An Assembly Field
Mount: 60 1/2 × 31 1/2 inches (153.67 × 80.01 cm)
Framed: 73 3/4 × 45 inches (187.33 × 114.3 cm)
Teachers of Enlightenment: Traditions in Tibetan Buddhism, The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, MO, May 11, 2019–May 10, 2020, no cat.
William Ira Hagen (1899–1988), Norfolk NE, late 1920’s–1988 [1];
Inherited from Hagen by his wife, Mrs. William Hagen, (née Hortense Hazen, 1904–1996), Norfolk, NE, 1988 [2];
Her gift to Mrs. William Howe, (née Betty Rose Hall, 1930–2017), Gering, NE, 1988-1989;
Her gift to The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, MO, 1989.
[1] See letter from William Hagen to Betty Howe, January 18, 1983, NAMA curatorial files, which explains how he acquired the thangka. During a trip to the Muli Kingdom in northeast China near the border of Tibet, he formed a friendship with a young “living Buddha,” and gave him a pair of binoculars. In return, Hagen received two “banners,” one of which is The Assembly Field.
[2] See letter from Betty Howe to Dorothy Fickle, October 26, 1988, NAMA curator, NAMA curatorial files. In this letter, Mrs. Howe states that she received the thangka as a gift from Mrs. Hagen after the death of Mr. Hagen.
No publication history known at this time.
