Wheel of Life

Object Details

• Provenance

  ? To 1980s

  Yangki P. Ackerman, Southern California, method of acquisition unknown [1]

  1980s to mid-1990s

  Philip Rudko, purchased from Yangki P. Ackerman in New York, NY [2]

  From mid-1990s to 2020

  Alice Kandell, purchased from Philip Rudko in the mid-1990s in New York, NY [3]

  From 2020

  Arthur M. Sackler Gallery, gift of Alice Kandell, New York, NY [4]

  Notes:

  [1] According to Philip Rudko, interviewed by Joanna M. Gohmann on November 6, 2020, notes in accession file.

  [2] See interview referenced in note 1. Philip Rudko, born just outside New York City in northern New Jersey, is a Russian Orthodox priest and art conservator, specializing in Tibetan objects. He works with the collector Alice Kandell as the curator of her personal collection.

  [3] See interview referenced in note 1. Alice Kandell is a private collector, who for decades acquired hundreds of bronze sculptures, thangkas, textile banners, painted furniture and ritual implements. Her interest in Tibetan art and culture began during her college years, when she took the first of many trips to Sikkim, Tibet and Ladakh. Throughout her career as a child psychologist in New York, she continued to pursue her love of Tibetan Buddhist sacred art, traveling, collecting and documenting the art and culture of the region in two books of photography, Sikkim: The Hidden Kingdom (Doubleday) and Mountaintop Kingdom: Sikkim (Norton).

  [4] The object was formally accessioned into the Arthur M. Sackler Gallery Collection on December 18, 2020. See Acquisition Consideration Form, object file.

• Collection

  Arthur M. Sackler Collection

• Exhibition History

  Encountering the Buddha: Art and Practice Across Asia (October 14, 2017 to February 6, 2022)

• Previous custodian or owner

  Alice S. Kandell

  Philip J. Rudko

  Yangki P. Ackerman

• Origin

  Tibet

• Credit Line

  The Alice S. Kandell Collection

• Type

  Painting

• Restrictions and Rights

  Usage Conditions Apply

  There are restrictions for re-using this media. For more information, visit the Smithsonian's Terms of Use page.

  The information presented on this website may be revised and updated at any time as ongoing research progresses or as otherwise warranted. Pending any such revisions and updates, information on this site may be incomplete or inaccurate or may contain typographical errors. Neither the Smithsonian nor its regents, officers, employees, or agents make any representations about the accuracy, reliability, completeness, or timeliness of the information on the site. Use this site and the information provided on it subject to your own judgment. The National Museum of Asian Art welcomes information that would augment or clarify the ownership history of objects in their collections.

Keep Exploring

• Related Resources

  collections.si.edu

• Date

  1890s, 1870s

• Name

  Ackerman, Yangki P., Kandell, Alice S., Rudko, Philip J.

• Place

  Tibet

• Topic

  South Asian and Himalayan Art, Art, Symbolism, Alice S. Kandell Collection

• Culture

  Buddhists, Himalayan peoples, South Asians, Hindus

• Object Type

  Paintings