Centers of Artistry: Indian Paintings from the Collection
May 24, 2006 - October 22, 2006
Drawn from centers of artistic production across India, ranging in date from the seventeenth century through the twentieth, the paintings now on view in Gallery C provide a context for the multiplicity of subjects and styles represented in Edge of Desire: Recent Art in India.
Miniatures from the Jean and Francis Marshall collection at BAM indicate the kinds of courtly precedents to which the contemporary painters in Edge of Desire might allude. Indian painting is often described as following two traditions, Mughal and Rajput. The former brought into India an infusion of styles from Persian painting, resolutely patterned and meticulous in detail, built up by multiple burnished layers of precious pigments. At the same time, the Mughals were aware of European prints that created solid, shaded forms and drew the viewer into a far distance. Thus Mughal pictures created a rich masala of representational devices to convey imperial power and emotional longing.
Some Rajput courts, such as Issarda and Sirohi, used a more earthy palette and indigenous conventions to depict Hindu mythology. Other Rajput courts fostered a combination of the indigenous with the already hybrid Mughal forms to depict romance, in the case of Kangra, or intense religious devotion, in the case of Jodhpur. The presence of European colonists beginning in the seventeenth century led to yet another, more descriptive variant, reflecting the artistic tastes of East India Company employees and known as the Company School.
Finally, rural artistic traditions remain alive. They include the women's wall paintings of Mithila (northern Bihar), which, over time and in response to economic incentive, have been shifted from walls to paper. These paintings address aspects of contemporary experience, and the tradition now admits new kinds of practitioners, including men. The Berkeley Art Museum's major collection of Mithila painting includes works by Ganga Devi, a woman of the scribe caste and mentor to Santosh Kumar Das. Das was trained at a major modern art school but returned to the Mithila style of his birthplace, as visible in his audacious, vivid images of the Gujarat riots in Edge of Desire.
Joanna Williams
Professor of History of Art and South and Southeast Asian Studies, UC Berkeley
