Bodhisattva

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Label

When the Hopkins Center for the Arts opened in 1962, it included the first purpose-built art gallery spaces at Dartmouth. The installations featured objects from new gifts to the collection, including many of the objects donated by Dorothy and Herbert Beskind. The bronze yu—a ritual wine vessel—and zhong—a bell used during court religious ceremonies—were both frequently on display in the 1960s and 1970s. The head of a bodhisattva—a being on a path of enlightenment who is progressing toward becoming a buddha—was also on view in the Hopkins Center before the creation of the Hood Museum of Art. With the recent addition of a curator of Asian art to the curatorial team, the collection of Asian art continues to grow through acquisitions, including a recent gift of sixteen ancient Korean ceramics.

From the 2025 exhibition, From Mastodon to Mosaic: Building an Academic Art Collection in America, curated by Ashley B. Offill, Curator of Collections

Course History

Art History 38.01, Asian Socieites, Cultures, and Languages 70.01, Sacred Architecture of Asia, Seher Argawala, Fall 2024

History 72.04/Asian Societies, Cultures, & Languages 64.16, China to 1800, Yi Lu, Fall 2024

Exhibition History

Director's Choice, Jaffe-Friede Gallery, Hopkins Center Art Galleries, Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire, June 10-July 10, 1966.

Fred Wilson, So Much Trouble in the World - Believe It or Not!, William B. Jaffe and Evelyn A. Jaffe Hall Galleries, Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire, October 4-December 11, 2005.

From Mastadon to Mosaic, Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire, June 14, 2025 - Fall 2026

Publication History

Barbara Thompson, Fred Wilson, So Much Trouble in the World - Believe It or Not!, Hanover, New Hampshire: Trustees of Dartmouth College, 2005.

Provenance

Dorothy Marion Levitt Beskind (1917-2014) and David Herbert Beskind (1915-2015), Class of 1936, New York, New York; given to present collection, 1957.

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