackson's Masterworks of Tibetan Painting series, published by the Rubin Museum of Art. A Revolutionary Artist is intended as a biographical survey on Khyentse Chenmo, documenting his extant masterworks, the majority of which comprise murals and sculptures still in situ today in Tibetan monasteries, and presenting his legacy in later Tibetan artistic traditions of the following centuries. This book is a supplement to the five volumes produced by Jackson in coordination with Helen Abbott (d. 2017), who skillfully supervised all the productions of the Rubin [End Page 238] Museum publication department for over a decade. Jackson, the principal author, is a Tibetologist renowned for his erudition and vast knowledge of Tibetan religious history, literature, and art. He consults Tibetan historical literature extensively to contextualize the painters, their subjects—Buddhist portraits, landscapes, and biographical series—and, above all, indigenous Tibetan categories of painting styles, which comprise the three focal points of his research methodology. Throughout the series, Jackson systematically illustrates his findings by assembling isolated thangka (portable paintings) to form cohort groups to facilitate study and comparison. To complement his strong literary bent, Jackson engages other accomplished art historians, notably Karl Debreczeny, Rob Linrothe, Christian Luczanits, and Kristen Muldowney Roberts, as contributors in previous volumes. This sixth and final volume benefits from the aesthetic expertise of the Tibetan painter Tsechang Penba Wangdu, Professor of Art and Art History of Tibet University, Lhasa. Tsechang Penba Wangdu has since 2002 concentrated his studies and teaching on the murals produced by Khyentse Chenmo and his atelier in the Gongkar Chö Monastery (hereafter Gongkar Monastery) near Lhasa, which he photographically documented in great detail to identify the persistence of this school of painting. Two chapters are the contribution of Mathias Fermer, graduate student in Tibetan studies and Indology, whose unpublished master's thesis focuses on Khyentse Chenmo and the Gongkar Monastery. The book is organized into thirteen chapters. Chapter 1 introduces the biography of Khyentse Chenmo and the history of the Gongkar Monastery. Chapter 2 summarizes the principal previous studies of Khyentse Chenmo and his art. Chapter 3 presents detailed analysis of Tsechang Penba Wangdu's research on Khyentse Chenmo's life, his murals at Gongkar Monastery, and a selection of portable paintings spanning the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Tsechang Penba Wangdu illustrates these materials to demonstrate the long-standing influences and later ramifications of Khyenri. Tsechang Penba Wangdu prefers to use the term Khyenlug—literally the method (lugs) of Khyentse Chenmo's workmanship—to refer to Khyentse Chenmo's work in sculpture and painting.1 This term defines key characteristics relevant to both the artist's techniques in portraying highly expressive, [End Page 239] individualized facial features, as well as his great attention to minute detail, apparent in his floral motifs or geometric designs in fabric patterns and mannerisms in drapery and folds of monastic robes. Khyentse Chenmo...