The Story of Robert Powell
1948 – 2020
Born in Sydney, Australia in 1948, Rob was studying architecture when the Baul clan from the just divided state of Bengal in India, came to perform songs, dance and rituals in his university town.
This initial introduction to the human-spirit world deeply intrigued him, and the Bauls, who stayed at his home, recognised in him a kindred soul. Laxman Das Baul invited Rob to visit their Bengali village.
Arriving at the teeming Howrah train station, riding the branch line through idyllic rice paddies and ending with an hour-long rickshaw ride deeper into mud-walled thatch-roofed villages, the young man from ‘down under’ was transported into an utterly different reality.
A Selection of Photographs Featuring Robert
Many images originate from Robert and Lieve’s private collection, while others have been captured and shared by various photographers over the years.
Robert Powell riding a horse up a Mustang trail
Robert Powell at work at Thubchen Lhakhang, Mustang
Rob sketching a chaitya/stupa at Vambaha, Nepal
Rob sketching a chaitya/stupa at Vambaha, Nepal
Rob with Niels Gutschow, architect and member of a team that guided the first bilateral conservation project in Bhaktapur, Nepal in 1971
Robert Powell during his expedition in Mustang
Rob at work during his expeditions in Mustang
Robert with his wife Lieve Aerts
Powell drawing Himalayan architecture
Powell drawing Imaginary art at his studio in Samui
Powell at work in his Samui studio
Powell at work in his Samui studio
A dome Rob and fellow architect friends built as a project
Rob with fellow student friends in Sydney
Rob with fellow student friends in Sydney
Rob in a fishing boat in Koh Samui, Thailand
Selected Exhibitions
Robert’s work has been widely exhibited in galleries and museums throughout the world, Paris, Kyoto, Kathmandu, Washington DC, London, New York, Zurich, Hong Kong, Bangkok; and is the subject of two books and numerous articles in journals and newspapers.
2001 Zeichnungen aus dem Himalaya ron Robert Powell Himalayan Drawings: Solo Exhibition
In 2001, the Zurich Ethnographic Museum mounted a retrospective exhibition of Powell’s Himalayan documentary work. 142 works were shown spanning a period of 25 years and geographically covering the length of Himalayas, from the Kalas Valleys on the border of Afghanistan to the eastern outpost of Tibetan culture, Gyalthang, in N W Yunnan. The cultures represented in these works include Animist worship from the Hindu Kush, the Shamanim of Nepal’s middle hills, the Tibetan Buddhism of Ladakh, Mustang, and Gyalthang and the ancient mingling of Hinduism and Buddhism by the Newars of Kathmandu valley. Accompanying the eight month long exhibition was a 300 page catalogue with articles by renowned scholars and critics: Robert Powell Himalayan Drawings, pub. VolkerkundemuseumZurich, 2001.
2000 Earth Door Sky Door: Solo Exhibition
Shirley Day Gallery, London, UK
1999 Behind the Himalayas: Paintings of Mustang: Solo Exhibition
An eight month long exhibition of Powell’s documentary and imaginary work was held at the Arthur C Sackler Gallery, the Simithsonian’s Asian Art Museum, Washington DC, USA.
1999 Devi the Great Goddess
Arthur Sackler Gallery, Asian Art Museum, Smithsonian’s Institute, Washington DC, USA
1995 Mustang: Solo Exhibition
Patan Museum, Patan, Nepal
1984 Kyoto: Solo Exhibition
Nagahara Residence, Nishijen, Kyoto, Japan
1982 Kathmandu Valley: Solo Exhibition
October Gallery, Kathmandu, Nepal
1980 Bhakthapur: Solo Exhibition
October Gallery, Kathmandu, Nepal
1977 Ladakh: Solo Exhibition
Gallerie de l’Abbeye, Paris, France
Press, Online Articles & Reviews
Visionary artist brought out Mustang’s magic with pen, pencil and brush
By Linda Kentro and James Giambrone – December 2020 – Nepali Times
https://tonywheeler.com.au/robert-powell-the-himalayan-artist/
Robert Powell – A Himalayan Artist
By Tony Wheeler – December 2020
https://tonywheeler.com.au/robert-powell-the-himalayan-artist/
Of Architecture, Art and an Artist
August 2010 – ECS Nepal
http://ecs.com.np/features/of-architecture-art-and-an-artist
Mustang in shadows and light
By Kunda Dixit – September 2019 – Nepali Times
https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/mustang-in-shadows-and-light/
Imaginary Documentation: Review of Robert Powell’s work
By Mark Turin – October 2002 – Nepali Times
https://markturin.sites.olt.ubc.ca/files/2018/07/review_powell.pdf
Taragaon Museum
http://taragaonmuseum.com/contributor/robert-powell/
Earth Door Sky Door Review
By Ratan Rai, Himal: October 1999: 46-49
Revelations of Another World
Primal Landscapes of Tibetan Gods
By Jane Foulders, The Japan Times, 22nd August 1999
Behind The Himalayas, Paintings of Mustang
By Lee A. Lawrence, The Wall Street Journal, 5 March 1999
Mustang: Evocative Fact and Fiction,
By Michael O’Sullivan, The Washington Post
Weekend, 19 February, 1999: 55-56
Images of the Stark Ages
By Benjamin Forgev, The Washington Post 14 February 1999
Records of Tho.ling. A Literary and Visual Reconstruction of the Mother Monastery in Gu.ge
by Roberto Vitali. London: High Asia, Distributed by Serindia, 1999
Dery, the Gral Goddess
Catalogue of exhibition published for Arthur M. Sackler Gallery, Smithsonian Institution,
Washington D.C, 1999
Portfolio. Mustang Series and Kathmandu Valley Series
Oxford University Press and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery, Smithsonian Institution
Asian Art and Culture, Fall 1996: 58-81
Illustrations for Onkels Tochter, keine sonst
(A book on Magar kinship, mythology and shamanic religion)
by Michael Oppitz, Frankfurt: Suhrkamp, 1991
Tibetan Houses in Ladakh Art and Archaeology
Research Papers, London, December 1977: 55-63
Publications
Robert Powell authored two highly detailed books about the Himalayas. While his artwork provides the anchor for each publication, it is Rob’s depth of knowledge and the way he forensically studies, portrays and discusses his subjects that lifts these works to even higher literary peaks.
Paintings of Mustang by Robert Powell
by Robert Powell