New Book | Indian Botanical Art
Distributed by ACC Art Books:
Martyn Rix, Indian Botanical Art: An Illustrated History (New Delhi: Roli Books, 2022), 224 pages, ISBN: 978-8195256655, $35.
This book brings together striking botanical art of Indian origin spanning a period of 300 years, focussing on the 18th and 19th centuries. Drawn mostly from original works held in the collections of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, some of the paintings have never been published before. They showcase the richness and variety of art commissioned from talented, mostly unknown, Indian artists who made a substantial contribution to the documentation of the flora of the Indian subcontinent. A foreword written by Sita Reddy places the collections in contemporary context. The book concludes with works from a new generation of botanical artists in India, who excite interest today.
Martyn Rix is a renowned horticulturalist, author of many books, and editor of Curtis’s Botanical Magazine. He is the recipient of the Veitch Memorial Medal from the Royal Horticultural Society for services to horticulture, and a Tercentenary Bronze Medal from the Linnean Society.
Exhibition | Indian Textiles: 1,000 Years of Art and Design
Fragment of chintz, coastal southeast India, 1700–30, made for a Dutch market but found in Japan (Washington, DC: The George Washington University Museum and the Textile Museum, T-2864; Bruce M. White Photography).
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Closing this week at The Textile Museum at The George Washington University (with videos of past programming and the catalogue still available) . . .
Indian Textiles: 1,000 Years of Art and Design
The Textile Museum, The George Washington University, Washington DC, 22 January — 4 June 2022
Vibrant textiles have long been synonymous with Indian culture. Their distinctive abstract, floral, and figurative patterns have inspired countless variations. Featuring masterworks from The Textile Museum Collection and the private collection of Karun Thakar, this major exhibition and accompanying publication showcase court weavings, folk embroideries, and other fabrics from the eighth through the early 20th centuries.
The Indian subcontinent is home to some of the world’s most ancient and illustrious textile traditions. Over the centuries, Indian textile artists have developed an enduring design vocabulary—from simply woven stripes to floral motifs to complex narrative scenes. Indian Textiles: 1,000 Years of Art and Design presents a stunning array of fabrics patterned with India’s most distinctive designs: abstract, floral, and figurative.
Some of the region’s oldest known textiles feature abstract patterns such as circles, stripes, and zigzags. Examples in the exhibition range from a fragment of a block-printed cloth traded to Egypt around the 15th century to intricately embroidered dresses made in present-day Pakistan’s Swat Valley in the 1800s and 1900s.
Floral patterns in Indian textiles became increasingly widespread in the 13th century, and artists excelled in adapting them for global markets. Embroidered caps from Bengal, for example, were fashionable ‘at home’ wear in 18th-century Europe; a man would often don one in the evening after removing his wig.
Figurative patterns provide a window into different religious beliefs across South Asia. A 15th-century narrative cloth from Gujarat depicts deities and other figures central to the Jain religion. A shrine cloth from Uttar Pradesh honors Sayyid Salar Mas’ud, a Muslim warrior-saint venerated by Muslims and Hindus alike.
The exhibition is accompanied by a gallery guide and a catalogue.
Karun Thakar, Rosemary Crill, Steven Cohen, Avalon Fotheringham, and Sylvia Houghteling, Indian Textiles: 1,000 Years of Art and Design (London: Hali Publications, 2021), 391 pages, ISBN: 978-1898113966, $80.
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