The Missing Peace: Artists Consider the Dalai Lama

June 11, 2006 – September 10, 2006

“A multimedia panorama of contemporary art practice at its best.”
Coagula Art Journal #81, August 2006

“You owe it to yourself to put The Missing Peace at the top of your summer itinerary – not only for its chock-a-block feast of first-rate artwork, but because it warms the soul like a soothing tonic.”
Coast Magazine, July 2006

“One of the most exciting art exhibits to hit this town in a long while.”
Los Angeles Journal, July 2006

Eighty-eight contemporary artists from more than twenty-five countries—including Richard Avedon, Laurie Anderson, Christo and Jeanne-Claude, Chuck Close, Adam Fuss, Jenny Holzer, Kimsooja, Michal Rovner, Sebastiao Salgado, Jaune Quick-to-See Smith, Mike and Doug Starn, Bill Viola, and Katarina Wong—offer a wide range of new and existing works inspired by the messages, vision, and values of the Dalai Lama.

Exhibition in Depth

Eighty-eight contemporary artists from twenty-five countries have contributed artworks for an exhibition inspired by the messages, vision, and values of the Dalai Lama. The Missing Peace: Artists Consider the Dalai Lama explores themes of peace, compassion, patience, and tolerance. Participating artists have considered the Dalai Lama in a broad array of new and existing works made in a variety of media expressing their personal interpretations of and reflections on his philosophies and ideals.

A photograph of the Dalai Lama taken in India in 1998 by the late Richard Avedon was among the first works contributed to The Missing Peace. Many artists, including Bill Viola, Mike and Doug Starn, Sylvie Fleury, El Anatsui, Jaune Quick-to-See Smith, Michal Rovner and Chuck Close, have created new works for the exhibition. For example, Viola recently traveled to India to meet with the Dalai Lama to create a new work that will debut at the Fowler.

The complete roster of international artists is: Marina Abramovic, Seyed Alavi, Jane Alexander, El Anatsui, Laurie Anderson, Ken Aptekar, Richard Avedon, Kirsten Bahrs Janssen, Chase Bailey, Tayseer Baraket, Sanford Biggers, Phil Borges, Dove Bradshaw, Guy Buffet, Dario Campanile, Andy Cao, Squeak Carnwath, Enrique Martinez Celaya, Chuck Close, Constantino Ciervo, Christo and Jeanne-Claude, Long-Bin Chen, Bernard Cosey, Santiago Cucullu, Binh Dahn, Lewis de Soto, Filippo di Sambuy, Dorris Doerrie and Michael Wenger, Era and Don Farnsworth, Peig Fairbrook and Adele Fox, Spencer Finch, Sylvie Fleury, Louis Fox, Adam Fuss, Juan Galdeano, Rupert Garcia, Robin Garthwait and Dan Griffin, Richard Gere, Losang Gyatso, H. M. Harrison & Newton Harrison, Jim Hodges, David and Hi-Jin Hodge, Jenny Holzer, Tri Huu Luu, Ichi Ikeda, Yoko Inoue, Ilya and Emilia Kabakov, Jesal Kapadia, Kimsooja, Nefeli Massia, Yumyo Miyasaka, Gabriela Morawetz, Kisho Mukaiyama, Tom Nakashima, Dang Ngo, Michele Oka Doner, Robert and Shana ParkeHarrison, Susan Plum, Rosemary Rawcliffe, Michal Rovner, Tenzin Rigdol, Salustiano, Sebastiao Salgado, Andra Samelson, Ryuichi Sakamoto, Arlene Shechet, Jaune Quick-to-See Smith, Mike and Doug Starn, Pat Steir, Hoang Van Bui, Adriana Varejao, Bill Viola, Inkie Whang, William Wiley, Katarina Wong, Yuriko Yamaguchi, and Negishi Yoshiro.

The works created by these artists have been organized into ten thematic areas: Interpreted Portraits, Tibet, Beliefs, Empathy and Compassion, Transformation, Humanity in Transition, Path to Peace, Unity, Spirituality and Globalization, Impermanence.

All works in the exhibition have been donated by the artists and will be auctioned to raise funds for the peace initiatives of the Dalai Lama Foundation (DLF) and the Committee of 100 for Tibet (C100), the co-sponsoring organizations. The Dalai Lama, who has met with The Missing Peace organizers on several occasions, supports the project and will be lending a work of art from his personal collection.

Darlene Markovich, president of the C100, is executive director of The Missing Peace, leading a team of more than twenty individuals and seventeen international advisors who have been organizing the exhibition for more than two years. “Our goal is to use art as inspiration and a catalyst to shift attention towards peace. We hope the exhibition will inspire others to explore and embrace these ideals,” says Markovich. “Peace may be elusive in our world, but the Dalai Lama consistently shows us that dedicating oneself to peace can have widespread positive impact.”

Randy Rosenberg, curator of The Missing Peace, formerly served as curator for the art collections of The World Bank and the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. “The exhibition’s eighty-eight artists bring their individual stories and experiences as well as a rich and diverse array of media and styles,” says Rosenberg, “but together their works speak eloquently to the Dalai Lama’s vision of compassion, peace, and the unity of all things.”

The exhibition and associated educational programs endeavor to make an enduring contribution to the global dialogue about peace. Extensive public programming planned in conjunction with the exhibition, from artists’ panels to family workshops that will encourage dialogue about peace and ethics, is listed below.

Additional Information

This exhibition is organized by the Committee of 100 for Tibet and the Dalai Lama Foundation, and is curated by independent curator Randy Rosenberg. After its run at the Fowler Museum, the exhibition will embark on an international tour with stops at the Loyola University Museum of Art in Chicago (October 28, 2006–January 11, 2007), the Rubin Museum of Art in New York (March 3–September 4, 2007), and other venues to be announced. A lavishly illustrated, approximately 200-page book is being published in conjunction with this exhibition and distributed by Mandala Publishing.

Exhibition Organizers

The Committee of 100 for Tibet (C100), founded in 1992, is comprised of one hundred thinkers, innovators, leaders, and Nobel Prize laureates from around the world. C100 runs two major programs, The Missing Peace and the Self-Determination Initiative, which focuses on the Tibetan people’s right to self-determination. www.c100tibet.org

The Dalai Lama Foundation (DLF), founded in 2002, supports the development of our shared global capacity for ethics and peace. The DLF runs three initiatives: a free study guide and study circles on ethics and peace based on The Dalai Lama’s book Ethics for a New Millennium, online courses on ethics and peace topics, and curricula for The Missing Peace. www.dalailamafoundation.org

Press Release

The Missing Peace: Artists Consider the Dalai Lama

Exhibition Credits

The Missing Peace: Artists Consider the Dalai Lama, an internationally traveling exhibition debuting at the Fowler Museum and curated by Randy Rosenberg, is organized by the Committee of 100 for Tibet and the Dalai Lama Foundation. It was made possible by generous funding from Ron Haak and Darlene Markovich, Sandra and Bernard Magnussen, the Betlach Family Foundation, the Zaffaroni Foundation, and The Dalai Lama Foundation. Additional support was provided by Anonymous, Chase Bailey, the Committee of 100 for Tibet, and Carolyn Zecca-Ferris. In-kind support was provided by Tank Design, Beals Martin, Jean Simpson, SPUR Projects, Alain Despert, and a gift in memory of Sadako Kutaka. We are especially grateful to the participating artists, all of whom have donated their work.

Major support for the Los Angeles presentation was provided by Lillian and Jon Lovelace, Margit and Lloyd Cotsen, the Shirley and Ralph Shapiro Director’s Discretionary Fund, and the LLWW Foundation. Additional support was provided by Dallas Price-Van Breda, the Patricia and Richard Anawalt Family, David Robertson, Robert and Ann Diener, and Edgar and Marcellina Gross. In-kind support was provided by Hotel Angeleno. Media sponsors: KJAZZ 88.1 FM and Yogi Times.