Yoga’s art and history come together at museums
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The entrance to the Chicago Art Institute by Kim Scarborough
Delving deep into yoga’s roots without leaving the U.S. can be a tricky proposition while pairing yoga and art seems up there with yoga and nature – a natural fit.
Museums across the world have been holding yoga sessions in galleries where yogis get their downward dog on surrounded by the creative spirit of esteemed painters.
The Chicago Art Institute is taking that to another level tonight with its first yoga and museum program for adults.
People started signing up for this before I was even back in the States. It’s so popular they’ve fortunately added a second session from 5:30 to 7 p.m. on Aug. 4 that I plan to attend.
Chicago’s famed Art Institute has a large collection of Southeast Asian art allowing attendees to look at yoga’s history and how that’s represented in art, said, Kate Moioli, Samuel H. Kress Foundation Fellow in the institute’s education department.
“A lot of objects illustrate some of the ideas and some of the physical poses,” she said.
At tonight’s event, guests will tour the Southeast Asian works and then explore the ideas further in a yoga practice.
Wheel pose sculpture by Venetia Walkey at The Queen's Gallery in Bangkok, Thailand
Some of the art objects reveal notions of balance and meditation reinforcing philosophies behind yoga. It also provides the opportunity to feel more connected to yoga’s roots and how it appears in multiple art forms. That commonness of yoga in art in certain cultures can also reveal how in some parts of the world yoga in some form can be as daily as boiling water for tea.
A fellow yogini, Moioli said it’s important for people to understand where something comes from and few instructors delve into that history. Seeing the artistic renderings of yoga shows how it started with seated poses thousands of years ago and morphed with the help of martial arts into what we know as yoga today.
“This links back to the original intentions and creates a little bit more of a visual to grab on to that information,” Moioli told BlissPassport.
