“Yoga’s techniques and goals move in and through and outside of religion in very interesting and complex ways,” says Debra Diamond, associate curator of south and southeastern Asian art for the Smithsonian Institution’s Freer and Sackler galleries. Following its Washington debut, “Yoga: The Art of Transformation,” an exhibition on yoga in Indian art history, was at the San Francisco Asian Art Museum, and it will soon travel to the Cleveland Museum of Art for the summer. More →

May 16, 2014

This expression of Sufism, the mystical branch of Islam, “is creating an atmosphere to pray, and it’s an offering. I think it’s just a physical way of expressing this love for the divine, and in the whirling it becomes a meditation,” says Manjula Kumar, a program manager at the Smithsonian Institution. More →

December 13, 2013

“There is a profound sense of the divine sparks of God being everywhere and that the role of the devoted person is to bring those divine sparks together again.” More →

November 21, 2012

“The message is that the Buddha is within and moving about in very mysterious ways,” says James Ulak, senior curator of Japanese art at the Smithsonian Institution’s Freer and Sackler Galleries. More →

May 11, 2012

The exhibition “Prayers and Portraits: Unfolding the Netherlandish Diptych” consists of religious paintings produced under the umbrella of the Roman Catholic Church and spans the 15th and 16th centuries. More →

January 5, 2007

Thirty-five years after his death, the nation is still coming to terms with the life of the Reverend Martin Luther King Jr. Theologians, politicians, historians, and artists continue to discuss King’s legacy. More →

January 17, 2003

British painter Stanley Spencer saw God in everything and painted biblical scenes set in his small hometown of Cookham. Now, for the first time in its history, Washington, DC’s Hirshhorn Museum is presenting an exhibit on Spencer and his religious art. More →

November 7, 1997