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THE NEW YORK TIMES By Campbell Robertson and Richard Perez-Pena ARKANSAS---Despite intensifying criticism from business leaders both within and outside of Arkansas, the state legislature on Tuesday passed its version of a measure billed as a religious freedom law, joining Indiana in a swirl of controversy that shows little sign of calming. The Arkansas bill, passed when the General Assembly concurred on three amendments from the State Senate, now goes to the state’s Republican governor, Asa Hutchinson, who expressed reservations about an earlier bill but more recently said he would sign the measure if it “reaches my desk in similar form as to what has been passed in 20 other states.” The Arkansas Senate passed the measure last week. [ link ]

THE INDIANAPOLIS STAR By Editorial Board INDIANA---We are at a critical moment in Indiana's history. And much is at stake. Our image. Only bold action — action that sends an unmistakable message to the world that our state will not tolerate discrimination against any of its citizens — will be enough to reverse the damage. Gov. Mike Pence and the General Assembly need to enact a state law to prohibit discrimination in employment, housing, education and public accommodations on the basis of a person's sexual orientation or gender identity. Those protections and RFRA can co-exist. They do elsewhere. [ link ]

THE NEW YORK TIMES By Erik Eckholm When the federal government adopted a religious protection act in 1993, same-sex marriage was not on the horizon. An informal coalition of liberals and conservatives endorsed the Religious Freedom Restoration Act because it seemed to protect members of vulnerable religious minorities from punishment for the exercise of their beliefs. The federal legislation was set off by a case involving Native Americans who were fired and denied unemployment benefits because they took part in ceremonies with peyote, an illegal drug. Twenty states, including Indiana last week, have since passed their own versions of religious freedom laws . [ link ]

BLOUIN | ARTINFO By Scott Indrisek Artware’s new Kehinde Wiley porcelain plates So you’ve made plans to invite your five closest friends over for a home-cooked meal, an opportunity to discuss the most pressing artistic matters of the day.... But really imagine this hypothetical scenario — and how much better it would be if the whole time you were actually eating your Chilean sea bass (and side of perfectly steamed asparagus) using Artware’s new Kehinde Wiley porcelain plates ! At a mere $525 for the set, you get six — three men, three women — each cropped in such a way that you’re eating your meal off of someone’s face, which is always a confusing and exciting experience. Bon appetit! [ link ]

ANCIENT ORIGINS PAKISTAN---Two rare and ancient Buddha statues have been unearthed at the Bhamala Stupa site in Pakistan. The largest ever statue found at the site depicts the death of ancient sage Buddha. A second statue unearthed is a Buddha with a double halo, the first of this type to be found at Bhamala Stupa. The team of archaeologists with the Department of Archaeology and Museums in Pakistan found these artifacts and 510 others at the Bhamala Stupa archaeological complex, a UNESCO Heritage site. Dr. Abdul Samad, director of the Department of Archaeology, Hazara University says of the artifacts, “This is one of the few sites in the world to have the cruciform Stupa which was reserved for Buddha himself.” [ link ]

ALPHA OMEGA ARTS By Gregory Disney-Britton We've read the bill . We've listened to the rhetoric , and the clear loser in this week's debate over Indiana's " religious freedom " bill, is Christian unity. We however  found solace  in Hugo Simberg’s "The Wounded Angel." Painted in 1903, the artist never explained  the meaning but left that up to the individual viewer. In it today, we see the two poles in a Christian-centered debate over religious freedom: one is sullen, and the other is angry. Both, however, march forward, upholding the symbol of their faith, and that makes " The Wounded Angel " (above) our  NEWS OF WEEK .

ARTNET | NEWS By Christie Chu A rendering of the design for the Amazing World of Dr. Seuss Museum's "City Zoo Interactive Display." Photo: courtesy of Boston Globe/ Springfield Museums. ILLINOIS---The Amazing World of Dr. Seuss, the first museum dedicated to a literary figure's life work, will open its doors in June 2016. It will be an interactive and bilingual experience, focusing on literacy and reading activities for people of all ages. The museum will operate under the Springfield Museums' umbrella, an institution that oversees four other museums, according to the Boston Globe , which had the story. Situated in the author's own hometown, the museum's estimated cost is $3.5 million. [ link ]

THE MONITOR By Emily Sides A 10-foot bronze statue of the Virgin Mary sits completed in the Italian foundry where it was created. The statue will find a permanent home in a redesigned entrance at the Basilica of Our Lady of San Juan del Valle - National Shrine in San Juan. courtesy photo TEXAS---The nearly one-mile walk around the Basilica of Our Lady of San Juan del Valle-National Shrine grounds has 30 bronze statues showing a dozen scenes of Jesus Christ and the cross, known as the Stations of the Cross. That five-year art project was completed in 1993. Italian woodcrafter Edmund Rabanser created the life-sized statutes first in wood before they were cast in bronze. [ link ]

INDIANAPOLIS STAR By Tony Cook "I signed SEA 101 today to ensure religious liberty is fully protected under IN law" Courtesy of Gov. Pence's Twitter page INDIANA---The nation's latest legislative battle over religious freedom and gay rights came to a close Thursday when Indiana Gov. Mike Pence signed a controversial " religious freedom " bill into law. His action followed two days of intense pressure from opponents — including technology company executives and convention organizers — who fear the measure could allow discrimination, particularly against gays and lesbians. Pence and leaders of the Republican-controlled General Assembly called those concerns a "misunderstanding." [ link ]

RUSSIAN TODAY | RT Courtesy ibtimes.co.uk IRAN---Whether they’re authentic or not, videos of Islamic State militants destroying ancient artifacts at Iraq’s Mosul Museum and elsewhere are “propaganda videos” meant as “heritage terror,” an Islamic art professor told RT. The videos show men with sledgehammers knocking over statues, smashing antiquities and torching ancient writing. But there are questions being raised about the authenticity of the videos, when it’s known that the Islamic State (IS, formerly known as ISIS/ISIL) needs money to keep operating its terror campaign – and antiquities could fetch large sums of money on the black market. [ link ]

LOS ANGELES TIMES By David NG Seated ArhatKorea, Joseon dynasty (1392-1910), 18th-19th centurySculptureMolded stoneware with underglaze blue and clear glaze. Collection of the Los Angeles County Museum of Art  CALIFORNIA---In a deal that will be the longest corporate sponsorship in its history, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art is expected to announce Thursday a partnership with Korean automaker Hyundai, a ten-year agreement that will put a spotlight on Korean art through exhibitions and provide support for the museum's art and technology program. Neither LACMA nor representatives of Hyundai Motor Company, the Seoul-based automobile manufacturer, would put an exact dollar figure on the deal, which the museum is calling "The Hyundai Project." LACMA director Michael Govan would say only that it was in "the millions of dollars." [ link ]

THE CHRISTIAN SCIENCE MONITOR By Harry Bruinius INDIANA---Over a decade ago, many liberal states, including Connecticut, Illinois, and Rhode Island, passed their own versions of the 22-year-old federal Religious Freedom Restoration Act. Overall, at least 19 states have passed similar bills, since the federal law does not apply to the states, the US Supreme Court ruled in 1997. On Monday, Indiana became the latest state to pass such legislation. But since last year, the Supreme Court’s Hobby Lobby decision has changed the bipartisan tenor of the law. The nation’s highest court used the federal religious freedom statute to rule that closely held corporations with religious objections to contraceptives were exempt from the Obamacare provision requiring their coverage. Since then, conservatives have seen state religious freedom laws as a means to combat the expanding definition of marriage, as well as other hot-button social issues. [ link ]

SMITHSONIAN MAGAZINE By Kristen Stipanov The Birth of Eve by Judith Schaechter, 2013 was recently added to the collections of the Smithsonian American Art Museum's Renwick Gallery. (©2013 Judith Schaechter. Image courtesy of Claire Oliver Gallery & the artist) WASHINGTON, DC--- Judith Schaechter , a stained glass artist from Philadelphia, has devoted her life to art with both unique style and subject matter. Most of her work, like the Renwick Gallery’s recent acquisition, "The Birth of Eve," is displayed using lightboxes, to achieve a stunning effect. “I’m not religious,” she says. Reflecting on her inspiration for the piece, Schaechter remembered that she had been reading a book called " Ladies and Gentlemen, The Bible! " by Jonathan Goldstein , whose first chapter is a humorous retelling of the Genesis story. In concept and in technique, Judith Schaechter is pushing glass art forward. [ link ]

ARTNET | NEWS By Zoe Li The controversial Buddha statue encases a thousand-year-old mummy of a monk. Image: Drents Museum. HUNGARY---China claims a Buddha statue, which caused a sensation when a mummified monk was discovered inside it, was stolen from Fujian Province two decades ago. It was recently the centerpiece of an ongoing exhibition at the Hungarian Natural History Museum, until it was pulled out by its owner last Friday, reports the state-run Xinhua news agency . [ link ]

RENO-GAZETTE JOURNAL By Jenny Kane Andy Weber, a world authority on Tibetan Buddhist art and the artist behind this piece, “Chenrezig,” will be visiting Reno’s Dharmakaya Buddhist Center this week. (Photo: Courtesy of Dharmakaya Buddhist Center) NEVADA---When Andy Weber paints, he finds peace of mind.Originally from Germany, Weber, who will be visiting Reno’s Dharmakaya Buddhist Center this week, has become a world authority on Tibetan Buddhist art. He fell in love with Buddhism during his trip to temples high in the mountains of Nepal. Two years later, he began to study the art of thangka paintings, or Tibetan scroll paintings. Weber is a one-of-kind teacher in this genre of art, as he spent seven years living and studying the iconographical art of Tibetan Buddhism under the guidance of accomplished masters in India and Nepal. [ link ]

CATHOLIC NEWS AGENCY By Matt Hadro WASHINGTON, DC---Can a portrait of a human face evangelize? Curators of a brand-new traveling art exhibit answer a resounding “Yes.” The exhibit seeks to recover a classical, Christian view of the human person made in God’s image, rather than a “bizarre” or “grotesque” view of man in the artist’s image, seen all too often in the 20th century, say organizers. The exhibit debuted March 19 in Beijing’s Wangfujing Cathedral, and will travel to Moscow’s Pokrovsky Cultural Center in mid-April, followed by two weeks at New York University’s Catholic Center in June. “There is really great Christian art being made today and we need to promote and support it,” stated Terrence McKeegan, an organizer of the “One Faith: East and West” exhibit featuring contemporary Christian artists from three continents. [ link ]

THE NEW YORK TIMES By Holland Cotter THE PAINTER’S HAND Piero di Cosimo’s “Madonna and Child With Two Musician Angels” (circa 1504-1507), on view at the National Gallery of Art, and, left, details from the work. When you view it in person, you sense the artist’s motion, from thin highlights to the way he smooshed paint with his fingers. Credit Fondazione Giorgio Cini, Galleria di Palazzo Cini, Venice Cameraphoto Arte, Venice/Art Resource, New York, right, and National Gallery of Art Once upon a time, our big museums were the “quiet cars” of a fast-track American culture industry. That model is pretty much a generational memory now. Today, millions of people stream through major museums, filling the air with a restless rustle and buzz. Accessibility is the first and last word on the lips of museum directors. A question is what, exactly, in an age of expanded digital access, are museum audiences seeing? A recent scientific study published in the journal Acta Psychologica suggests ...

T MAGAZINE By Cathy Horyn Sam Shahid in the living room of his three-story home in Greenwich Village. François Halard As an art director, Sam Shahid composes pictures that make you stop and look: a young couple, nude, on the back of an elephant; a tangle of men engaged in a game of sexual Twister. Shahid, in his uniform of khakis and a crisp white shirt, describes his style as American Pure. “I always use the words ‘simplicity’ and ‘direct,’ ” he says. To enter Shahid’s three-story prewar apartment in Greenwich Village is to understand those words, and to get the sense that success has bought him something else: silence. [ More ]

THE NEW YORK TIMES By Damon Linker Ask a devout, theologically literate ­Roman Catholic to describe the institution of the church, and you’re likely to be told that it was founded by Jesus Christ at the moment he gave his disciple ­Peter the “keys to the kingdom of heaven” and vowed that “whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven.” “ God’s Bankers ” provides an exhaustive history of financial machinations at the center of the church in Rome, from the final decades of the 19th century down to Pope Francis’ sincere but as yet inconclusive efforts to reform the church’s labyrinthine bureaucracy (the Curia) and the Vatican Bank (named Istituto per le Opere di Religione, or Institute for the Works of Religion, also known as the I.O.R.). [ link ]

ASIA SOCIETY Artwork from Creative Voices of Muslim Asia NEW YORK---Doris Duke Foundation for Islamic Art Awards Grant to Asia Society NY for Performing Arts Project Asia Society NY has been awarded $100,000 from the Doris Duke Foundation for Islamic Art through its Building Bridges Program. The grant will support Encounters at the Crossroads, a two-year performing arts project that will include our partnership with the Aga Khan Music Initiative, and which is part of our interdisciplinary Creative Voices of Muslim Asia initiative. [ link ]

JERUSALEM POST This carving on the facade of Martin Luther’s church in Wittenberg, Germany, shows Jews suckling at a sow’s teat. . (photo credit:JTA) GERMANY---Wittenberg, Germany is famous as the place where Martin Luther nailed his 95 theses to the door of the Wittenberg castle’s church, and where the Protestant Reformation began, but the facade of its otherwise grand Stadtkirche, the church where Luther preached, features another medieval motif known as the Judensau (Jew’s sow). This particular Judensau (1305) shows Jews suckling at the sow’s teat while another feeds at the animal’s anus. Above it appears an inscription in Latin letters, “Rabini Shem hamphoras.” The phrase is gibberish, but refers to the Hebrew words “Shem HaMephorash,” a term for one of the hidden names of God. [ link ]

ALPHA OMEGA ARTS By Gregory Disney-Britton Much has been made of what Kehinde Wiley's  art says about race and sexuality, but very little  about religion. In 2008, the first Alpha Omega Prize honored Wiley's " The Dead Christ in a Tomb ," and we've been following him closely ever since. In his portraits, he asserts a new cultural narrative about Christianity and claims this dominant force in African American life as his own. That's why Wiley's religious works including “ Saint Gregory Palamas " (above) now at the Brooklyn Museum is our NEWS OF WEEK .

ARTNET | NEWS By Sarah Sarah Cascone Sculpture in the Age of Donatello: Renaissance Masterpieces from Florence Cathedral NEW YORK---If you haven't visited New York's Museum of Biblical Art (MoBiA) recently, now is the time to go: the museum is offering a rare, if not once-in-a-lifetime chance to see Renaissance masterpieces here in the city in its current show, " Sculpture in the Age of Donatello: Renaissance Masterpieces from Florence Cathedral " ( see Donatello Looms Larger Than Life at the Museum of Biblical Art). With pieces by Donatello, Nanni di Banco, Luca della Robbia , and Filippo Brunelleschi , the exhibition showcases "work that normally never leaves Italy, and, indeed in some cases, has never left Florence," co-curator Timothy Verdon, director of Florence's Museo dell'Opera del Duomo, told artnet News. [ Video ]

NUVO MAGAZINE By Scott Shoger INDIANA---"I won the ArtPrize the same week that Malala won the Nobel Prize," Anila Quayyum Agha says with a mix of pride and restraint, sitting across from this reporter at the kitchen table at her near-Eastside home. The walls are lined with work by her students — Agha is an associate professor of drawing at Herron; she earned tenure last year — alongside brushed metal wall pieces by Steve Prachyl, her engineer and fiancé, who's puttering around upstairs while consuming epic amounts of biscotti. One of the patterned cubes from her Intersections series hangs from the ceiling; she says she turns it on at night, that the shadow patterns the piece projects on the wall are soothing. [ link ]

THE ART NEWSPAPER By Anny Shaw The online retail giant eBay today launched a new section of its website dedicated to live auctions at Sotheby’s. Modern and contemporary photographs by Man Ray, Paul Strand and László Moholy-Nagy are among the works for sale in the first auction, which will be streamed live on 1 April. The second sale of New York memorabilia, which includes a ten-foot-tall sign from Yankee Stadium from the collection of the basketball player Reggie Jackson (est $300,000-$600,000), takes place on 2 April. Collectors can now browse the platform and place bids in advance of the sales. [ link ]

THE GUARDIAN  By Constanze Letsch TURKEY---They don’t have much to laugh about. But four young Syrian refugees from Aleppo believe humour may be the only antidote to the horrors taking place back home. The films and videos on Watfe and his three friends’ website mock the Islamist extremists and depict them as naive simpletons, hypocritical zealots and brutal thugs. It’s a high-risk undertaking. They have had to move house and keep their addresses secret from even their best friends after receiving death threats.Indeed, mocking Isis is a growing sport in the region, with satires on the extremists becoming popular internet and TV entertainment across the Middle East. [ link ]

THE INDIANAPOLIS STAR By Stephanie Wang One tower ar the Hindu Temple of Central Indiana, 3350 N. German Church Rd., Indianapolis (Photo: Charlie Nye / The Star) INDIANA---For nearly 10 years, much of Indianapolis' growing Hindu population has worshipped in a temporary space — a functional yet spartan building, so unlike the intricately ornate temples in India. But in June, the Hindu Temple of Central Indiana will unveil a long-awaited, $10 million expansion. It will add a worship hall that includes 17 shrines, with a skylight surrounded by four new carved towers that transform the sand-colored building into a more recognizable temple silhouette. [ link ]

ALPHA OMEGA ARTS Piotr Uklański (born 1968), Untitled (Skull), 2000. Platinum print. Collection of the artist. NEW YORK---The Metropolitan Museum of Art presents " Fatal Attraction: Piotr Uklański Photographs " the first survey of this provocative artist’s photography. Known for working in a wide variety of media including installation, fiber art, resin paintings, and collage, Uklański (born 1968) invests overlooked and exhausted styles with new meanings. This Polish-born, New York-based artist similarly explores clichéd or obsolete photographic languages.

STANDARD TIMES By Andrew Atterbury PHOTOS BY Michelle Gaitan/Standard-Times Newly framed paintings by Cristóbal de Villalpando are displayed at the San Angelo Museum of Fine Arts. The paintings are part of the Mexican Baroque Masterpiece exhibit on display until April 5. TEXAS---Centuries ago, Cristóbal de Villalpando's paintings depicting scenes from the life of St. Francis hung in the Franciscan monastery cloister, tucked into a valley of green hills in Antigua, Guatemala. The monastery commissioned 49 colossal pieces in 1695 and in the years since, time has taken its toll on the collection. Today 17 of the works remain, three of which survive in the United States. The San Angelo Museum of Fine Arts acquired two of them in 2010, but not until December were they available to public eyes as part of the Mexican Baroque Masterpieces gallery. Even still, they weren't yet witnessed in their full splendor. [ link ]

THE CREATORS PROJECT By Becky Chung Naomi and Her Daughters, Kehinde Wiley, 2013 inspired by an 1804 work by George Dawe Though we're hesitant to admit we watch it, there's no denying Empire is having a cultural moment. What has truly stood out, however, is the abundance of art in the Lyons’ universe: it’s everywhere. From Brooklyn-based Kehinde Wiley’s majestic oil paintings ( Wiley was recently sucked into his own drama ) to Vincent van Gogh masterpieces, to a Klimt Cookie deems "ugly," art is its own character in the show. Another Wiley work appears during Cookie's first walkthrough of Lucious' house, or rather the tour of the life he built while she was in prison. The work is also part of the World Stage series. The strong mother pictured is especially symbolic of Cookie's character and her upcoming quest to find her place in the family. [ link ]

THE NEW YORK TIMES By Michael Paulsen FLORIDA---“It gives me a serenity, and allows me to think clearer,” Mr. Bush said as he exited the tile-roof church here on a recent Sunday, exchanging greetings and, with the ease of a longtime politician, acquiescing to the occasional photo. “It’s made me a better person.” Twenty years after Mr. Bush converted to Catholicism, the religion of his wife, following a difficult and unsuccessful political campaign that had put strain on his marriage, his faith has become a central element of the way he shapes his life and frames his views on public policy. And now, as he explores a bid for the presidency, his religion has become a focal point of early appeals to evangelical activists, who are particularly important in a Republican primary that is often dominated by religious voters. [ link ]

THE NEW YORK TIMES By Jennifer Schuessler Alonzo Chappel’s 1867 painting of Abraham Lincoln on his deathbed is part of the exhibition "Lincoln and the Jews" at the New-York Historical Society. The work prominently features Dr. Charles Liebermann, a Russian-born Jewish ophthalmologist and a leading Washington physician, gazing intently at the president. NEW YORK---“Lincoln played an important role in turning Jews from outsiders in America to insiders,” said Jonathan D. Sarna, a historian at Brandeis University and the author, with Mr. Shapell, of the new, separately published book “Lincoln and the Jews,” which inspired the show. “It’s a subject that has really been overlooked.” The show includes about 100 letters, photographs and other artifacts, many never previously exhibited, drawn largely from the Shapell Manuscript Collection, assembled by the collector and philanthropist Benjamin Shapell. Arranged chronologically, the exhibition presents the broader story of Lincol...

THE IRISH TIMES By Aidan Dunne From left: St Mary Magdalene in the Wilderness, circa 1625, by Domenichino; St Sebastian Tended by St Irene, circa 1650-52, by Luca Giordano; St Rufina (1630s) by Francisco de Zurbarán. Photographs: copyright National Gallery of Ireland IRELAND---In a way, Passion & Persuasion: Images of Baroque Saints is as interesting for what we don’t see as for what we do. Drawn from the National Gallery’s Italian, Spanish and Flemish collections, it gathers a sizeable group of carefully composed 17th-century paintings. They take the form of individual portraits and theatrical tableaux of varying complexity. Among the individual portraits is a poised, devout St Rufina by Francisco de Zurbarán, for example, her figure and drapery beautifully modelled against a dark background. [ link ]

THE INDEPENDENT By Marcus Field A portrait of the artist as an angry man PUBLISHING---In August 1913, nine-year-old Marcus Rotkovitch landed at Ellis Island with his mother and sister. The new arrivals were on their way from Dvinsk, Russia, where conditions for Jews had become intolerable, to Portland, Oregon, where the family patriarch, Yacov, was already settled. As young Marcus travelled across America, he wore a sign bearing the words: "I do not speak English." It would be another 25 years before he became an American citizen, and not until 1940 did he begin to call himself Mark Rothko , a name which now ranks as one of the most famous in the history of modern art. [ link ]

FLAVORWIRE By Sarah Seltzer Anthony of Padua, 2013. Oil on canvas, 72 x 60 in. (182.9 x 152.4 cm). Seattle Art Museum; gift of the Contemporary Collectors Forum, 2013.8. NEW YORK--- Kehinde Wiley’s retrospective at the Brooklyn Museum is New York’s must-see art show of the spring. Wiley is best known for painting young black and brown men, in their street clothes, styles that the likes of Bill O’Reilly and Joe Scarborough would surely scold. Yet it was inevitable, as with other easily comprehensible pieces of art that make a minority experience central — such as Selma, for instance — that there would ensue a backlash that went beyond the methods and context of the art, to attack the artist. This backlash came when the Village Voice ran a pan of the new exhibit by a white critic, Jessica Dawson, which trades in every homophobic, racist assumption in the book. [ link ]

SAN DIEGO JEWISH WORLD By Donald H. Harrison " Flemish Tara " by brothers Einar and Jamex De La Torre. Tara (mother of all Buddhas) holds a seed pod, flower and bud, representing the past, present and future, and she is juxtaposed within the work with a miniature reproduction of Rogier van der Weyden’s painting of Jesus being removed from the cross. As crucifying Jesus was a defilement of his body, so too is the image of Tara defiled with graffiti. CALIFORNIA---Curators Larry and Debby Kline have pulled together a multi-religious, multi-media exhibition in which religious symbols are conflated with symbols from other human arenas to produce an exhibition which may inspire some, anger others, but get everyone to think. Titled “Seeing is Believing: A Reinvention of Articles of Faith,” the free exhibit at the Gotthelf Art Gallery at the Lawrence Family JCC opened on Wednesday, March 11, and will run through Wednesday, May 27. [ link ]

JAPAN TIMES By Daisuke Kikuchi 'The Great Departure' from Loriyan Tangai (Kushan Dynasty, Second century A.D.) JAPAN---As a major attraction of the “Festival of India in Japan 2014-15,” this exhibition brings to Japan around 80 Indian Buddhist artworks from the Indian Museum, Kolkata, which was founded in 1814 and is the oldest general museum in India. Seven aspects of Buddhist statues are being covered: the conceptual underpinnings of the statues, the life of Gautama Buddha, the visual concepts of Buddha, variations of Bodhisattvas and other gods, the use of pagodas, Vajrayana (Buddhist tantra) and the written teachings of sutras. [ link ] Tokyo National Museum; 13-9 Ueno Park, Taito-ku, Tokyo. Ueno Stn. 9:30 a.m.-5 p.m. (Fri. till 8 p.m., from April 4, Sat., Sun., holidays till 6 p.m.). ¥1,400. Closed Mon. 03-5777-8600; www.tnm.jp

THE NEW YORK TIMES By Laurie Goodstein After three decades of debate over its stance on homosexuality, members of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) voted on Tuesday to change the definition of marriage in the church’s constitution to include same-sex marriage. The final approval by a majority of the church’s 171 regional bodies, known as presbyteries, enshrines a change recommended last year by the church’s General Assembly. The vote amends the church’s constitution to broaden marriage from being between “a man and a woman” to “two people, traditionally a man and a woman.” [ link ]

ALPHA OMEGA ARTS By Ernest Disney-Britton Sacred Poem LXX, 3.25 × 4.625 × 4.625 in., pages from 1849 Parish Psalmody, tissue, gold leaf, antique wooden box (box for the storage of men's detachable collar). open: 9.5 x 4.625 x 2.325 in., 2010 During Sunday's sermon, my pastor told the story of a woman who found her despair unbearable but found peace in the Book of Psalms. During times of difficulty, many of us open up the Book of Psalms and use the Jewish King's poetic praises to ask God for mercy. The "Sacred Poem Series" by Carol P. Kunstadt "takes physical, material, and intellectual inspiration from the Parish Psalmody, A Collection of Psalms and Hymns for Public Worship , published in 1849." Because Carol sees a book as a container to protect and present, she created this gold leafed box for King David's poetic praises.  For more on Carol's sacred poems, visit her website at carolekunstadt.com .

NBC NEWS | NBCBLK By Souleo Adwale, 2010. Bronze, 24 x 16 x 11 inches. Occupation: Co-founder of Out & About NYC Magazine NEW YORK--- Kehinde Wiley asserts the emergence of a new cultural narrative by reimagining the works of old masters and replacing European aristocrats with contemporary black individuals. Growing up in South-Central Los Angeles in the 1980s, Wiley was exposed to an environment of violence and poverty. At the age of 11, his perception of the world began to broaden and deepen as he tapped into his innate artistic talents. From there he discovered his first muse: himself. Conducting self-portraiture and painting the body allowed him to hone his skills and he further developed them at the San Francisco Art Institute and Yale. [ link ]

ALPHA OMEGA ARTS By Ernest Disney-Britton Lot 109 “Ink Lotus” by H. H. Dorje Chang III, ink and color on paper. Script translates, "An utter chaos strewn with broken strokes: a peculiar sight, yet wondrously endowed with a soul-soothing charm." With the rush of Asia Week  comes a rush of desire to learn more about Buddhism , and there has been an explosion of Buddhist news this past week. There has been news about the Chinese government's plans for reincarnation and new attention on Buddhist cults . Buddhist censorship made headlines too, and there's renewed interest in a Buddhist artist and spiritual leader, known as the “Living Buddha”, H. H. Dorje Chang III . On Sunday, March 22nd, the painting "Ink Lotus" by H. H. Dorje Chang III will be auctioned along with other Buddhist art at Gianguan Auction . The ink and color on paper work is an explosion of line and emotion that reflects the inner journey, and that explosion of debate will continue w...

THE GULF TODAY UAE---The artists and designers shortlisted for the prestigious Jameel Prize will have their work displayed in an exhibition starting next week at the Sharjah Museum of Islamic Civilisation. The international prize for art inspired by Islamic heritage is awarded by London’s Victoria and Albert Museum in partnership with Art Jameel , one of the Abdul Latif Jameel Community Initiatives (ALJCI). The Sharjah Museum of Islamic Civilisation is the only venue in the Middle East to display the diverse works of 10 artists shortlisted by a panel of expert judges chaired by V&A Director Martin Roth from a field of more than 270 nominations from around the world. [ link ]

THE WALL STREET JOURNAL By Lee Lawrence Parinibbana(c. 1198) from Kubyauknge Temple, Myinkaba village. Photo: Bagan Archaeological Museum/Photo: Sean Dungan NEW YORK---The Asia Society has long been involved in Myanmar’s political opening through forums, policy recommendations and such public gestures as conferring its 2011 Global Vision Award on Aung San Suu Kyi, a symbol of peaceful political change. By organizing “Buddhist Art of Myanmar” around themes—The Image of the Buddha in Myanmar, Lives of the Buddha, Ritual and Devotion—the show mixes periods and places, making it not so much an art-historical overview as a rich and satisfying sampling. [ link ]

THE NEW YORK TIMES By Wai Moe and Austin Ramzy MYANMAR---A bar manager from New Zealand and two Burmese men were sentenced to two years in prison in Myanmar on Tuesday for posting an image online of the Buddha wearing headphones to promote an event. The court in Yangon said the image denigrated Buddhism and was a violation of Myanmar’s religion act, which prohibits insulting, damaging or destroying religion. The case has added to growing concerns about religious and ethnic intolerance in majority-Buddhist Myanmar, also known as Burma, where Muslims have faced increasing discrimination and violence. [ link ]

ARTNET NEWS By Sam Gaskin Hu Junjun, Eastern Jin Dynasty (2014). Courtesy Junjun Hu Studio. The word for "contradiction" in Chinese literally translates as "spear shield," and derives from the story of a village weapon smith caught bragging both that his spears can pierce anything and that his shields are impenetrable. Contemporary artist Hu Junjun finds herself in a position almost as fraught: that of a Buddhist contemporary artist, someone devoted to both self expression and the negation of the self. Hu paints in oil, using a grid to map images on linen. In her series “Beyond the Mountain" (2012–13), she took sections from ancient shanshui, or landscape paintings, and painstakingly recreated them, box by box, in pale grays and browns, leaving the white grids visible–like grout between tiles —in her finished works. [ link ]

THE INDIANAPOLIS STAR By Tony Cook and Stephanie Wang INDIANA---An Indiana House committee today approved controversial religious freedom legislation that could protect business owners who don't want to provide services for same-sex weddings. Despite better organized opposition to the measure, the House Judiciary Committee voted 9-4 to send the measure to the full House for consideration. Supporters say Senate Bill 101 would add legal protections for people with strong religious beliefs, including business owners who don't want to provide services for same-sex wedding ceremonies. [l ink ]

HYPERALLERGIC By Jillian Steinhauer Kehinde Wiley’s “Femme Piquée par un Serpent” (2008) at the Brooklyn Museum (photo by Garrett Ziegler/Flickr) NEW YORK---If you’re looking for a very generous review of the Kehinde Wiley exhibition at the Brooklyn Museum , read Roberta Smith . If you’re looking for one that’s startlingly homophobic and racist, read Jessica Dawson . The latter piece, in the Village Voice, is truly one of the most bizarre and poor excuses for art criticism I’ve read in a very long time. That Dawson not only wrote this, but that Village Voice editors saw fit to publish it, makes it an urgent example of why journalism needs to diversify — badly and soon. [ link ]

THE NEW YORK TIMES By Roberta Smith "Saint John the Baptist" (2013) by Kehinde Wiley NEW YORK---You can love or hate Kehinde Wiley’s bright, brash, history-laden, kitsch-tinged portraits of confident, even imperious young black men and women. But it is hard to ignore them, especially right now, with scores of them bristling forth from “ Kehinde Wiley: A New Republic ,” the artist’s mind-teasing, eye-catching survey at the Brooklyn Museum. Since 2001, Mr. Wiley has been inserting black individuals into the generally lily-white history of Western portraiture, casting them in poses — including on rearing steeds — derived from Renaissance and old master paintings of saints, kings, emperors, prophets, military leaders, dandies and burghers. In a way that few other living artists match, Mr. Wiley’s art is overtly, legibly full of the present. [ link ]

ARTNEWS By Sarah Douglas Nam June Paik at Gagosian. ALL PHOTOS BY ARTNEWS NEW YORK---The mascot for this year’s edition of Art Basel Hong Kong may very well be the 2005 mixed media installation by Korean artist Nam June Paik that fronts Gagosian Gallery’s booth. Golden Buddha consists of a Buddha figure watching itself on a TV monitor, behind which is a camera that films the Buddha and, naturally, anyone who stands behind the Buddha to look at the piece. The work, one of the most photographed works at the fair’s VIP preview at the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre on Friday evening, reads like a Zen koan for the Instagram age: the buddha is watching you watch yourself. [ link ]

THE HUFFINGTON POST By Julia Craven UTAH---It was undoubtedly a victory for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people in Utah. After long negotiation, the state legislature on Wednesday passed a law that bars discrimination in employment and housing based on sexual orientation and gender identity. The “ Utah compromise ” among state lawmakers, LGBT groups and the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints had been in the works for seven years, The New York Times reported. But S.B. 296 doesn't actually cover all situations. A key provision exempts religious institutions, organizations, associations and their affiliates, as well as the Boy Scouts of America, from being defined as employers for these purposes. [ link ]

ALPHA OMEGA ARTS By Gregory Disney-Britton Buddhism originated in India and traveled eastward through Pakistan where it began to receive significant patronage in the first century AD . This week, as collectors assemble in New York for  Asia Week in New York , many will seek works celebrating that ancient history.  Lasting through March 22, it's an annual gathering that brings dealers together, such as Nayef Homsi and Gianguan Auctions , to offer sculptures, paintings, relics and jewelry. " Head of Buddha " in grey schist from Gandhara , circa 2nd Century, is one of those offerings (above) and it is our NEWS OF WEEK .

THE NEW YORK TIMES By Manohla Dargis Cate Blanchett, left, and Lily James in “Cinderella,” a fairy tale about mothers — dead, cruel and magical — who loom over a quintessential dutiful daughter far more than any man or prince. HOLLYWOOD---Why Cinderella , why now? If you’re the Walt Disney Company the answer can only be: Why not? She may not be a princess (yet!) and the story may have been told innumerable times, but there’s gold in those glass slippers no matter how many miles they have on them. In traditional iteration after iteration, the story of Cinderella is also that of mothers — dead, cruel and magical — who loom over this quintessential dutiful daughter far more than any man. Try as the filmmakers might to obscure her victimization, there’s no getting around that this Cinderella has to do time as the classic persecuted woman even if the Disney imperative means that she must also dust herself off, go to the ball and waltz into a happy ending. As tabloids, reality televisi...

ASIA WEEK GUIDE Detail of Ksitigarbha Bodhisattva with dragon. Gilt-bronze wit pigment. Qing Dynasty. NEW YORK---As the rush of Spring Asia Week exhibitions and auctions wind down, Gianguan Auctions will ramp up the excitement again on Sunday, March 22nd, with an auction strong in Buddhist art, Qing Dynasty cloisonné, large carved jades, and archetypal scroll paintings. Leading the line-up of Tibetan deities and Buddhist religious art are statues of rarely seen Buddhist gods. Lot 298, for instance, is a gilt-bronze casting of Ksitigarbha Bodhisattva with dragon. [ link ]

NEW YORK DAILY NEWS By Justin Rocket Silverman NEW YORK---This crimefighting superhero doesn’t have secret powers, a magical past or a cape. But he does have a turban. Meet Secret Agent Deep Singh, the Taliban-hating, Elvis-loving, Indian techie nerd hero of the new comic book series “Super Sikh.” Created by a Taliban-hating, Elvis-loving Indian techie, Supreet Singh Manchanda, Deep Singh is intended not only to be the Sikh superhero, but a role model for an ethnic group whose members are still often mistrusted because of their headwear. Order “Super Sikh” at www.supersikhcomics.com . To check out the rival version, visit www.supersikh.com. [ link ]

THE NEW YORK TIMES Higher art prices and a greater number of transactions pushed global art market sales up 7 percent last year to 51.2 billion euros (about $68 billion at an average exchange rate for the year), according to the annual report for the European Fine Art Foundation , published Wednesday. The market continued to be dominated by three main regions, the United States, China and Britain. Clare McAndrew, the author of the report, said the postwar and contemporary sector continued to be the most popular in terms of value. [ link ]

THE NEW YORK TIMES By Martha Schwendener A head of the Buddha, circa second century, at Nayef Homsi. Credit Collection of Nayef Homsi NEW YORK---New York’s museums are filled with stellar exhibitions devoted to Asian art — and several more open on Friday. But the yellow banners hanging from lampposts on Madison Avenue uptown, announcing Asia Week New York , point the way toward less obvious but often museum-worthy troves of Asian art, lodged in innocuous apartments and galleries on the Upper East Side and drawn from 42 dealers, private collections and numerous institutions. From Friday until March 21, for the price of a MetroCard, you can see a vast range of painting, calligraphy, sculpture, ceramics and photography, and the annual Japanese Art Dealers Association fair, which opens on Saturday at the Ukrainian Institute of America (2 East 79th Street, at Fifth Avenue, through Monday). [ link ]

INDIANAPOLIS STAR Assoicated Press Saint Mary's Church, designed by Michael Graves Architects NEW JERSEY--- Indianapolis-born architect Michel Graves who designed modern and whimsical postmodern structures including Downtown Indy's NCAA Hall of Champions and later household goods sold at Target stores has died in New Jersey. He was 80 years old. Spokeswoman Michelle DiLello says Graves died of natural causes Thursday in his longtime hometown of Princeton. [ link ]

RUETERS By Philip Pullella The Vatican said on Sunday it had received a ransom demand for the return of two rare documents written by Renaissance master Michelangelo that were stolen from its archives nearly 20 years ago. The theft of the two documents - one a letter including the signature of the artist who painted the Sistine Chapel, designed part of St. Peter's Basilica and sculpted statues such as David and the Pieta - had not been made public before Sunday. [ link ]