J. S. Marcus writes in the WSJ:

Kew has … installed a special Indian garden in the museum’s forecourt. Designed by Kew horticulturalists Steve Ruddy and Richard Wilford, “India Landscape” transforms 440 square meters of lawn into a concise overview of the Indian subcontinent’s three main habitats: the Himalayan Mountains, the temperate woodlands of the Himalayan foothills and the humid subtropical lowlands.

The Himalayas are conjured up with a vertical rock garden, surrounded by pine trees and cranesbill. The temperate zone includes a Himalayan walnut tree and a blue poppy, one of the world’s truly blue flowers. The subtropical regions come to life thanks to a lotus filled pond, and a mature banyan tree. The winding path, in the shadow of the British Museum’s neoclassical façade, has a dense but spacious quality, and the gardeners have somehow managed to create a sense of north-south travel as we make our way from barren rocks to the spidery lushness of the banyan.

The British Museum will collaborate with Kew on:

• Garden and Cosmos: the Royal Paintings of Jodhpur, May 28 to August 23.
• India Landscape, May 2 to September 28, British Museum forecourt, free.
  Culture of import
• A Bollywood film festival
• Evenings of Indian performance, dance, music, and food
• Lunchtime lectures in the new garden, by museum curators and Kew gardeners, on Indian medicinal plants, horticulture, landscapes and ecology
• Painting and printing workshops, recreating traditional Indian craft techniques

A nice program!

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Indian Summer

Yesterday the Portland Art Museum unveiled a recent purchase: an eleventh-century stone Ganesha from northeastern India.

The Portland Ganesha is shown seated in the posture of “royal ease,” with one knee raised. His rat mount looks up from below, a wisdom bearer (vidyadhara) reaches down from above with a garland of flowers. One of Ganesha’s hands is held in the gesture of reassurance, while the others hold various objects.

How was this object removed from India? No one seems sure.

In the museum world the date 1970 is a significant one. In that year the United Nations adopted measures intended to prevent the looting of antiquities. So objects whose provenance is murky prior to 1970 may be points of contention. The museum bought this work at a Christie’s auction in 2008; in 2000 it had been sold by Sotheby’s. But there seems to be no explanation how Sotheby’s came by the object, as Sotheby’s says its documentation is “missing.”

According to the Association of Art Museum Directors, when a work is acquired despite doubts about its provenance, it is supposed to be listed in an object registry on the AAMD’s website. The registry is intended to provide a mechanism for anyone with a claim to ownership of the work to examine the evidence and come forward. This Ganesha is historic in that it is the first such work to be placed on that list.

Was the sculpture obtained legally, or was it stolen? Why is there no existing record of a sale? Under these circumstances is it appropriate for a Western museum to purchase and display such a work? Does going public and listing the object on the registry make a difference? What will happen if a claimant appears?

These are the kinds of questions that will play out in coming years.

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Ganesha, 11th c. Northeastern India, Pala dynasty (mid-8th-12th century). Stone.

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The Portland Ganesha

Here’s another great Ganesha from the Walters Art Museum in Baltimor. This one was made in Bihar in the eleventh century, during the Pala dynasty. The material is muscovite biotite schist. Gift of J. Gilman d’Arcy Paul, 1967, 25.49.

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Ganesha

Here’s another great dancing Ganesha. This one is in the collection of the Walters Art Museum in Baltimore. From Uttar Pradesh, it dates from the ninth or tenth century. I took this photo of a detail of the sculpture when I was visiting Baltimore recently. The label includes this charming commentary:

Like his father [Shiva], Ganesha combines opposing traits: he is a leader of Shiva’s troops, but he is also lovable (there is a bowl of sweets beneath the tip of his trunk). He dances in imitation of his father’s cosmic dance. Ganesha became the lord of beginnings for Hindus and is prayed to at the start of an endeavor. [See early posts on this blog.] Images such as this one were placed in the southern exterior niche of a temple, to be encountered first in a ritual walk around the outside of a temple.

Dancing Ganesha, 9th-10th century, India: Uttar Pradesh, sandstone, gift of John and Bertha Fora, 2004, 25-253.

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Dancing Ganesha

Indian painting is hot these days. Francis Newton Souza’s Birth (oil on board, 48 x 96 in., 1955), shown above, recently sold for $2,487,931 at an auction at Christie’s London, a record price for modern Indian art.

Souza spent much of his life in London and is the only Indian artist to have a room dedicated to his works at Tate Britain. He was born on April 12, 1924, in Saligaon, Goa, India and died on March 28, 2002 , in Bombay, India. His website is maintained by his estate.

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Birth

This image of the Taj Mahal, the mausoleum constructed by the Mughal Emperor Shah Jahan in the seventeenth century, is from Stuck in Customs‘s photostream.

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Photo Wednesday: the Taj Mahal

This photo of a bride bedecked and bejeweled for her wedding is from riceFR’s photostream.

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Photo Wednesday: Indian bride

This painting comes from the region of Mithila in India, where domestic wall painting is traditionally practiced by village women on the occasion of marriages and festivals. Since the 1960s, thanks to an initiative launched by the Indian government, the women have also been painting on paper (and are sometimes now joined by men)

This is an image of an auspicious tree with colorful birds and two elephants (22 x 30 in.) The artist’s name is Nidhi, of whom I know nothing. I bought this painting from someone who had recently returned from the region. The elephants with their garland probably express a marriage motif. This image is rather unusual in Mithila painting.

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Related: an auspicious tree of life from a Mesoamerican context.

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Auspicious Tree with Birds and Two Elephants

Ganesha is generally considered to be the son of Shiva and Parvati. There are several stories of how he got his elephant head. Most commonly, it is said that he was beheaded by Shiva, who then in remorse replaced his head with that of an elephant.

Despite his stocky form and big belly, Ganesha often dances. He is carefree and cheerful, yet he is also a patron of scholars and students. It is not difficult to image lively music inspiring this Ganesha to dance.

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Dancing Ganesha

After successfully entering the Chinese market with two auctions of contemporary Chinese art, Artcurial is now ready to focus on the Indian art market and is planning to stage two auctions per year.

We have decided to start the Indian sale now considering the growing interest among French collectors in this field for more than a year now. This strong and deep interest is illustrated by several important events like the Indian Summer in Paris in 2005 and Lille 3000 in 2006 to name a few. In step, we know of the famous relationship between Subodh Gupta and Francois Pinault. Pinault, the French billionaire and collector, has been picked by ArtReview as among the 100 most influential people in the international contemporary art world.

Hussein is also the subject of an article in Asian Art News by Uma Prakash, entitled “The Mundane Uncovered.” And he will appear in From the Everyday to the Imagined: An Exhibition of Indian Art at the Singapore Art Museum, November 16 – January 16.

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Indian art auction in Paris

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Ganesha images