Exhibition

Listen to the calming sounds of water and take in the subdued palette of evergreen shrubbery embracing
the Koi Pond. The garden features stone lanterns crafted from Okazaki stone over 200 years ago, as well as a bonsai display maintained by the South Coast Bonsai Association.

This exhibition presents an international survey of Buddhism and Buddhist art, beginning with the religion’s origins in India and following its spread through mainland and island Southeast Asia, the Himalayas, and East Asia. Incorporating 150 masterpieces of pan-Asian Buddhist art, the exhibition introduces key concepts of Buddhist thought and practice viewed through rare and extraordinarily beautiful Buddhist sculptures, paintings, and ritual objects. Drawn from LACMA’s permanent collection, with several significant loans from private collections, the exhibition explores the life of the Buddha, the role of the bodhisattva, Buddhist cosmology, and key concepts such as dharma, karma, nirvana, mantra, mudra, and mandala.

This exhibition showcases experimental works of modern and contemporary calligraphic art, highlighting innovations in the art form. The exhibition explores the evolution of pictographs, the relationship between content and form, the development of new scripts, and the abstraction of the written word. It is accompanied by a scholarly exhibition catalogue.