The cultural richness,
visual brilliance and story-telling power of Indian court
painting between the 16th and 19th centuries will be revealed
in an exhibition at the Asia Society when Power and Desire:
South Asian Paintings from the San Diego Museum of Art,
Edwin Binney 3rd Collection
opens October 12, 2000 (through January 7, 2001).
"This exceptional
exhibition explores the rich connection between court life
and godly pursuits which are ever present in paintings made
for the rulers of the Indian subcontinent," said Vishakha
N. Desai, Senior Vice President of the Asia Society and
Director of Galleries and Cultural Programs. "These
paintings, brimming with elegance and delicate detail, offer
us cultural insight and a vital connection to the past."
The Edwin Binney
3rd Collection is regarded as one of the most important
collections of South Asian painting in the United States.
This is the first tour of the collection in over 25 years.
The ruler in his
palace, lovers in the garden, gods among them and beyond
are the conventional narrative structures in Indian painting.
These are the places where power and desire, as forces that
construct relationships, are depicted. For example, one
painting shows an angry and terrifying goddess haunting
the cremation grounds, trampling even her husband, the god
Shiva, in her rage. Another painting portrays the Hindu
love-god Krishna sitting alone in a forest grove waiting
for his adored Radha. He waits, not knowing that Radha,
angered by his betrayal of her with another woman, will
not come to the trysting spot.
Power and Desire
is comprised of more than 70 paintings created under the
patronage of rulers of South Asian courts between the 16th
and 19th centuries. The selection reflects the encyclopedic
nature of Edwin Binney's collecting, including works from
the most famous periods, manuscripts and artists at Mughal,
Deccani, Rajasthani and Pahari courts. The exhibition also
contains works from the lesser-known courts and periods
that Binney explored, and that are only now gaining wider
scholarly attention.
Rulers of the kingdoms
that co-existed and contended on the Indian subcontinent
between the 16th and 19th centuries supported ateliers of
painters to chronicle and communicate royal authority, sustain
and amplify cultural ties and produce illustrated religious
and literary narratives for the delectation of the ruler,
his family and his court. These paintings were gathered
as unbound sets or incorporated into sumptuous illustrated
manuscripts.
These pre-modern
kingdoms were culturally diverse--some Hindu, some Muslim;
some writing in Persian, others in Sanskrit or various other
Indian languages. Some kingdoms were deeply rooted in the
subcontinent, and some maintained powerful connections beyond
the subcontinent. There were kingdoms which held rich, strategic
terrain while still others controlled peripheral and isolated
lands. Mughal rulers set influential standards, but the
distinctive courts developed individual styles and conventions
in painting. All were drawn to themes of power and desire.
The dynamics of
relationships between ruler and subject, lover and beloved,
and gods and humans are used to organize the exhibition
into three sections:
Section 1: Rule
and Domain
- Rule and Domain shows the hierarchy imposed by royal personage.
Order is determined by the will of the ruler, and the loyalty
and subservience of subjects. Rulers are shown with courtiers
and family, enjoying entertainment and engaging in the royal
sport of hunting. Different stylistic conventions and conceptions
of kingship and hierarchy are evident throughout this section.
Section 2: Love
and Longing
- The shades of love, explored so deeply in the Indian religious,
literary and philosophical tradition, are shown in images
of bliss, pique, reconciliation, marriage, prostitution,
shyness, boldness, longing, anticipation, frustration and
union. Here, lover and beloved yearning for the bliss of
union, are to be understood as both sensory experience and
the longing of the soul for union with the divine.
Section 3: Divine
Realms
- In this section, myths surrounding the gods Rama, Krishna
and Shiva are explored. The intermingling of the human and
the divine in Indian thought is highlighted. The final group
of images goes beyond anthropomorphic representations of
gods with human traits to present imagery that reflects
cosmic concepts beyond rational comprehension.
A primary objective
of Power
and Desire
is to give viewers keys for looking at these small, dense
works of art. Informative wall text and a kiosk entitled
"How to Decode an Indian Miniature" are placed
at the beginning of the exhibition, to aid viewers in the
understanding and interpretation of the art. In the hallway
leading to the exhibition, interactive education workstations
further enhance the experience. An illustrated brochure
will also be available with the exhibition.
The Edwin Binney
3rd Collection of South Asian Painting -over 1,450 works
of art-was given to the San Diego Museum of Art in 1990.
The late Edwin Binney, heir to the Crayola fortune, served
on the board of the museum from 1977 to 1979 and from 1983
to 1986. The vast and varied Binney collection ranges from
12th-century manuscripts to 20th-century paintings, and
from nearly every important court and period on the subcontinent.
Power and Desire:
South Asian Paintings from the San Diego Museum of Art,
Edwin Binney 3rd Collection,
is organized in collaboration with the San Diego Museum
of Art. Caron Smith, San Diego Museum of Art curator of
Asian art, Vishakha N. Desai, Senior Vice President of the
Asia Society and Director of Galleries and Cultural Programs,
and Kavita Singh, an independent scholar, are co-curators
of the exhibition.
Related
Programs
In a
lecture entitled "The
Carpet of Intercourse: Courtly Etiquette in Indian Painting
Art"
for Asia Society members and guests on Wednesday, October
11 at 6:00 P.M., Ms. Singh will discuss images of kingship
as well as the ideals and political philosophy of the courts
as depicted in these paintings.
The Asia Society
offers an opportunity for collectors and would-be collectors
to learn about the trends and challenges in collecting traditional
Indian paintings with the symposium "Collecting
Indian Paintings in the New Millenium" on Saturday, October
21 from 10:00 A.M. to 5:00 P.M. at Sotheby's Institute of
Art. Scholars, museum professionals and private collectors
will discuss why Indian paintings are so collectible, how
they are conserved, who painted them and how much they are
worth. Participants will be able to have works identified
and verbally appraised by auction-house specialists.
Other related programs
include a Meet
the Author program
featuring Mira
Kamdar,
author of Motiba's
Tattoos,
on Tuesday, September 26 at 6:30 P.M. at the Dialectica
Gallery. Ms. Kamdar tells the story of the Indian diaspora
by retracing her family's footsteps from her grandmother's
home in a tiny feudal village in Kathiawar, through colonial
Rangoon, post-independence Bombay, and finally to the U.S.
A book signing and reception follow.
On October 25, 27,
and 28 at 7:30 P.M. at the Brooklyn Academy of Music, Ratan
Thiyam's Chorus
Repertory Theatre will present Uttar-Priyadarshi
(The Final Beatitude).
Chorus Repertory Theatre, one of India's most renowned contemporary
theater companies, will make its U.S. debut in an eight-city
tour co-produced by the Asia Society and Lisa Booth Management.
Uttar-Priyadarshi is an epic tale
of war and peace centering on Emperor Ashoka's conversion
to nonviolence and Buddhism, combining traditional Manipuri
music and movement with a contemporary theatrical sensibility.
The Dutch-produced
documentary,
Fatal Reaction: Bombay,
will be screened on Tuesday, November 28 at 7:00 P.M. at
Tinker Auditorium, French Institute/Alliance Française.
This film looks at how modern Indian matchmaking services
are bringing arranged marriages into the 21st century.
On Tuesday, December
12 at 7:00 P.M. (preceeded by a reception at 6:00 P.M.)
at The Lighthouse International, the Asia Society presents
"Viewpoints:
An Evening with Shirin Neshat and Shahzia Sikander."
These New York-based artists talk with Vishakha N. Desai
about the representation of Islam and gender issues in their
work. Born in Iran, Neshat's compelling photographs and
videos have been included in many international exhibitions
such as the 10th Biennale of Sydney and Venice Biennale
(1999). Pakistan-born Sikandar was trained in miniature
painting in Lahore and her multilayered works have been
exhibited at the Whitney Biennale and Drawing Center in
Soho, among other prestigious venues.
Power and Desire:
South Asian Paintings from the San Diego Museum of Art,
Edwin Binney 3rd Collection
is co-organized by the Asia Society and the San Diego Museum
of Art. Support for the exhibition and related programs
at the Asia Society has been provided by Dr. and Mrs. Purnendu
Chatterjee, Mr. and Mrs. Rohit M. Desai, Laurence F. Whittemore,
Mr. and Mrs. Robert M. Beningson, Arvind Raghunathan and
Sribala Subramanian, and Mary Wallach.
Support for the
Asia Society's Cultural Programs is provided by the Friends
of Asian Arts, Wallace-Reader's Digest Funds, The Starr
Foundation, Booth Ferris Foundation, The Armand G. Erpf
Fund, The Arthur Ross Foundation, and the Harold J. and
Ruth Newman Philanthropic Fund.
Asia Society
The Asia Society
is America's leading institution dedicated to fostering
understanding of Asia and communication between Americans
and the peoples of Asia and the Pacific. A nonprofit, nonpartisan
educational institution, the Asia Society presents a wide
range of programs including major art exhibitions, performances,
media programs, international conferences and lectures,
and initiatives to improve elementary and secondary education
about Asia. The Asia Society is headquartered in New York
City, with regional centers in Washington, D.C., Houston,
Los Angeles, Hong Kong and Melbourne, Australia, and representative
offices in San Francisco, Seattle, Manila and Shanghai.
For more information, contact the Asia Society, 725 Park
Avenue, New York, NY 10021. (212) 288-6400. (www.asiasociety.org). Note: While the
Asia Society headquarters building is undergoing renovations
(to be completed Fall 2001), visit us at our interim location,
Asia Society at Midtown, 502 Park Avenue (at 59th Street),
New York City.
