Artist: Choying Dorje & Atelier (RMA)
Rubin Museum Main PageVideo: Three Works Attributed to Choying Dorje in the Rubin Museum
Three objects in the Rubin Museum collection are associated with the 10th Karmapa Choying Dorje (1604-1674). The black ink arhat/sthavira composition belongs to a set of paintings traditionally housed in the Palpung monastery of Eastern Tibet. Local belief is that the set was painted by Choying Dorje in a Chinese artistic style.
The sculpture of Green Tara was likely created after the time of the 10th Karmapa and can be said to be in the atelier or school of Choying Dorje works and productions.
The black ground painting of Bernagchen Mahakala is the only candidate among the three items that may very well be by the hand of Choying Dorje. It has most of the stylistic elements associated with the artist such as the careful detail in the depictions of the animals, the 9th Karmapa at the top center, and the small ruby-like lips of all of the human figures.
Jeff Watt 11-2019
