New York, NY: Objects from the Rubin Museum of Himalayan Art’s collection are now on view at the Seattle Asian Art Museum as part of a five-year long-term loan partnership with the Seattle Art Museum (SAM). The Rubin objects are on display through 2031 in several galleries of Boundless: Stories of Asian Art, a permanent collection exhibition on view at the Seattle Asian Art Museum.
“With depictions of great patrons of the arts, mandalas, sacred landscapes, and personal ornamentation, the selection of objects from the Rubin deepens the Seattle Asian Art Museum’s representation of Tibetan and Mongolian art, and helps tell a more complete story of Asian art. This is exactly what our collection sharing program—and the Rubin’s new model as a global museum—is all about. I hope this five-year partnership is the start of a deep and enduring collaboration between our institutions,” says Karl Debreczeny, senior curator of the Rubin Museum of Himalayan Art.
The long-term loan consists of 13 masterworks from the Rubin Museum’s collection made in Tibetan, Chinese, and Mongolian regions, including several paintings known as thangkas and a sculpture, illuminated manuscript, woodblock print, and headdress. Four to five objects will be on view at a time, with rotations once a year.
Object highlights include a large vibrant portrait of a Tibetan abbot who was a great patron of the arts; a hand-colored, six-foot-wide woodblock print on cloth that represents a panoramic view of the sacred site Mount Wutai; a near-life-size Tibetan parcel-gilt silver repoussé (hammered) sculptural portrait; paintings that are visual representations of the intermediate state as described in the Tibetan Book of the Dead; and a Mongolian woman’s headdress made of silver, coral, and turquoise. One object will be on exhibit for the first time while at the Seattle Asian Art Museum.
The addition of the Rubin Museum objects enhances the Seattle Asian Art Museum’s important collections of Asian art. Their galleries were fully reimagined in a major renovation and reinstallation that was unveiled in 2020 with the opening of Boundless: Stories of Asian Art, a permanent collection exhibition that moves away from the chronological and geographic organization of most museums. Instead, objects are grouped across 12 themes to tell stories about Asia in a nonlinear narrative.
“This partnership between our institutions enables us to tell more complex visual histories of Asia,” shares FOONG Ping, SAM’s Foster Foundation Curator of Chinese Art. “I am also happy to be working with my longtime colleague and friend, Karl Debreczeny, whose deep expertise in Himalayan art adds nuance and a fresh perspective to the themes of worship and celebration, visual arts and literature, and clothing and identity explored in the Seattle Asian Art Museum galleries.”
Sharing the Rubin Museum’s collection and curatorial expertise is a central component of the Rubin’s decentralized, global model. It enables more people in more places to learn about the art and cultures of the Himalayas, Tibetan Plateau, and Inner Asia, as well as the importance of these regions in the transmission of art, technology, and religious traditions in Asia. In 2026, the Rubin’s collection sharing program includes long-term partnerships with the Brooklyn Museum, Lehigh University Art Galleries, Worcester Museum of Art, McMullen Museum of Art, Oglethorpe University Museum of Art, and Allen Memorial Art Museum.
“Our partnership with the Seattle Asian Art Museum is an important part of a growing number of Rubin projects that aim to provide more awareness of and access to the art of Tibetan, Himalayan, and related Inner Asian cultural regions,” says Jorrit Britschgi, executive director of the Rubin. “Both our institutions seek to inspire and educate through our work and invite the public to create meaningful connections to the art of Asia. We’re excited to do this work with the Seattle Asian Art Museum for audiences in the greater Seattle region.”
