Guest guest Posted March 14, 2004 Report Share Posted March 14, 2004 The Miami Herald today ran this art review of an exhibit, entitled, "INTIMATE INDIA: Rarely exhibited domestic shrines and drawings from India are the focus of three shows at the Lowe Art Museum, University of Miami," by Elisa Turner. ART REVIEW Sun, Mar. 14, 2004 Curiosities shared by a German school girl whose bedside reading included classic Sanskrit legends and by a Michigan radiologist have conspired to form an unlikely supporting cast for "Change & Continuity: Folk and Tribal Art of India", now at the Lowe Art Museum at the University of Miami. Along with two related exhibits, "Mala Ke Manke: 108 East Indian Drawings and Ma Devi: Great Goddess of India", the Lowe offers an unusual look at the intimate side of Indian tribal and Hindu culture, ranging from the third century B.C. to the present day. This is a perspective museums and curators have traditionally overlooked in favor of the country's grandly sculpted and lavishly imposing Hindu temples. In the largest of the exhibits, Change & Continuity, which the Lowe organized as well as Ma Devi, the museum's gathering of some 300 small-scale, intricately modeled religious objects made for domestic shrines and regional festivals points to "such a new area of research that scholars are still trying to come to grips with some of the concepts," says Lowe director Brian Dursum. "This is the first such show of its kind in the United States." Interest in this material has been longstanding for the Michigan radiologist and avid art collector, Leo S. Figiel, who is now retired to Palm Beach, and for the German schoolgirl, Cornelia Mallebrein, now a professor in Indology and Comparative Religious Studies at the University of Tuebingen in Germany. Both have traveled to India extensively in the past 20 years and have contributed significantly to the Lowe's organization of Change & Continuity as well as to the show's catalog. Saturated with the sunrise colors of flowers and aromatic spices, several photographs Mallebrein took of rural modern-day religious celebrations are in the exhibit. One of Mallebrein's interests has been the remote villages in northern India's Orissa state, bordering the Bay of Bengal. There she has not only developed "the stomach of a cow" over the course of bouts with malaria and hepatitis but also taken over 25,000 photographs and interviewed villagers about religious rites she says no other scholar has documented. These cultural practices are vanishing, especially since the arrival of satellite television to the area. For generations Orissa's Kondh tribe cast bronze vessels, bells used in ritual dances and animal figurines that paid homage to a tribal earth goddess and were also valued as essential elements in a bride's dowry. But in recent years, it's been harder to know whether such bronzes are ceremonial or commercial. And, as Mallebrein notes, the bronzes are losing favor with brides and their suitors, enamored of dowries that feature bicycles, radios and even sunglasses. RELIGIOUS BRONZES Figiel has loaned many bronzes to the show and given objects from his collection to the Lowe. He was drawn to collect the small, finely made religious bronzes out of fashion for years with the museum world. "When you look at these pieces, they are beautiful. People have to have tremendous skill to make them," he says. And yet the Indians and British, he continues, "used to call this bronze 'jungli,' which means pertaining to the jungle, but when they used that word it meant nothing but junk." In the exhibit, you'll find handsomely articulated bronze figurines from southern India, such as a four-armed sculpture of the elephant- headed god Ganesha from the 13 and 14th centuries, posed in a gracefully rounded position. It's a skilled evocation of the strict styles of classical temple sculpture and shows off the artist's ability to create intricate undulations of formal patterns within a tightly circumscribed space. But sculptures from northwest and northeast India show a much freer style, fashioned far from the metropolitan centers to the south and executed with more artistic license. Some shrines eschew the curvaceous designs of the south altogether and lean towards a boxy abstraction that briefly recalls certain African carvings, like a grid-shaped brass votive shrine in the show from Gujarat, a state that borders the Arabian Sea and is the site of ancient trading centers with Egyptian merchants. Another superbly crafted brass piece is an 18th century oil lamp, also from Gujarat. Made with a buoyant structure of interlacing candelabra supporting small bowls to be filled with oil, it seems to rise upward like a temple spire. Its miniature architecture is distilled from an arresting balancing act that manages to incorporate both a genuflecting elephant and preening peacocks. But it can be a challenge to sort out the various identities and styles of the gods and goddesses in Change & Continuity. The Lowe's chunkily designed catalog for this exhibit, as well as the wall labels, could use a more compelling sense of structure and narrative. This show could do a better job at articulating both the sweep of cultural history and the interplay of central artistic themes. Nevertheless, this chiefly sculptural exhibit is also a foil for the sensual and flowing intricacies of the works on paper in Mala Ke Manke: 108 Indian Drawings, organized by the New York gallery Art of the Past. This show is something of a revelation, especially at a time when drawing is acquiring increasing prominence in contemporary art. EXQUISITE DRAWINGS Many of these drawings, rarely shown because they were considered to be preparatory works, are exquisite in their own right, such as the 18th century portrait in ink and translucent watercolor on paper of a beautiful, wide-eyed young woman with stylized, rounded features that evoke a courtly elegance. She's dressed in an orange, jeweled sari that captures a sense of the densely spatial ornament found in India's classical bronze and stone sculptures. Such drawings show us how much the art of India relies on a gifted sense of proportion and rhythmically interlacing pattern, a gift that today seems meant to infuse glimpses -- at the very least -- of an almost spiritually rapturous harmony, able to soften for a time the jangled chaos of daily life. Elisa Turner is The Herald's art critic. URL: http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/entertainment/8170624.htm Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted March 15, 2004 Report Share Posted March 15, 2004 DB, Thank you for sharing this. I have always felt that domestic shrines have a beauty and reverence that is not to be missed nor overlooked. For this reason I think that it's important for all people to have some practice in setting up their own personal altars, household altars and/or family shrines. Although there is much value in the traditions and knowledge that find themselves in central temples etc it is a shame to lose diversity and individualism in the area of reverence and worship. Also, thank you for all of the work that you and Nora have done on the web page. I'm still out of work and found myself just reading through the different Goddess descriptions the other night. Very uplifting and a nice change from the anxious donkey-path of my thoughts. Blessings, prainbow , "Devi Bhakta" <devi_bhakta> wrote: > The Miami Herald today ran this art review of an exhibit, > entitled, "INTIMATE INDIA: Rarely exhibited domestic shrines and > drawings from India are the focus of three shows at the Lowe Art > Museum, University of Miami," by Elisa Turner. > > ART REVIEW > Sun, Mar. 14, 2004 > > Curiosities shared by a German school girl whose bedside reading > included classic Sanskrit legends and by a Michigan radiologist have > conspired to form an unlikely supporting cast for "Change & > Continuity: Folk and Tribal Art of India", now at the Lowe Art Museum > at the University of Miami. > > Along with two related exhibits, "Mala Ke Manke: 108 East Indian > Drawings and Ma Devi: Great Goddess of India", the Lowe offers an > unusual look at the intimate side of Indian tribal and Hindu culture, > ranging from the third century B.C. to the present day. This is a > perspective museums and curators have traditionally overlooked in > favor of the country's grandly sculpted and lavishly imposing Hindu > temples. > > In the largest of the exhibits, Change & Continuity, which the Lowe > organized as well as Ma Devi, the museum's gathering of some 300 > small-scale, intricately modeled religious objects made for domestic > shrines and regional festivals points to "such a new area of research > that scholars are still trying to come to grips with some of the > concepts," says Lowe director Brian Dursum. "This is the first such > show of its kind in the United States." > > Interest in this material has been longstanding for the Michigan > radiologist and avid art collector, Leo S. Figiel, who is now retired > to Palm Beach, and for the German schoolgirl, Cornelia Mallebrein, > now a professor in Indology and Comparative Religious Studies at the > University of Tuebingen in Germany. > > Both have traveled to India extensively in the past 20 years and have > contributed significantly to the Lowe's organization of Change & > Continuity as well as to the show's catalog. > > Saturated with the sunrise colors of flowers and aromatic spices, > several photographs Mallebrein took of rural modern-day religious > celebrations are in the exhibit. One of Mallebrein's interests has > been the remote villages in northern India's Orissa state, bordering > the Bay of Bengal. There she has not only developed "the stomach of a > cow" over the course of bouts with malaria and hepatitis but also > taken over 25,000 photographs and interviewed villagers about > religious rites she says no other scholar has documented. > > These cultural practices are vanishing, especially since the arrival > of satellite television to the area. For generations Orissa's Kondh > tribe cast bronze vessels, bells used in ritual dances and animal > figurines that paid homage to a tribal earth goddess and were also > valued as essential elements in a bride's dowry. > > But in recent years, it's been harder to know whether such bronzes > are ceremonial or commercial. And, as Mallebrein notes, the bronzes > are losing favor with brides and their suitors, enamored of dowries > that feature bicycles, radios and even sunglasses. > > RELIGIOUS BRONZES > > Figiel has loaned many bronzes to the show and given objects from his > collection to the Lowe. He was drawn to collect the small, finely > made religious bronzes out of fashion for years with the museum world. > > "When you look at these pieces, they are beautiful. People have to > have tremendous skill to make them," he says. And yet the Indians and > British, he continues, "used to call this bronze 'jungli,' which > means pertaining to the jungle, but when they used that word it meant > nothing but junk." > > In the exhibit, you'll find handsomely articulated bronze figurines > from southern India, such as a four-armed sculpture of the elephant- > headed god Ganesha from the 13 and 14th centuries, posed in a > gracefully rounded position. It's a skilled evocation of the strict > styles of classical temple sculpture and shows off the artist's > ability to create intricate undulations of formal patterns within a > tightly circumscribed space. > > But sculptures from northwest and northeast India show a much freer > style, fashioned far from the metropolitan centers to the south and > executed with more artistic license. Some shrines eschew the > curvaceous designs of the south altogether and lean towards a boxy > abstraction that briefly recalls certain African carvings, like a > grid-shaped brass votive shrine in the show from Gujarat, a state > that borders the Arabian Sea and is the site of ancient trading > centers with Egyptian merchants. > > Another superbly crafted brass piece is an 18th century oil lamp, > also from Gujarat. Made with a buoyant structure of interlacing > candelabra supporting small bowls to be filled with oil, it seems to > rise upward like a temple spire. Its miniature architecture is > distilled from an arresting balancing act that manages to incorporate > both a genuflecting elephant and preening peacocks. > > But it can be a challenge to sort out the various identities and > styles of the gods and goddesses in Change & Continuity. The Lowe's > chunkily designed catalog for this exhibit, as well as the wall > labels, could use a more compelling sense of structure and narrative. > This show could do a better job at articulating both the sweep of > cultural history and the interplay of central artistic themes. > > Nevertheless, this chiefly sculptural exhibit is also a foil for the > sensual and flowing intricacies of the works on paper in Mala Ke > Manke: 108 Indian Drawings, organized by the New York gallery Art of > the Past. This show is something of a revelation, especially at a > time when drawing is acquiring increasing prominence in contemporary > art. > > EXQUISITE DRAWINGS > > Many of these drawings, rarely shown because they were considered to > be preparatory works, are exquisite in their own right, such as the > 18th century portrait in ink and translucent watercolor on paper of a > beautiful, wide-eyed young woman with stylized, rounded features that > evoke a courtly elegance. She's dressed in an orange, jeweled sari > that captures a sense of the densely spatial ornament found in > India's classical bronze and stone sculptures. > > Such drawings show us how much the art of India relies on a gifted > sense of proportion and rhythmically interlacing pattern, a gift that > today seems meant to infuse glimpses -- at the very least -- of an > almost spiritually rapturous harmony, able to soften for a time the > jangled chaos of daily life. > > Elisa Turner is The Herald's art critic. > > URL: http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/entertainment/8170624.htm Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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