Obscurity to Exhibition

Collector Helps Bring Asian Art Back to Life at the Fleming Museum

From a protective glass case at UVM’s Fleming Museum, an ancient visage fixes its gaze upon passersby with a playful smile. Dating back to the 11th century, the stone statue depicts a female deity adorned with abundant jewelry, a headdress, and a rambling hairstyle. Though the intricately carved head is all that remains, long ago separated from the body of a figure known as a salabhanjaka, its completeness is what makes it notable.

“The word salabhanjaka is from Sanskrit, and today refers to a female tree sprite, a kind of demigoddess,” says David Nalin, M.D., Dr.Sc. H’17, who donated the artwork to the Fleming Museum. “What attracted me to this piece was its exquisite beauty. It is one of the finest examples of this sculptural style and period known to exist.”

The salabhanjaka was a common decorative element and Indian sculpture, adorning the walls of religious and secular spaces of Buddhist, Hindu, and Jain architecture.

Nalin became devoted to South Asian art as a young doctor sent on assignment to Bangladesh (formerly East Pakistan) in 1967 to do cholera research through the U.S. National Institutes of Health. Starting from a patient overflow tent at a small missionary hospital, Nalin and his colleagues developed scientific trials to prove that Oral Rehydration Therapy (ORT)—a simple mixture of sugar, salt, and water, taken by mouth—could effectively rehydrate patients suffering from cholera and other illnesses. This simple solution, made from widely-available ingredients, was nothing short of a miracle cure in locations around the world where intravenous treatment was unavailable or too expensive. It is estimated that Nalin’s breakthrough research on ORT, which is still widely used today, has saved the lives of 100 million people, most of them small children.

While serving in South Asia, Nalin became captivated with local cultures. He became committed to preserving the visual arts of the region when he realized that ancient sculptures were being scrapped for their metal and destroyed in the ethnic conflicts preceding the Bangladesh Liberation War.

“Having been brought up in New York near the Metropolitan Museum, I had developed a bit of an eye for quality objects. I couldn’t help but notice that there were beautiful things, whose history I didn’t really understand at the time, being destroyed en masse. So I started to acquire them as I could, to save them from virtually assured destruction.”

Over many years, Nalin built a substantial collection that includes works from India, Bangladesh, Tibet, Nepal, and China. He was introduced to the Fleming Museum of Art by his brother and fellow art collector Richard Nalin, a member of the UVM Class of 1963. The brothers have donated thousands of pieces to museums across the U.S., including several hundred to UVM’s Fleming Museum of Art. In recognition of his work as a medical ambassador and pioneer, and his vision of preserving cultural legacies, David Nalin received an honorary Doctor of Science degree from UVM in 2017.

“Dr. Nalin’s support for the Fleming combines a rare mixture of collecting expertise, relationships across the museum field, and volunteer engagement as a longtime member of our board,” said Fleming Museum Director Sonja Lunde. “I am deeply appreciative of David’s many years of enthusiastic support for our wonderful museum.”

Nalin says he has found the Fleming, with its surprisingly robust Asian art holdings, to be an apt home for the many donated art pieces and objects he has spent his life preserving, where their history can be told and their beauty displayed for generations to appreciate.

“The Fleming has produced many fine, focused exhibitions of great quality,” said Nalin. “It has the flexibility, on a smaller scale than big institutions, to develop innovative exhibition techniques that can have a broad influence. I have been very impressed.”