Local and Transnational: Buddhist Iconographies in Contemporary Mongolian Art

Presentation by Prof. Uranchimeg (Orna) Tsultem
Herron School of Art and Design Indiana University-Indianapolis

January 30, 2025
11:00-12:20PM
INTN 3023
In-person or online

This presentation examines the uses of Buddhist teachings, iconography, and symbols in Mongolian contemporary art. Through a comparative analysis with well- known contemporary Himalayan artists, the presentation will discuss how the typology of the “Two Buddhisms” (Paul Numrich 2003, Johan Elverskog 2006), which refers to ethnic and local vs. modern and transnational, has an interesting parallel in contemporary art. The talk will introduce and analyze prominent Mongolian artists, such as B. Baatarzorig, B. Nomin, D. Soyolmaa and Ch. Baasanjav, whose works have been shown in galleries and museums around the world.

Prof. Tsultem is a scholar of Mongolian art and culture whose research focuses mainly on Buddhist art and architecture and contemporary Asian art. She is the author of many articles and books on the artistic and cultural history of Buddhist Inner Asia, including A Monastery on the Move: Art and Politics in Later Buddhist Mongolia (University of Hawai’i Press, 2020). Prof. Tsultem has also had a prolific, international curatorial career, focused especially on exhibiting the work of contemporary Mongolian artists. She was most recently curator for Mongol Zurag: The Art of Resistance, which showed at the Garibaldi Gallery in Venice, Italy in late 2024.

Co-sponsored by UCR’s Department for the Study of Religion and the Department of the History of Art