Largest Collection of Indian Painting Outside India Visits Boston

[Guest guest]

BOSTON (USA) (October 11, 2006): "Domains of Wonder: Masterworks of

Indian Painting," which recently opened at the Museum of Fine Arts,

Boston (MFA), features more than 100 of the finest examples of

Indian painting spanning five centuries––the 14th century through

the colonial period.

 

Drawn from the renowned Edwin Binney 3rd Collection at the San Diego

Museum of Art –– the largest and most important holding of South

Asian painting outside of India –– this is the first time these

master paintings have circulated as a nationally touring exhibition.

It is also the first major exhibition of Indian art to be held in

Boston in more than two decades.

 

To mark the opening of Domains of Wonder, His Excellency, the

Ambassador of India, Ronen Sen, will travel from Washington, D.C. to

speak at the opening reception and commence the event with a

traditional Indian lamp lighting ceremony. To further celebrate the

exhibition, the MFA has planned a number of public programs,

including film screenings, a community open house with a South Asian

theme, a musical performance, lecture, and gallery discussions and

classes. (See attached document for further information.)

 

"Domains of Wonder" will be on view in the MFA's Torf Gallery

through November 26, 2006. The media sponsor is Classical 102.5

WCRB.

 

Additionally, a new Museum acquisition by contemporary artist

Shahzia Sikander, a large striking canvas titled "Pathology of

Suspension #6" (2005), will be on view in close proximity to Domains

of Wonder, as well as an installation titled "Telling Tales:

Generating Narratives from Indian Paintings," comprising a superb

selection of paintings from the MFA's own collection that illustrate

widely-told Indian tales.

 

"Domains of Wonder brings to Boston many rarely-seen master

paintings from a world-class collection," said Malcolm Rogers, Ann

and Graham Gund Director of the MFA. "We're pleased to have the

opportunity to share these magnificent examples of Indian painting

as well as India's rich culture with Museum visitors."

 

Painting in India has a long history, during which different styles

developed in varying regional and religious contexts. Divided into

eight sections, Domains of Wonder addresses the many aspects of

Indian painting. Works are grouped loosely by chronology, but also

by the dominant quality or spirit of each. These shared qualities

are reflected in the titles given to each section:

 

I. Terse Assertions (Jain, Sultanate, and Other Works)

 

Artists of the 14th and 15th centuries concisely and emphatically

stated their subjects on the pages of manuscripts or within complex

devotional icons, as seen in the works in this section such as The

worlds of gods and saviours: vividh tirtha-patta (early 15th

century). This two-dimensional icon shows a Jina, a liberated being

and main object of worship for followers of Jainism, sitting in

meditation within an elaborate temple.

 

II. Rooted in the Earth (Works Derived from Mostly Pre-Mughal

Sources)

 

This section highlights how the indigenous painting traditions of

India found expression in manuscripts of sacred and secular

literature. The Bhagavata Purana, part of the literature of

Hinduism, inspired The Sports of Love (mid-16th century).

 

III. Devotion, Passion, and Heroism (Paintings from Rajasthani

Courts)

 

Rajput painting from the northwestern state of Rajasthan consists of

works made for princes and nobles during the time of the Mughal

empire (about 1550-1850). Each court developed its own aesthetic,

however they all admired formal, aristocratic refinement, as well as

the thrill of the hunt. In The final battle: the Goddess takes down

the demon, Shumbha (about 1700) by Sirohi Rajasthan and taken from a

Devimahatmya––the most sacred text for those who worship the goddess

as the supreme divinity––the goddess is battling with demon brothers

who have wreaked havoc on the world.

 

IV. Engaging with the Visible World (Mughal Paintings)

 

Artists who were trained in both Indian and Persian traditions

worked together in an atelier (a royal painting workshop) to produce

work for their patrons, the Mughal emperors. Examples in this

section include the painting Lovers by a Tree (about 1725)––

depicting a stolen moment between two young lovers amid a verdant

landscape.

 

V. Sultans and Mystics (Works from the Deccan)

 

The Deccan Plateau is a vast area which encompasses most of central

and southern India. Turks, Persians, Arabs, and Africans inhabited

this area, along with Indian Muslims and Hindus. This ethnic

diversity is seen in Muhammad Adil Shah selects a jewel (about 1650)

in which Ikhlas Khan, an Abyssinian who rose to high rank and power,

is depicted holding a tray with offerings to the sultan seated in

the center.

 

VI. Clarity of Vision (Paintings from Pahari Workshops)

 

The Pahari region, also known as the Punjab Hills, lies in the

western foothills of the Himalayas, and was home to many small

kingdoms under the aegis of the Mughal empire. Each court identified

with a particular artistic style. Asking Her to Leave Her Noisy

Anklets Behind and Go (1730), is an elaborately crafted and sensuous

work by Manaku of Guler, from the Seu family workshop of Guler, one

of the most gifted families of painters in the Pahari area.

 

VII. Different Strands (Works from Local and Little-Known Centers)

 

Important artistic movements, aside from the mainstream Mughal or

Rajput styles, developed in other regional centers throughout India

from the 17th to 19th centuries. These reveal the diversity of the

painters' individual visions. The enigmatic Lady Praying at a Shrine

(18th century) reflects both an ability to paint a refined,

naturalistic human face, as well as virtuosity with the technique of

marbled paper, which flows throughout the entire painting.

 

VIII. Changing Tastes (Paintings Made Chiefly under European

Influence)

 

In the 18th and 19th centuries, British colonial presence resulted

in major shifts in the styles of paintings produced in India. Indian

artists worked for both British patrons, as well as Indian patrons

who were fond of the realism of European academic painting. A Green-

Winged Macaw (1780), attributed to Shaikh Zain al-Din, delineates

every detail of the colorful bird with precision.

 

"We're extremely pleased to continue the Museum's profound

connection with India initiated nearly a century ago by the

groundbreaking scholar and theorist Ananda Coomaraswamy, the MFA's

first curator for Indian art," said Woodman Taylor, the recently

appointed Assistant Curator of South Asian and Islamic Art at the

MFA. "With Domains of Wonder, we are furthering this legacy by

presenting five centuries of superlative Indian painting."

 

THE BINNEY COLLECTION

 

In 1990, the late Edwin Binney 3rd, heir to the Crayola fortune,

bequeathed his collection of South Asian art to the San Diego Museum

of Art. Comprising over 1,450 works, this encyclopedic collection

has examples of nearly every court, style, movement, and subject

from all regions of the Indian subcontinent. The works range in date

from the 6th through 20th centuries, with the strength of the

collection in paintings from India from the 15th through 19th

centuries. A scholar and expert collector, Dr. Binney devoted nearly

three decades of his life, before his death in 1986, to selecting

important and distinctive works to create one of the most

comprehensive collections of South Asian paintings in the world.

 

EXHIBITION ORGANIZATION/TOUR

 

Domains of Wonder has been organized by the San Diego Museum of Art

and will be at the MFA (September 20-November 26, 2006) before

traveling to the Michael C. Carlos Museum at Emory University in

Atlanta (December 16, 2006–March 11, 2007) and the Dallas Museum of

Art (November 18, 2007–January 27, 2008).

 

PUBLICATIONS

 

"Domains of Wonder: Selected Masterworks of Indian Painting," a full-

color catalogue published by the University of Washington Press,

features scholarly essays by Dr. B.N. Goswamy, a noted Indian

scholar, and Dr. Caron Smith, Chief Curator and Deputy Director of

the Rubin Museum of Art. Containing full-color illustrations of

every work in the exhibition.

 

MUSEUM OF FINE ARTS, BOSTON, EXHIBITION PAGE:

http://tinyurl.com/htoeb

 

TO PURCHASE CATALOGUE: http://www.amazon.com/dp/0937108340

SOURCES AND URLS: Art Daily ( http://tinyurl.com/e6zcd ); Art

Knowledge News ( http://tinyurl.com/gvocc )