Art of Merit: Studies in Buddhist Art and its Conservation, by David Park, Kuenga Wangmo, Sharon Cather

Buddhist art - its nature, creation, function, conservation and contemporary manifestations - was the subject of the Buddhist Art Forum, a major conference held at The Courtauld Institute of Art in 2012 and sponsored by The Robert H.N. Ho Family Foundation. For the first time a representative group of those with a stake in Buddhist art - including art historians, conservators, curators and officials, a monk from Nepal and a contemporary artist - was gathered to address these issues. The twenty-eight papers in this resulting ground-breaking volume consider Buddhist art from the earliest Indian stupasto contemporary Himalayan thangkas, as well as its ritual use and audience, its tourist consumption in expanding economies, its often ill-conceived conservation, and its influence on modern and contemporary Western art. A stimulating range of viewpoints is expressed in this lavishly illustrated volume, making a genuine contribution to the awareness and understanding of these issues and developments that goes beyond regional and specialist boundaries.