Comparative Hell: Asian Religious Traditions and Depictions of the Afterlife

FAIN: GI-269765-20

Asia Society (New York, NY 10065-7307)
Adriana Proser (Project Director: August 2019 to May 2021)
Michelle Yun (Project Director: May 2021 to December 2022)
Peggy A. Loar (Project Director: December 2022 to present)

Implementation of a traveling exhibition of Asian artworks inspired by religious and cultural beliefs about Hell.

Asia Society seeks an Implementation Grant in the amount of $400,000 from the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) to support “Comparative Hell,” a travelling, international loan exhibition that is scheduled to open at Asia Society Museum in New York, NY in September 2020, and at Asia Society Texas Center in Houston, TX in spring 2021. Developed with major Planning Grant support from the NEH, “Comparative Hell” will be a cross-cultural presentation of approximately seventy artworks inspired by notions of hell, including sacred, didactic narrative paintings and sculptures spanning the eighth to twenty-first centuries, from the Asian religious traditions of Buddhism, Hinduism, Jainism, and Islam. NEH support will enable Asia Society to install the exhibition; publish a scholarly exhibition catalogue; develop didactics, educational resources, and an interactive exhibition website; and present a scholarly symposium and series of complementary public programs.

Associated Products

Comparative Hell: Arts of Asian Underworlds (Exhibition)
Title: Comparative Hell: Arts of Asian Underworlds
Curator: Adriana Proser
Abstract: The first comprehensive exhibition in the United States to explore portrayals of hell across the Asian religious traditions of Buddhism, Hinduism, Jainism, and Islam, Comparative Hell: Arts of Asian Underworlds, examines how systems of belief and the underworlds within them are manifest in the rich artistic creations of Asia. Exceptional and visually stunning artworks explore the impact of conceptions of hell on Asian visual culture over time. Didactic paintings, sculptures, and sacred objects introduce the notions of Buddhist, Hindu, Jain, and Islamic cosmology, as well as ideas about judgment, punishment, and salvation after death—many of which are shared by these traditions. Exhibition artworks portray religious threats of fiery torture as a means to shape values and beliefs, to instill virtuous behavior, and to encourage atonement for sins—reflecting a universal human desire for spiritual transformation.
Year: 2023
Primary URL: https://asiasociety.org/new-york/exhibitions/comparative-hell-arts-asian-underworlds
Primary URL Description: Comparative Hell webpage on Asia Society website

Comparative Hell: Arts of Asian Underworlds (Catalog)
Title: Comparative Hell: Arts of Asian Underworlds
Author: Adriana Proser
Author: Christiane Gruber
Author: Phyllis Granoff
Author: D. Max Moerman
Author: Geok Yian Goh
Author: Michelle Yun Mapplethorpe
Abstract: Hell has been embodied and portrayed in terrifying, bizarre, and occasionally humorous incarnations across religions and cultures for millennia. Whether considered as places of eternal or finite punishment, underworlds provide a rich setting for a potent cast of characters that have caught the imaginations of artists and patrons who have shaped the visual cultures of Asia’s systems of belief, particularly Buddhism, Hinduism, Jainism, and Islam. Through masterpieces from West Asia, South Asia, Southeast Asia, East Asia, and the diaspora, paired with essays from renowned scholars, this publication explores both differences and similarities in conceptions of the afterlife and artistic practices from religion to religion and culture to culture. This journey through judgment, punishment, and even the pro-mise of salvation sheds light on the fundamental questions of life, death, and existence.
Year: 2022
Primary URL: https://www.worldcat.org/title/1158581977
Primary URL Description: WorldCat link
Secondary URL: https://www.accartbooks.com/us/book/comparative-hell/
Secondary URL Description: Publisher's website
Catalog Type: Exhibition Catalog
Publisher: Asia Society and Officina Libraria

---