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Part Three of three videos demonstrating and explaining thangka painting by Joel Kimmel, Pele Gelfenbaum Productions. In the third part Gyurmey Lama, a thangka painter working in Bodnath, Nepal, tells us more about how the color pigments are gained the traditional way.
After explaining the old method, he mentions that the painters now also use ready-made colors and new, modern brush tools imported into the country.
Thangka Painting Video - Part III
Modern Thangka Painting
Towards the end of the video Gyurmey Lama shows us a few of his own artistic, original works. These paintings are inspired by thangkas, but they no longer follow the strict, iconographic rules. They are the creative works of an individual artist.
The thangka has for decades developed from a painting made for religious purpose, to an object of art that has to cater for people that are willing to buy it. This development has been obvious for decades, and in my humble view, it has not done any damage to the art of thangka painting, apart from those cheap, shoddy thangkas produced for the cheap tourist market.
But now thangka painting has to cope with a new movement. From a product, created by an unknown, higly skilled artisan whose artistic freedom has been very limited by old iconographic rules, to a product produced by an individual who understands himself as an artist, not an artisan anymore.
It is a movement from the Eastern understanding of artisanship to the modern Western concept of the creative artist as an individual and genius. To be quite frank, I am in doubts if this development is a good one.
Duration: 7:12 Minutes.
Dieter Wanczura
