Art Review | ‘Secular and Sacred’ - Holland Cotter
Office clerks and society swells rub shoulders with scholars lost in worlds of their own. Actors and priests add spice to the mix, along with wild-eyed types who seem to be straight from the New York streets. And then there are the real oddballs, folks with halos and banners and snappish pet dragons. How did they ever get by the guards?
They live at the Met, that’s how. And they’re earning their keep in a populous exhibition called “Secular and Sacred: Scholars, Deities, and Immortals in Chinese Art.” Drawn entirely from the permanent collection, it’s a show with a big theme, namely, all three of China’s major religions: Confucianism, Taoism and Buddhism. Little wonder it takes some 90 objects to tell its tale.
