Breasted Buddha

Artist Sherry Markovitz (American, Born 1947)

Date2002-2003

MediumGlass beads, papier-mache, mixed media

ClassificationGlass

Credit LineGiven in honor of Thelma Hewitt Smith and Fred A. Smith and their family

Object number

2019.17

Not on View

DescriptionThe work is a busted buddha figure with a cat-like face entirely covered in multi-colored glass beads.

Label TextTrained 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.Exhibition HistoryPullman, WA, Washington State University, Sherry Markovitz: Shimmer Paintings and Sculptures 1979-2007, February 22-April 12, 2008.

Boise, Idaho, Boise State University, Now Read This: Contemporary Art from the Collection of Driek and Michael Zirinksy, October 2014.