Exhibitions

BEHIND THE HIMALAYAS: Paintings of Mustang
In 1999 an eight month long exhibition of Powell’s documentary and imaginary work, was held at The Arthur M. Sackler Gallery, the Smithsonian’s Asian Art museum, Washington DC

Lee A.Lawrence,Wall Street Journal, March 5,1999 “...his stunning watercolours do not reproduce as much as they evoke.”

Jane Foulders, The Japan Times, august 22, 1999 “Powell’s uncommon watercolours transport the viewer to another world”

Benjamin Forgey, The Washington Post, february 14, 1999 “…the images have an almost hallucinatory impact. A viewer cannot help but react to the lucidity of the vision and the intrinsic values of the images...most of the images in the show are stunningly strange, almost apparitional… An impassioned, knowledgeable appreciation of a remote region and rare culture” - Benjamin Forgey

Roberto Vitali, Introduction to Earth Door Sky Door, Paintings of Mustang by Robert Powell, pub. Serindia, London, 1999. “when he paints, his vision goes beyond the reality in front of him. The use of frontal perspective, the complete absence of anything else but a single subject, the absolute disembodiment of the themes he paints…extract values that go beyond the physical existence (the reality) of his landscapes and monuments. His fluid and balanced style has been refined over the years to reach an extraordinary limpidity….His skill in the rendition of the subjects leads his work to a realism that is visionary, and which transcends into absolute abstraction…or rather a noumenon incarnated in the physical world.”

ROBERT POWELL HIMALAYAN DRAWINGS, In 2001 the Zurich Ethnographic Museum mounted a retrospective exhibition of Powell’s Himalayan documentary work .142 works were shown spanning a period of 25 years and geographically covering the length of the Himalayas, from the Kalash valleys on the border of Afghanistan to the eastern outpost of Tibetan culture, Gyalthang, in N.W. Yunnan .The cultures represented in these works include Animist worship from the Hindu Kush, the Shamanism of Nepal’s middle hills, the Tibetan Buddhism of Ladakh, Mustang, and Gyalthang and the ancient mingling of Hinduism and Buddhism by the Newars of Kathmandu Valley. Accompanying the eight month exhibition was a 300 page catalogue with articles by renowned scholars and critics: Robert Powell Himalayan Drawings, pub. Volkerkundemuseum Zurich, 2001.

Peter P. Schneider, Zuritipp, 20-26th july, 2001.(trans. from German) “His pictures are not simply exact documentary drawings, they create, more than photography, three dimensional effects…The pictures show us a really strange world and led by the clear eye and observation of this masterly draughtsman, we observe more and differently than if we would be at the site itself…These drawings of buildings (in the Kathmandu Valley) already show Powell’s meticulous way of working, which in itself mirrors the pre-industrial artisanal tradition where each brick and carving is individually created.”

Schaffhauser Nachrichten, Zurich, 17th july, 2001. (trans. from German) “The extensive catalogue collects more than 200 pictures and 8 articles by known specialists. These articles give a cultural and scientific background to the drawings of Powell and at the same time function as a test for the artist and his work. Thus the painter must maintain himself before the canvas of Western contemporary art as draughtsman of an architecture without architects, as ethnographic illustrator, imaginary documentarist and visionary of the real.”

Claude Levi-Strauss, College de France, in a letter to Michael Oppitz , the director of the Zurich Ethnographic Museum, 18th july, 2001. “The draughtsmanship is masterly and reminds one of the great still life painters of the 16th and 17th centuries. Each drawing, either plain or subtly coloured succeeds to be a flawless ethnographic document and at the same time a highly refined work of art”

 

Powell exhibitions

Ladakh
Solo Exhibition
Gallerie de l’Abbeye
St Germain, Paris, France
1977

Bhaktapur
Solo Exhibition
October Gallery
Kathmandu, Nepal
1980

Kathmandu Valley
Solo Exhibition
October Gallery
Kathmandu
Nepal
1982

Kyoto
Solo Exhibition
Nagahara Residence
Nishijen, Japan
1984

Mustang
Solo Exhibition
Patan Museum
Patan, Nepal
1995

Behind the Himalayas
Paintings of Mustang
Solo Exhibition
Arthur M.Sackler Gallery Asian Art Museum ,Smithsonian Institution
Washington D.C. U.S.A
1999

Earth Door Sky Door
Solo Exhibition
Shirley Day Gallery
London, U.K.
2000 - During Asian Art in London

Zeichnungen aus dem Himalaya von Robert Powell (Himalayan Drawings).
Retrospective of Drawings and Paintings (1975-2001) Ethnographic Museum
Zurich. Zurich, Switzerland
2001.

Paintings of Anhui, China
Andy Hei Gallery
Hong Kong and New York for Asia Week
2004

Trommeln der Schamanen ( Shaman Drums)
30 drawings included in exhibition.
Ethnographic Museum Zurich
Zurich, Switzerland
2007