|
|
|
|
Six Hundred Years of Indian Art |
| Section: THE ARTS / ART |
| Author: Susan Fegley Osmond |
| Publication:
The World & I Online |
| Issue Date: 2/1/1986 |
| Size: 4,495 Words, 27,566 Characters |
|
Throughout history the Indian subcontinent has attracted wave after wave of traders, invaders, and empire builders. As a result this region has accrued a culture of astonishing diversity. Just how varied this culture is was vividly demonstrated in a recent exhibition at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. INDIA! displayed six hundred years of Indian art, from 1300--the time of the great Muslim invasions--to 1900, when the subcontinent was largely under British rule.
The general American conception of Indian art is perhaps quite monolithic, but the Metropolitan's landmark show, which closed January 5, will probably be remembered for having significantly broadened, and to some extent redefined, the typical image of Indian art in the popular American imagination.
Six years in the making, INDIA! which became a central event in the 1985-1986 nationwide Festival of India, was an exhibition unlike any other previously assembled in the United States. Not only were all regions of the subcontinent represented, in itself an unusual undertaking, but the varied traditions of sacred, court, urban, folk, and tribal art were all included in a stunning display of over three hundred carefully chosen objects. The exhibition unfortunately will not travel.
In the entryway to the exhibit, three photographs of contemporary India introduced themes that permeate all Indian art: the centrality of the sacred and the spiritual, and the profound closeness to the body of nature. This unexpected bonding of the spiritual and the earthly gives Indian art unique power and vitality.
Upon crossing the threshold into the treasure-rooms of Indian art, fifteenth-century bronze statues of the Hindu god Shiva and his consort Parvati formed a second and more profound gateway to the heart of Indian culture. As Shiva is the god of creation and destruction, responsible for ending each age once it has run its cycle, his presence served as an appropriate introduction to a turbulent era of invasion and change.
The first display room was devoted to the Great Tradition--the classic Hindu style as it survived in southern India during the time of Muslim rule in the north. The bronze statues, vessels, ivories, painted miniatures, wall hangings, and weapons in this room dated from the fourteenth through the nineteenth centuries. An impressive variety of approaches was evident. Some works, for example, bore a faint imprint of Mughal influence--itself intermixed with Chinese and Hellenistic elements--while other works showed a startling kinship to ancient Mesopotamian styles. Nevertheless, one was struck by the prevailing homogeneity of Hindu subjects and interpretations throughout centuries of art.
The domin...
Read Full Article
...th funereal weight, mounted not over a doorway or a window, but an impenetrable wall. It was a telling portrait of the era.
In retrospect, the Metropolitan Museum's landmark exhibition, INDIA! revealed to the American audience how rich and diverse was latter Indian culture, and how this land of many peoples has entwined its varied traditions in compelling syntheses of artistic styles.
(2,793 of 27,566 characters)
|
|
|
Publication Details
(The World & I Online) |
|
The World & I Online is a
comprehensive academic resource that encompasses a broad range of
articles by scholars and experts in the areas of Global Studies,
Liberal Arts, Fine & Applied Arts, General Science, and Spanish.
Originally published monthly in print as The World & I, our site
includes the complete contents since 1986 and continues to publish
a new issue online each month. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
