WASHINGTON Yoga is moving from the studio mat to the museum gallery.

The Smithsonian Institution has organized what curators believe is the first exhibition about the visual history and art of yoga, its origins and evolution over time.

The Smithsonians Sackler Gallery will showcase the exhibit, Yoga: The Art of Transformation, through January. Later, it will travel to the Asian Art Museum of San Francisco and to the Cleveland Museum of Art.

Curators brought together Indian sculptures, manuscripts and paintings, as well as posters, illustrations, photographs and films to showcase yogas history over 2,000 years (including the 19th-century painting shown here, highlighted on the Smithsonians website).

Museum Director Julian Raby said years of research behind the exhibit shed new light on yogas meanings and histories.

It examines for the first time a spectacular, but until now largely ignored, archive, he said. That archive is Indias visual culture of extraordinary yoga-related artworks created, as you will see, over some two millennia.

Guest teachers will lead yoga classes in the museums galleries on Wednesdays and Sundays. The museum also will host a symposium for scholars and enthusiasts on yogas visual culture.

Curator Debra Diamond said the Smithsonian borrowed some of the greatest masterpieces in Indian art as well as pieces that have never been shown before.

First the exhibit examines the concepts and practices of yoga traditions, including meditation and postures found in Indian art dating back hundreds of years. The first piece is an 11th century sculpture representing a yoga teacher, seated in the lotus posture with legs crossed to signify enlightenment.

Such sculptures were displayed in Hindu temples so people could see the teacher and understand yogas transformative potential, Diamond said.

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Smithsonian opens exhibit on art of yoga

(credit: Facebook/Yoga Echo Park)

ECHO PARK (CBSLA.com) Yoga classes organized in Echo Park have become controversial in the community.

Yoga Echo Park was started by Steven Arcos at the newly renovated park at 1632 Bellevue Ave.

It is designed for those that love being outside, being active, and obviously doing yoga. Whether you are new to yoga are a card-holding yogi, youll enjoy the newly renovated Echo Park while moving through fun vinyasa flows and relaxing with some gentle meditation. Expect to sweat, laugh, grow, or discover something new about yourself, according to the YEP Facebook page.

On Monday, a woman posted on the Echo Elysian Neighborhood Forum criticizing the amount of space the class took up.

A physical trainer took over a good sized hunk of the north east lawn this morning (about half-tennis court size) and spread out about ten mats, set up a table with a basket and other stuff. When I passed by a short time later, at least a dozen people were synchronized to the trainers instructions. This person is probably charging while using prime lawn space at the park. This is just as bad as the guys on blankets selling used clothing, Judith Raskin wrote.

Arcos responded Tuesday:

I was told that you did not need a permit or reservation at this time to use this space. I have every intention of doing this the right way so please let me know who I should contact. I am really saddened that people seem to be accusing me of doing something so terrible and malicious. It really is just a simple yoga class that everyone can enjoy.

The conversation was then picked up by the popular Eastsider LA blog, which has 65 comments, including responses to particular complaints from Arcos.

Get a permit and pay taxes. Some days there are 2 and 3 events scheduled. Looks like hes working the system, Ruth wrote.

Excerpt from:
Yoga Classes Held At Newly Renovated Echo Park Become Controversial

Women make up slightly less than half of the NFL's fanbase. They're going to college in larger numbers than men. They're the Senators grabbing the legislative branch by the collar and dragging the country away from fiscal precipice. And yet! it's still weird for us when we try to use the weight room at a new gym. When it comes to gender segregation, the gym is the final frontier.

In a piece for the Washington Post, Eric Niiler examines why yoga a practice historically embraced by men in India is so female-dominated stateside. Short answer? IT'S NOT MAAAAAANLY ENOUGH.

[...]many myths about yoga stand in [men's] way: Yoga isnt a decent workout; its too touchy-feely; you have to be flexible to do it; mens bodies just arent built for pretzellike poses.

Adrian Hummell has heard all the excuses.

What happens is, a guy who doesnt know about it, he associates it with things like Pilates or aerobics, and they think of it as a chick workout, said Hummell, who has been doing yoga for the past three years and now teaches Bikram yoga, a particularly strenuous form of the practice, in Bethesda.

Its almost a joke when guys say, I dont think I should do yoga because Im not flexible, he said. Its like saying, Im too weak, so I cant lift weights.

So they don't like doing yoga because they're simultaneously afraid of turning into a weak-ass woman (bad) and not being able to hack it as a weak-ass woman even though, as Niiler explains, yoga is great for men. It can help prevent sports injuries, it increases flexibility. Yoga good. Yoga make man strong so man play XBox Live harder than ever.

The unfortunate male/female exercise divide persists in gyms, too; as an avid-ish gymgoer I haven't been a member of a single health club that didn't host a creepy invisible line between the "girl" side (ellipticals! stair climbers!) and the "boy" side (MUSCLES!). And crossing the line leads to social penalties for either sex. Women side-eyeing each other as a man climbs onto the elliptical next to them. Men sighing impatiently as they wait for women to finish a set on the bench press, like they have more of a right to use the equipment even though they're both paying for the same gym membership.

Once at a gym to which I no longer belong, I was working out on an assisted pull up machine (shut up) when I noticed out of the corner of my eye a beefy male trainer and his male client standing off to my side watching me. It was very distracting. I'm not a person with a ton of upper body strength and I laugh at everything, so I can't work out with a partner, and I especially can't work out with two dudes standing there watching me for no reason. I'll get nothing done.

So I finished a set and asked them what they wanted. Are you almost done? the trainer asked. I said I'd just gotten to the equipment, so I'd be awhile and they should just bypass me. I got back up and started my second set. They just stood there, watching. The gym was basically empty because it was early morning, there was plenty of other equipment to use and they just stood there. I ended up telling them to stop because it was creeping me out.

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Yoga Isn't 'For Ladies' and Weights Aren't 'For Men'

24 October 2013 Last updated at 20:45 ET By Jane O'Brien BBC News, Washington

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The BBC's Jane O'Brien attended the opening gala of Yoga: The Art of Transformation at the Sackler Gallery of Asian art

Early yogis struck lovely poses - and also fought fierce battles. An exhibit in Washington shows the complex dimensions of yogi life.

Do you like your yoga hot or powerful? Maybe you practise in the nude or spend a fortune on the latest Lycra. Are you a follower of BKS Iyengar, or do you prefer Vinyasa or Ashtanga yoga?

Whatever your taste, yoga is a $5bn (3.1bn) industry in the US practised by millions of people seeking physical fitness, improved health, or spiritual enlightenment. Almost every gym offers a class and the experience can be enhanced by drinking specially blended teas or listening to suitably soothing music.

The Indian government has become so concerned about the commercialisation of yoga in recent years that it started a campaign to patent hundreds of postures to stop them being appropriated by Western companies.

Yogis were seen as quite sinister and dubious figures

But the world's first exhibition exploring the visual art of yoga has revealed aspects of the ancient tradition that many purists will find troubling: in the 2,500 years of its known existence, there has never been one single type of yoga.

"Five years ago I did think I would find that single yoga tradition," says Debra Diamond, curator of the exhibition Yoga: The Art of Transformation at the Smithsonian's Sackler Gallery of Asian Art.

The rest is here:
Yoga history - savage and serene

The Smithsonian's exhibit on "Yoga: The Art of Transformation" shows off 2,000 years of yoga, some of which has never been seen before.

The Smithsonian says that their new exhibit on yoga in the Sackler Gallery has more than 130 works of art about yoga, stretching back thousands of years.

"Yoga: The Art of Transformation" opened Saturday and runs through Jan. 26, 2014. The exhibit saw funding help through a crowdfunding campaign and in six weeks managed to raise over $174,000.

The exhibit shows works of art, some of which have never been seen in the U.S. before, that display philosophies of yoga and its importance.

The Associated Press notes that after being displayed in the Smithsonian, the exhibit will be shown in both the Asian Art Museum of San Francisco and the Cleveland Museum of Art. The Smithsonian hopes to show more about yoga's history and views.

"It examines for the first time a spectacular but until now largely ignored, archive," museum Director Julian Raby said. "That archive is India's visual culture of extraordinary yoga-related artworks created, as you will see, over some two millenia."

In addition to the displays, there will be guest teachers who will teach yoga classes on Wednesday and Thursdays.

John Schumacher, who advised on the exhibit and is a 40-year practitioner of yoga, commented on the exhibit, "It teaches where yoga comes from. You see there is a deep, philosophical underpinning to all of these practices and a variety of different philosophies."

image: Wikimedia Commons

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Smithsonian set for visual history exhibit of yoga