Breasted Buddha
Artist: Sherry Markovitz (American, Born 1947)
Date: 2002-2003
Medium: Glass beads, papier-mache, mixed media
Classification: Glass
Credit Line: Given in honor of Thelma Hewitt Smith and Fred A. Smith and their family
Object number: 2019.17
Label Text:Trained in both printmaking and ceramics, Sherry Markovitz began to use glass beads and other mixed media in her work in the 1980s to create powerfully symbolic works. Often taking the form of animal heads, her ornately decorated busts are meant to represent, in part, rebirth.
Markovitz takes inspiration from non-Western visual traditions found in folk, ethnic, and tribal art forms and imbues her objects with a cross-cultural sensibility through the use of beads, which are used for adornment in many countries. In Breasted Buddha, she focuses her attention on Buddhism, specifically the lesser known female Buddhas. This interpretation of the Buddha with its animal-like face and intricate beaded mandala patterns is incredibly complex, yet strangely serene in its presentation.
Markovitz takes inspiration from non-Western visual traditions found in folk, ethnic, and tribal art forms and imbues her objects with a cross-cultural sensibility through the use of beads, which are used for adornment in many countries. In Breasted Buddha, she focuses her attention on Buddhism, specifically the lesser known female Buddhas. This interpretation of the Buddha with its animal-like face and intricate beaded mandala patterns is incredibly complex, yet strangely serene in its presentation.
DescriptionThe work is a busted buddha figure with a cat-like face entirely covered in multi-colored glass beads.
Not on view