Dr. Uranchimeg (Orna) Tsultem is an esteemed, award winning art historian who has dedicated her career to amplifying the voices of East Asian artists, particularly Mongolian artists, across the West. Her latest exhibition, “Mongol Zurag: The Art of Resistance,” was hosted in Venice, Italy, from April 20 to Nov. 24, 2024. This one-of-a-kind, innovative curation of contemporary art artfully addressed questions on national identity as well as the preservation of cultural heritage and traditions. Mongol Zurag refers to the specific style of artwork (mediums, characteristics used, etc.).
Born and raised in Mongolia, a country landlocked between Russia and China, Tsultem grew up in a family of artists, as her father, two older brothers and older sister all practiced art. While Tsultem never considered herself an artist, the topic was still of particular interest to her, and she decided to focus her career on art history.
“The moment of seeing art and discovering it for yourself – it’s the most precious moment,” said Tsultem.
She pursued her undergraduate degree at the Mongolian University of Arts and Culture, where she mostly learned to understand, write about and interpret art; even embarking on study abroad learning opportunities in Budapest, Hungary, to enhance her learning experience. In her studies, she recognized a common theme: the art standards she was learning about were based on European-style artwork.
“Mongolia is known for its big imperialist history in the 13th and 14th centuries – Genghis Khan and Kubali Khan and Marco Polo – yet somehow Mongolian art is being left out,” Tsultem said.
As she earned her bachelor’s and master's degrees, and later earned her doctorate degree from the University of California, Berkeley, she decided to focus her attention on celebrating the richness and beauty of art from across the world, particularly from East Asia.
After deciding upon a specification, Tsultem found a burning passion and a clear purpose. For her, the value of art is in looking at it, analyzing it, using it as a means of understanding others through a humane lens and being more compassionate and open to the uniqueness the world hosts.
“Art lands into a larger set of questions,” said Tsultem, explaining that art is a gateway to understanding the world, the time period and the society represented at the time of the artwork’s creation.
Today, Tsultem is the Edgar and Dorothy Fehnel Chair of International Studies and works to develop international studies programming at the Herron School of Art and Design at IU Indianapolis. She is an educator, and has taught at a number of prestigious universities in Mongolia, South Korea, Iceland, California and Indiana. She is a Kluge Center Scholar at the Library of Congress, has earned a number of awards and grants for her work and is a published author of books such as Buddhist Art of Mongolia, A Monastery on the Move, Ikh Khüree and the Later Buddhist Art of Mongolia and more.
In addition to her work in educating students in her capacity as a scholar, Tsultem also curates art exhibitions, primarily based on the focused research she conducts, with her latest exhibition, “Mongol Zurag: The Art of Resistance,” exploring how Mongolian art during, and following, the Cold War era was used as a source of resilience against forces of oppression.
The art style of Mongol Zurag emerged out of political suppression. Following the collapses of the Mongolian empire, the Yuan Dynasty and the Qing Dynasty, Mongolia became an independent nation until China attempted to reassert control over the land. With Soviet assistance from Moscow, a revolution occurred, and in 1924 the Mongolian People's Republic was established as a socialist/communist state, a political change met with serious consequences.
Mongolia, prior to Soviet aid in a revolution against China, was a majority Buddhist-practicing country in which the cultural and political fabrics of the nation were impacted by the religion. Soviet involvement meant a shift to socialist and communist ideals, which contradict with and are inherently intolerant of the ideologies of any faith, including Buddhism. This led to anti-Buddhist campaigns in the 1930s with devastating effects. Monks were murdered by the masses and monasteries were burned to the ground. Anything reminiscent of Buddhism or religious beliefs was not permissible, and art was no exception.
Buddhist art typically contains religious sentiments, intricate geometric patterns, symbolic icons (flames, ornaments, cloud shapes), varieties of hues and colors, flat depictions and expressive designs. The Soviet’s attempted eradication of Buddhism meant that artists could only produce European-style artwork, particularly socialist realism, which was propagandized artwork that used realistic imagery from the natural world and depicted socialist lifestyles as the ideal way of living.
Artist revolutionaries, like Tsultem’s father, then worked to develop the Mongol Zurag, a novel art style rooted in resistance, which infused traditional Buddhist motifs into social realism. The style allowed them to produce artwork that was European-passing, but contained far more significant symbolism.
“The pictures at the first glance would look like socialist paintings, or just very benign themes like landscapes or animals like camels or yaks. But that style was meant to be developed as really, really different from socialist realism. So in order to be looked at differently – as a visual idiom, as a visual language, different from social realism – they were using Buddhist themes,” said Tsultem.
For instance, in the image above, the right hand side depicts a traditional Buddhist painting, a style which was prohibited in the 20th century. The image on the left hand side is Mongol Zurag, where a socialist theme is evident with the bold redness, the star on the soldier’s hat and the soldier carrying a flag while riding a horse. However, the style of the painting is similar to the image on the right, using art through Buddhist motifs (flat and non-three-dimensional perspective, dark background, swirly and colorful flames, unrealistic/abstract depiction of the horse) as a method of resistance.
Another example would be this 1977 painting depicting a landscape, a common choice in European art. This image, while European-passing, pays homage to traditional Buddhist artwork, as the clouds are rich in color, hues and tones, and the ornament of the clouds are shown as swirly puffs.
Tsultem’s successful exhibition marks the beginning of a significant shift from spotlighting Western culture as the standard to becoming more accepting and appreciative of other cultures. She notes that this shift may be seen as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, in which physical isolation resulted in spiritual interconnectedness and a newfound desire to understand others despite any differences.
“We started to become very excited about conversations about openness…and I very much related to it because all my life I very much struggled to be heard, to be seen, and I know that the artists I represent have the same issue,” Tsultem said. “They almost never are able to make [it into] museums, not because they’re bad artists, but because our museums are reluctant to show what they don’t know about. And so we continue this kind of marginalization of cultures to this day.”
When curating and creating this exhibition, it was a priority for Tsultem to spotlight revolutionary artists whose powerful work has been severely underrepresented. While she is not a full time curator by profession, she still embraces opportunities like this for that very reason.
“Why I seek [these opportunities] is only because I really want to introduce – to contribute – to inclusivity in arts and humanities and to introduce artists who have never been shown before,” Tsultem said.
One of the four key artists she introduced in this exhibit was her father, Nyam-Osoryn Tsultem (1924-2001), as they planned the exhibition to celebrate his centenary to posthumously honor his 100th birthday. The other three artists, Baasanjav Choijiljav, Baatarzorig Batjargal and Urjinkhand Onon are prolific, known for their expertise in traditional Mongol Zurag.
The exhibition includes artwork which addresses modern day societal issues. For instance, Baatarzorig Batjargal’s acrylic painting titled Mickey Polo was created as recently as 2016. The painting depicts a “scary” looking Mickey Mouse, an iconic Disney character who is created for entertainment and joy, rather than fear. This unique take on this character and the image as a whole, with a bold red background and intricate details within it, is meant to articulate how art has been commercialized and commodified.
Ultimately, Mongol Zurag, especially as used in Tsultem’s curation of this exhibition, emphasizes how art can be used to stand up to oppression and suppression. Art, in this case, has preserved a culture and traditions which are sacred to the Mongolian people. The style has developed to address concepts such as capitalism and corporate greed in the West, and the attempted removal of tradition by various forces of corrupt powers.
Tsultem continues her work and dedicated mission of using such creative mediums as a force for change and urges students to contribute to this process in their own way, whether it be keeping an open mind and heart for other cultures, educating themselves on humanitarian issues or otherwise across the globe, or even tapping into their creative side to start a revolution of political change with the stroke of a brush.
Salsabil F. Qaddoura is an undergraduate student on a pre-law track and a copy editor for The Campus Citizen. She is passionate about public service and volunteerism to better our communities and the world.
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