“Bardo: Tibetan Art of the Afterlife” looks at death at the Rubin Museum
Rubin Museum of Art
150 West 17th St. at Seventh Ave.
Wednesdays through August 25, $20 per session, 7:00
212-620-5000
www.rmanyc.org/bookofthedead
Last Wednesday the Rubin Museum of Art began its seven-part series on the THE TIBETAN BOOK OF THE DEAD, led by Dr. Ramon Prats, by examining “Addiction and Attachments” with Dr. Gabor Maté. This week, the discussion of the eighth-century funerary text also known as PROFOUND DHARMA OF SELF-LIBERATION THROUGH THE INTENTION OF THE PEACEFUL AND WRATHFUL ONES turns to “The Near-Death Experience” with Prof. Lee W. Bailey and continues with future talks on “The Analysis of Dreams” with psychoanalyst Morgan Stebbins (July 21), “The Death of Death” with Rabbi Neil Gillman (July 28), “The Egyptian Book of the Dead” with Brooklyn Museum curator Edward Bleiberg (August 11), “Channeling the Dead” with medium Jesse Bravo (August 18), and “How to Die” with Roshi Enkyo O’Hara (August 25). Actually, just about everything at the Rubin right now is about death. “Memento Mori,” the Cabaret Cinema series of Friday night films (free with $7 bar minimum), begins this week with Jean-Luc Godard’s 1965 noir PIERROT LE FOU and also features Robin Hardy’s awesome 1973 horror classic, THE WICKER MAN (July 23), Ingmar Bergman’s very funny THE SEVENTH SEAL (July 30), Pier Paolo Pasolini’s IL DECAMERON (August 6) and IL FIORE DELLE MILLE E UNA NOTTE (August 20), Frank Capra’s LOST HORIZON (August 27), and Philip Kaufman’s excellent 1978 remake, INVASION OF THE BODY SNATCHERS (September 3).
Several of the current exhibitions at the museum also take a fascinating look at the end of physical being. “Bardo: Tibetan Art of the Afterlife,” which runs through September 6, delves into the BARDO THODROL, aka THE TIBETAN BOOK OF THE DEAD, with original illuminated manuscripts, ritual cards, and other items than take visitors into different worlds of existence. Through August 9, “Remember That You Will Die: Death Across Cultures” explores the art of death as seen in European Christianity and Tibetan Buddhism, including a topography of the afterlife, an intriguing video installation by Bill Viola, and paintings, sculpture, and ritual objects. (Also on view is the excellent “In the Shadow of Everest,” Tom Wool’s photographs taken in May 2001; the terrific “From the Land of the Gods: Art of the Kathmandu Valley”; and “Tradition Transformed: Tibetan Artists Respond,” featuring works by contemporary Tibetan artists.)