Yoga: The Art of Transformation, an exhibit at the Smithsonian Arthur M. Sackler Gallery, is the first to look comprehensively at yoga visual art.

Before yoga became the chosen fitness pastime of suburban yuppies, it was a driving cultural force, shaping literature, religion, philosophy and other facets of society, first in India, and then the rest of the world.

[READ: Alec Baldwin, Wife Prescribe Yoga for Mitch McConnell, Ted Cruz]

A new exhibit at the Smithsonian Arthur M. Sackler Gallery explores how yoga practice and culture manifested itself in visual artifacts sculpture, paintings, illustrated manuscripts, photography and film over the last 2,000 years. Called "Yoga: The Art of Transformation," the exhibit is the first ever to comprehensively examine yoga-influenced visual art.

"There hasn't been much work done on this visual culture and our understanding of yoga's manifestation in history is also quite spotty," explains exhibit curator Debra Diamond. "It's like a whole other archive that hadn't been used before."

The exhibit tracks the way yoga practices and teachings were disseminated throughout the Indian subcontinent. "We know that at least as early as the 5th century B.C. that there's this huge shift in Indian soteriological thought," Diamond says. "There's this notion that we, ourselves through our own bodies and minds have the power to get out of this horrible cycle of death-rebirth."

"Yoga: The Art of Transformation" looks not only how the lifestyles of yoga practitioners have been depicted in Indian art, but also how they became embedded in Indian culture. "For me [it] is a way of thinking through some of the issues surrounding yoga in the United States today how yoga is getting embedded into our culture," Diamond says.

[SLIDESHOW:5 People Who Are Changing the Face of Yoga]

Many of the pieces, 130 in all, celebrate yoga culture from a spectacular 12th century sculpture depicting the attainment of spiritual enlightenment to Mughal empire court paintings that have rulers rubbing shoulders with ascetic sages.

However, the exhibit also uncovers a dark side to how yoga inhabited the Indian imagination. "There's definitely always a strand of evil, sinister yogis, at least in the imagination," Diamond says. This includes paintings and illustrations of fictional yogis who doubled as spies, incinerated cities and engaged in other forms of taboo acts.

View original post here:
Sinister Yogis: The Dark Side of Yoga Art