WSJ reviews the Gods of Angkor at the Smithsonian

The Wall Street Journal reviews the Gods of Angkor: Bronzes from the National Museum of Cambodia exhibition now on display at the Arthur Sackler Gallery at the Smithsonian.

Cambodia’s Bronze Mettle
Wall Street Journal, 15 July 2010

The very name “Angkor” conjures images of towering stone spires, rocks morphing into giant undulating snakes, carved faces bulging from temple walls. But these palaces and temples housed bronzes—idols, ritual objects and decorative statues that took their place within the endless unfolding of stone reliefs and statuary.

In “Gods of Angkor: Bronzes from the National Museum of Cambodia,” the Arthur M. Sackler Gallery of Art presents 24 such bronzes along with a dozen others that precede the Angkor period (ninth to mid-15th century). Together they establish that the Khmer people of Cambodia have a rich bronze-casting tradition that produced magnificent works.