This is a collection of 25 essays written to celebrate Douglas Barrett, the former keeper of Indian art at the British Museum and his contribution to the study of Indian Art. The essays are divided into five sections covering: Early India, North Indian sculpture, South Indian sculpture, Indian painting and Islamic art. A full bibliography of the Barrett's writings are included.
Jahangir : A Connoisseur Of Mughal Art Is Author'S Third Great Work Showing The Character And Personality Of Prince Salim Who Ruled India After The Death Of Akbar. It Tends To Portray The Aesthetic Taste Of Emperor Jahangir As An Unrivalled Connoisseur Of Mughal Art Besides Being A Shrewd Administrator Of Mughal Empire. The Primary Sources Attempts To Present The Artistic Heritage Of His Ancestors Followed By His Own Innovations Known As Muraqqas In Miniature Painting Which Stand Out As Rare Specimens Of Mughal Painting In The Entire Range Of Art History.Jahangir, Who Has Been Depicted As A Great Campaigner Of Wars, Was Also An Avowed Lover Of Natural Phenomena As Also Famous Naturalist Lover Of Mughal Art. What Excelled All Others Styles Of His Reign Was Aspect Of Sophistication And Refinement Which Characterize The Miniatures, Muraqqas Produced In Jahangir'S Atelier.It Was Based On Detailed Analytical Study Of The Trends And Tendencies Patronised By Him. Jahangir Devoted Enough Time To The Study And Enjoyment Of Painting During His Stay At Lahore Which Became A Hub Of Artistic Activity. It Was Here That Most Significant Manuscripts Were Illustrated. Many Noted Artists Worked At Lahore Kingdom. Lahore Became The Second Capital Of The Mughal Empire From Where Radiated Art, Culture, Language And Literature Throughout India.He Was A Man Of Wide Literary Taste, Having Intense Love For Poetry, Music, History, Geography, Architecture, Painting And Fine Arts. A Typical Mughal Culture Would Have Been Impossible Without This Intellectual And Artistic Contribution.
As the Great Depression touched every corner of America, the New Deal promoted indigenous arts and crafts as a means of bootstrapping Native American peoples. But New Deal administrators' romanticization of indigenous artists predisposed them to favor pre-industrial forms rather than art that responded to contemporary markets. In A New Deal for Native Art, Jennifer McLerran reveals how positioning the native artist as a pre-modern Other served the goals of New Deal programs—and how this sometimes worked at cross-purposes with promoting native self-sufficiency. She describes federal policies of the 1930s and early 1940s that sought to generate an upscale market for Native American arts and crafts. And by unraveling the complex ways in which commodification was negotiated and the roles that producers, consumers, and New Deal administrators played in that process, she sheds new light on native art’s commodity status and the artist’s position as colonial subject. In this first book to address the ways in which New Deal Indian policy specifically advanced commodification and colonization, McLerran reviews its multi-pronged effort to improve the market for Indian art through the Indian Arts and Crafts Board, arts and crafts cooperatives, murals, museum exhibits, and Civilian Conservation Corps projects. Presenting nationwide case studies that demonstrate transcultural dynamics of production and reception, she argues for viewing Indian art as a commodity, as part of the national economy, and as part of national political trends and reform efforts. McLerran marks the contributions of key individuals, from John Collier and Rene d’Harnoncourt to Navajo artist Gerald Nailor, whose mural in the Navajo Nation Council House conveyed distinctly different messages to outsiders and tribal members. Featuring dozens of illustrations, A New Deal for Native Art offers a new look at the complexities of folk art “revivals” as it opens a new window on the Indian New Deal.
The career of Y. G. Srimati - classical singer, musician, dancer and painter - represents a continuum in which each of these skills and experiences merged, influencing and pollinating each other. Born in Mysore in 1926, Srimati was part of the generation much influenced by the rediscovery of a classical Sanskrit legacy devoted to the visual arts. Soon swept up in the nationalist movement for an independent India, she was deeply moved by the time she spent with Gandhi. For the young Srimati, the explicit referencing of the past and of religious subjects came together in an unparalleled way, driven by the explosive atmosphere of an India in the final push to independence. This experience gave form and meaning to her art, and largely defined her style. As John Guy demonstrates in this sumptuous volume, as a painter of the mid- and later 20th century, Y. G. Srimati embodied a traditionalist position, steadfast in her vision of an Indian style, one which resonated with those who knew India best. AUTHOR: John Guy is the Florence and Herbert Irving Curator of South and Southeast Asian Art at The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York. He previously served for 22 years as Senior Curator of Indian Art at the Victoria and Albert Museum, London, and has authored many major publications, including Arts of India: 1550-1900 (V&A 1990), Indian Art and Connoisseurship (1995, ed.), Vietnamese Ceramics: A Separate Tradition (1998), Woven Cargoes: Indian Textiles in the East (1998), Wonder of the Age: Master Painters of India (MMA 2012), Interwoven Globe: The Worldwide Textile Trade, 1500-1800 (MMA 2013) and Lost Kingdoms: Hindu-Buddhist Sculpture of Early Southeast Asia (MMA 2014). 80 illustrations
This sumptuously illustrated volume examines the impact of Indian art and culture on Rembrandt (1606–1669) in the late 1650s. By pairing Rembrandt’s twenty-two extant drawings of Shah Jahan, Jahangir, Dara Shikoh, and other Mughal courtiers with Mughal paintings of similar compositions, the book critiques the prevailing notion that Rembrandt “brought life” to the static Mughal art. Written by scholars of both Dutch and Indian art, the essays in this volume instead demonstrate how Rembrandt’s contact with Mughal painting inspired him to draw in an entirely new, refined style on Asian paper—an approach that was shaped by the Dutch trade in Asia and prompted by the curiosity of a foreign culture. Seen in this light, Rembrandt’s engagement with India enriches our understanding of collecting in seventeenth-century Amsterdam, the Dutch global economy, and Rembrandt’s artistic self-fashioning. A close examination of the Mughal imperial workshop provides new insights into how Indian paintings came to Europe as well as how Dutch prints were incorporated into Mughal compositions.
