It happened that I came across this International Art Museum of America - IAMA - close to my school, and the entrance was free, so I went in... It is difficult to describe my feelings while exploring this museum, bewilderment would be the word.
Well, this is a warning, and I want you My God and my Buddhist friends to forgive me for what I am going to say next. I do not mean to offend you.
The mission of the museum is presented as : The IAMA strives to create a bond between disparate cultures through beauty, thus promoting harmony and peace. But it, surprisingly enough, does not mention that its mission is to praise the work of the holly Dorje Chang Buddha III!
Who is DORJE CHANG BUDDHA III? This guy is supposed to be the true incarnation of an ancient Buddha, the fact beeing identified by Dharma Kings and others (who? the Dalaï Lama does not seem to be in the loop!). He was awarded the United States presidential Gold Award in 2002...and many other awards...(what are those awards worth? may be I could get one with my lovely water colours!). His art work has been recognized by the royal academy of art of the united Kingdom, and the Organization of the American States (those organizations might be charity ones for artists in demand of recognition).As a matter of fact, the museum is dedicated to Dorje Chang Buddha III. It exhibits 80% of this guy's works of art, and also Chinese and European works that have been invested by the museum. The paintings, that are not his, are really of great artistic value, beautiful european19th century landscapes or masterpieces of chinese painting. I can recall: les Lavandières près du Pont, a work of Edmond Petit Jean whom I have never heard of, who has been made Chevalier of the Legion of Honor (Dorje Chang Buddha III loves the awards) but I truly find it a wonderful work. It stands next to a Vlaminck more renowned. Some paintings of famous Chinese painters are also featured, like Zhang Daquian's (1899 - 1983). One of his work was auctioned 550 millions dollars in 2011 (this is also a kind of reward Dorje Chang Buddha III appreciates). Yet I can tell that I was truly impressed by the work. Then you think of universality of beauty, a master piece is recognized over times and beyond cultural frontiers... but I am not at all an expert!
And yet those beautiful master pieces stand side by side with the most hideous and ludicrous pieces of art I have ever seen!
I was not allowed to take pictures. But fortunately I could find some pictures on the internet!
Those are sun flowers painted by Dorje Chan Buddha III. This painting is simply compared to that of Van Gogh himself, not less!!!
I have actually written down one comment I found hilarious to remember, and by chance I found the picture of the painting it is related to : the one below featuring two horses. To me it looks like the little pictures of "chocolat Poulain" we were given when we were little kids. And to tell the truth I do not think the horses were actually painted by the holly master, he added the black ink on the side, that's it!
The comment is the following:
From the brushwork style and details of this painting we can sense the profound cultivation of a renewed scholar. The abilities of a literary giant with abundant talent are visible everywhere. The scholarly tone and brushwork style are skillful and vigorous totally free of any trace of the mundane and reflect the highest level of painting and calligraphy. Anyone who lifts a brush in an attempt to paint such painting will appreciate the fact that this scholarly style cannot be accomplished by anyone other than a literary giant who is a great master of art.
As a matter of fact the work on the horse's hair is something! But as a whole I would not give a penny for that.
I have to tell you about the last but not the least of his work of art: THE HALL OF FRAMES.
This hall actually displays the most hideous crap I have ever seen.
Not only Dorje Chang Buddha III 's expertise inlcudes painting but also : literature, music, martial arts, buddhism, science, philosophy, ethics, traditional chinese médicine AND why not SCUPLTURE. That is the point we wanted to reach! That is the reason why the museum has dedicated a whole hall to his frame creations!
The Paramount work of art of His Holiness lies below. I let you take an inspiration and breathe...
WELL!!!
Now one can wonder how can a public museum (which it is) can support this cult of personality and spend money on that?
I had to find more about this holiness...So I actually found this guy is the object of quite a controversy. Already in 1993, a meeting of the Dalai lama with a group of 12 Dharmas and teachers had already published an article to warn people and especially western countries againts so called "living buddhas"."Such kind of title pretty unusual goes against buddhist ideas of modesty" they said, giving a list of 50 personalities among wich appeared our dear Dorje Chang Buddha III with this comment: A 'Buddha' without history, flooding the internet with self-referring messages of his coming, using all the possible titles he can find... 'Highest Buddha', 'Supreme leader of Buddhism', on and on. This makes him quite suspicious."
Moreover this issue made its way to the BBC. I can read, in 2009:
It caught the interest of Dan Damon of the World Service’s Reporting Religion. The BBC contacted various Buddhist organisations, including the Dalai Lama’s office in Dharamsala, but “they’ve never heard of Master Dorje Chang Buddha III ”. The International Buddhism Sangha Association appears to be rather obscure, too...
Some of Dorje Chang Buddha III s art is sold through a company called Microputt, along with artwork by members of his family – despite the claim on the BBC that His Holiness is a monk, he has a son and a daughter. This company also runs International Arts Publishing, which sells books by Dorje Chang Buddha III.
My theory is : San Francisco must sponsor some well known and popular chinese figure whoever it is in support of the chinese community which is one of the biggest in San Francisco (with the hispanic one), and must be sponsored itself by rich chinese personalities...This is how the world goes... And then Dorje Chang Buddha III can sell his crap!
3 commentaires:
So Dorje Chang Buddha not only is good at exoteric and Vajrayana Buddhism but also is good at art.
Impressive!!!
Thank you for your funny and honest review. I went into the museum yesterday out of curiosity while passing by. I was thoroughly perplexed myself until I finally came back to the bust of Dorje Chang Buddha and read the plaque. Then I figured he must be some religious or cult leader who wanted to honor himself and possibly recruit some followers. The museum store didn't seem too big on promoting him - no obvious self-help dvd's or propaganda pamphlets that you might expect from a cult leader - so they were at least tasteful and restrained in that. But the art was a mystery. There were some beautiful Dutch and other European paintings which I enjoyed, some pretty Chinese ink/brush paintings, and some real oddities. The oddities were those of Dorje Chang Buddha. They weren't terrible, but they weren't very good either. But then, while I do love art, I'm no expert. Many of the paintings appeared to be digitally created or printed copies of swirls in a marbled paper style. They didn't appear to be painted or at least weren't the original artwork. Oil paint appeared to have then been applied on top of and around the perimeter of the swirls. This is all fine if the paintings were described as mixed media, but they were described as oil paintings and the brush strokes were described in magnificent terms as the works of a master. The frames were also truly odd - strange organic shapes, many of them used to frame holographic artwork that looked like it came out of the 1980s. The incongruity was amusing. If this was a young San Francisco artist, I'd understand that the intention was humorous or ironic and I'd have greatly appreciated it on that level, but the paintings and frames were described so seriously as masterpieces! The museum was free, I saw some very nice older artworks, the entry downstairs was very serene with pools of water, and the gallery upstairs was very nice in its decoration and presentation, so I can't complain. I just hope there aren't people getting swindled in some way by this religious leader.
He simply copies European artists, like Van Gogh and Monet to mention just a couple.
He is a charlatan! One article from Pasadena says he allegedly stole $8 million in China. That surely paid for all his paint and canvases.
The fact that they don't let you take fotos is a crime in itself.
The whole place is a hoax.
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