For the Nepal-born Tibetan American artist Tenzing Rigdol art begins with good attention. “With good attention anything one does becomes good art. In so many ways art really is attention,” says Rigdol, whose parents came from Tibet.

That has been the underlying philosophy of his works, which include a major installation titled ‘Biography of a Thought’ at the Metropolitan Museum in New York. The exhibit is part of the exhibition ‘Mandalas: Mapping the Buddhist Art of Tibet’ and will be on display until 12 January 2025.

Rigdol reinterprets the centuries-old Tibetan mandala-style of painting by incorporating modern day motifs and themes on panels several feet wide and high, assisted by a team of nine, with painstaking attention to the initial drawings and then choosing paint. This particular installation was in the making for five years.

From the installation’s early drawings to every color and its shade, Rigdol admits to being very particular about everything that goes on his canvases. And yet for an artist who is so detail-oriented, he finds it surprising why everyone is not an artist.

“Why aren’t people artists?” He reiterates his question rhetorically, talking to Sapan News over a video call.

Underlying that view is his genuine belief that anybody can be an artist. “I do not remember a time when I was not an artist. We are always drawing as children. I always encourage people to paint, even collectors and curators,” Rigdol says.

“When I say paint, I do not mean try to become like someone else. A friend of mine might say ‘But how can I paint? I am a physicist.’ And I would say, see that leaf. You might look at it as a scientist and I as an artist. However, it is in that difference that we find art,” Rigdol says.

Video: Nepal-born Tibetan American artist Tenzing Rigdol chats with Mayank Chhaya about his ‘Biography of a Thought’ part of the ‘Mandalas: Mapping the Buddhist Art of Tibet’ exhibit on display at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, until 12 January 2025.

Tibetan sand painting

Rigdol, whose installation at the Met covers an entire wall, has over the years cultivated a practice to focus on a specific point while painting. It is almost as if when he is painting at a particular spot, he is engaged in single-point meditation, which is the foundational feature of Tibetan Buddhism. That perhaps comes from his Tibetan roots.

His parents, Norbu Wangdu and Dolma Tsering, fled Tibet in the 1960s after China’s occupation in the late 1950s. Born in 1982 in Kathmandu, Nepal, Rigdol came to the United States in the late 1990s to study at the University of Colorado, Denver. He earned a BFA in painting and drawing and a BA in art history in 2005. He simultaneously studied traditional Tibetan sand painting and butter sculpture at the Shekar Chorten monastery in India and thangka painting under Phenpo Tenthar at the Tibetan Thangka Art School in Kathmandu.

It was hardly surprising that when Kurt Behrendt, Associate Curator of South Asian Art at the Met, was putting together an exhibition along the theme ‘Mandalas: Mapping the Buddhist Art of Tibet’ he thought of Rigdol.

“His work complements and helps contextualize the historical material that forms the majority of the exhibition. The piece, like all of Rigdol’s work, approaches Buddhism in multipronged ways and embraces core tenets such as mindfulness, or living in the present moment,” Behrendt writes on the Met website.

“Equally, using tantric or esoteric Buddhist ideas to structure his artistic presentation is critical to Rigdol’s process in terms of the viewer’s ability to understand the mechanism of thought. The title of the work, ‘Biography of a Thought’, hints at the tantric idea of taking a notion and untangling its myriad components, then visually representing these constituent parts to achieve deeper insight,” adds Behrendt.

“Rigdol is one of several Tibetan and Nepalese artists who have found significant success on the global contemporary art stage in recent years,” he writes. The group has diverse artistic practices, but “Rigdol and a handful of others initiated the practice of recontextualizing early motifs, styles, and ideas from the classical Himalayan canon to comment on a range of social and political issues. This opened the door to recasting earlier Buddhist imagery to convey secular ideas and to consider Buddhist values in today’s society.”

Art's capacity to heal

In Tibetan Buddhism, there are various forms of mandalas, which are very intricate images and diagrams representing an idealized universe. One form is sand mandalas which are done using sand of multiple colors. Many mandalas often take days to complete. Then, in keeping with the fundamental Buddhist concept of impermanence of everything in the universe, the mandalas are wiped off to underscore a return to the primary building blocks.

Rigdol’s mandalas on display at the Met are more permanent. Thematically too, they are distinctly his own because he paints in many representations on current ferments — from sociocultural to political to wars to climate change.

He sees art of any kind as an instrument of healing. “Any art has the capacity to heal you. Half of Buddhism, for instance, is art,” he says.

One of Rigdol’s earliest fascinations was Vincent van Gogh. “As a 17-year-old I even tried to carry a pipe with me, but it did not suit me,” he chuckles. Then he makes a connection between the late 19th century Dutch master painter and the celebrated 11th century Tibetan yogi Milarepa.

“If Milarepa painted he would be like van Gogh and if van Gogh meditated he would be like Milarepa,” says Rigdol.

(The author is a Chicago-based journalist and writer. He is also a painter. He can be reached at mcsix@outlook.com. By special arrangement with Sapan)