Tradition in Baasanjav’s Art Rethinking Buddhist Iconographies in Contemporary Mongolia

Abstract

The question of tradition is a key topic in contemporary works of Asian artists. This article focuses on selected artworks by the Mongolian artist Baasanjav Choijiljavin (b. 1977) to analyze how some aspects of traditional Tibetan Buddhist iconography and motifs are appropriated and reused in contemporary art. Baasanjav was trained in the traditional style of Mongolian painting known as Mongol Zurag but has pioneered new trends in Mongolian contemporary art which contribute to the debate first instigated in the study of anthropologist Uradyn Bulag and historian Li Narangoa (2006). Bulag/Narangoa examined the transformation of Mongol culture as “alter/native modernity” in times of “divided urbanism–pastoralism.” Baasanjav’s sharp criticism of corrupt neoliberalism in Mongolia and the use of Buddhist iconography for political messages was unprecedented in Mongolia in 2009, yet common in the works of contemporary Tibetan artists such as Gonkar Gyatso and Tenzing Rigdol. Baasanjav’s works inspired many Mongolian artists to use Buddhist motifs and iconographies in their paintings to point at the Mongolian state’s cultural, social and environmental decline. The article discusses how Baasanjav creates new iconographies of Buddhist motifs and figures based on and inspired by his innovative interpretation of traditional motifs, style, and visual idioms for conceptual shift of Mongol Zurag imagery.