Ganesha: A New Elephant for Portland October 2, 2009

The Portland Art Museum's new stone sculpture of the Hindu god Ganesha made its debut Saturday, February 14 in the Brantley Gallery. The Ganesha is exhibited along with an image of Shiva, Ganesha's spiritual father, as Lord of the Dance. Together, the two works from different regions of India represent the height of artistic accomplishment during the 11th and 12th centuries, a time when all of India was in a sustained flowering of Hindu art and architecture. Smaller ivory and metal icons, all on loan from private Portland collections, illustrate the endurance to the present day of a parallel tradition of image-making for private household altars.