{"id":2256,"date":"2013-11-27T11:00:30","date_gmt":"2013-11-27T16:00:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/circulatingnow.nlm.nih.gov\/?p=2256"},"modified":"2024-12-11T15:39:56","modified_gmt":"2024-12-11T20:39:56","slug":"nlm-visits-the-sackler","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/circulatingnow.nlm.nih.gov\/2013\/11\/27\/nlm-visits-the-sackler\/","title":{"rendered":"NLM Visits the Sackler"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Stephen J. Greenberg
\n<\/i><\/p>\n

Recently, the Arthur M. Sackler Gallery, a unit of the Smithsonian Institution specializing in Asian Art, approached NLM to borrow materials for inclusion in a new, international exhibition about Yoga.\u00a0 Now open, Yoga: The Art of Transformation<\/i><\/a> displays more than 120 works, from the 3rd century to the early 20th century borrowed from 25 museums and private collections in India, Europe, and the United States.<\/p>\n

In the words of Debra Diamond, Associate Curator of South and Southeast Asian Art at the Sackler Gallery:<\/p>\n

\n

\u201cThe Art of Transformation<\/i> is the first exhibition ever created about the visual history of yoga. Using multiple cultural lenses that engage with the breadth of India’s yogic imagery, the exhibition will include aesthetically powerful and contextually relevant works drawn from Indian, European and American collections.\u00a0 Three-quarters of the works are canonical masterpieces, while one-quarter are popular images (ranging from 19th-century photographs to film posters and anatomical maps).\u00a0 However, while its thematic focus and overarching structural methodology are drawn from visual culture studies, its aesthetic and historical focus on individual works is art historical.<\/p>\n

All over the world, millions of people\u2014including 16 million Americans\u2014practice yoga for health benefits and to find spiritual calm. Practitioners and non-practitioners alike are aware of yoga’s origins in India. But very few know the rich visual history of yoga, which reveals its profound philosophical underpinnings, the social roles yogic practitioners have played, and the significant transformations yoga has undergone as it has become a modern\u2014and global\u2014phenomenon.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

The Sackler has borrowed three titles from NLM\u2019s collections, ranging in date from 1799 to the mid 20th century. The first is Narayana Ghamande\u2019s Yogasopana-purvacatushka<\/i><\/a>, \u00a0published in 1951. To once more quote Debra Diamond, this book is \u201ca key transitional text in the history of the representation of the yogic body, and was conceived as a work of art as well as a practical instruction manual.\u201d It\u2019s a small book, modestly printed, whose influence belies its humble appearance.<\/p>\n

\"A <\/a>
Narayana Ghamande\u2019s Yogasopana-purvacatushka, 1951. National Library of Medicine #004654 <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>
\"A <\/a>
Fitting the Yoga Mimamsa Journal in its custom acrylic mount. <\/div> <\/div>
\"A <\/a>
Yoga Mimamsa Journal, ca. 1950. National Library of Medicine #21720170R <\/div> <\/div>
\"Three <\/a>
From left to right Holly Herro, NLM Conservator, Emily Jacobson, Sackler Paper & Photographs Conservator, and Katherine Fow, Sackler Exhibitions Registrar examine the Solvyns book. <\/div> <\/div> <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>\n

Another item on the Sackler\u2019s list was Yoga Mimamsa<\/i><\/a>, a journal of yoga scholarship and technique intended to bolster yoga’s scientific status, was founded in 1924 by Swami Kuvalyananda. \u00a0The profusely illustrated journal published articles meant to \u201ccombine ideas of biology, physiology and anatomy with those of yogic metaphysics, transcendence and magical power.\u201d NLM has loaned five issues of Yoga Mimamsa<\/i> representing the entire five year run of the journal, which has become very rare.<\/p>\n

However, as interesting as the Yogasopana-purvacatushka<\/i>\u00a0 and the Yoga Mimamsa<\/i> are, the most spectacular item from NLM to be loaned to the Sackler is Balthazar Solvyns\u2019s Collection of Two Hundred and fifty Coloured Etchings: descriptive of the manners, customs and dresses of the Hindoos<\/i>, 1799. \u00a0Solvyns, a Flemish artist working in Calcutta (now Kolkata) produced hand-colored etchings of mendicants, fakirs, and the many other people he saw in the streets, interpreting them for a mostly British audience back home.\u00a0 The book itself is a large scrapbook: color printing was very primitive at the turn of the 19th century, and it was far easier to print etchings in black and white on separate sheets, have them hand-colored with water colors, and then glue the plates into a bound book.\u00a0 Solvyns\u2019s book has also been featured in NLM\u2019s Hidden Treasure<\/i><\/a> 175th anniversary book.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/a>
Balthazar Solvyns\u2019s Collection of Two Hundred and fifty Coloured Etchings: descriptive of the manners, customs and dresses of the Hindoos, 1799<\/em>
National Library of Medicine #2711493R<\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

As usual, there was paperwork to do, primarily to ensure that the items were properly transported and displayed.\u00a0 Interestingly, the early 20th century clay-coated paper and stapled gatherings of the Yoga Mimamsa <\/i>presented much more conservation concerns than the hand-made 18th century paper of the Solvyns. But the Sackler staff fabricated sophisticated supports for the frail journal issues, and these rare items take their place beside items from the Sacker\u2019s collections and materials from other institutions to bring Yoga: The Art of <\/i>Transformation <\/i><\/a>to the public.<\/p>\n

Yoga: The Art of Transformation<\/i> will be on display through January 26, 2014 at the Arthur M. Sackler Gallery in Washington DC. For further information, go to: https:\/\/web.archive.org\/web\/20140108042410\/http:\/\/www.asia.si.edu\/exhibitions\/current\/yoga.asp<\/a><\/p>\n

\"Stephen<\/a>Stephen J. Greenberg, PhD, is Coordinator of Public Services for the History of Medicine Division at the National Library of Medicine.<\/i><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Stephen J. Greenberg Recently, the Arthur M. Sackler Gallery, a unit of the Smithsonian Institution specializing in Asian Art,<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":19605840,"featured_media":2521,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_coblocks_attr":"","_coblocks_dimensions":"","_coblocks_responsive_height":"","_coblocks_accordion_ie_support":"","advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[14520,12763,103,347145303],"tags":[177,1480675,3054,4939160,7371],"class_list":["post-2256","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-about-us","category-collections","category-news","category-rare-books-journals","tag-art","tag-book-illustration","tag-india","tag-on-loan","tag-yoga"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/circulatingnow.nlm.nih.gov\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/11\/sackler-delivery-2_feature.jpg?fit=931%2C363&ssl=1","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3xcDk-Ao","jetpack-related-posts":[],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/circulatingnow.nlm.nih.gov\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2256","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/circulatingnow.nlm.nih.gov\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/circulatingnow.nlm.nih.gov\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/circulatingnow.nlm.nih.gov\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/19605840"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/circulatingnow.nlm.nih.gov\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2256"}],"version-history":[{"count":34,"href":"https:\/\/circulatingnow.nlm.nih.gov\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2256\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":50718,"href":"https:\/\/circulatingnow.nlm.nih.gov\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2256\/revisions\/50718"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/circulatingnow.nlm.nih.gov\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2521"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/circulatingnow.nlm.nih.gov\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2256"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/circulatingnow.nlm.nih.gov\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2256"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/circulatingnow.nlm.nih.gov\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2256"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}