Exhibition | South Asian Miniature Painting and Britain
Closing this month at The Box, with the catalogue appearing this spring from Bloomsbury:
Beyond the Page: South Asian Miniature Painting and Britain, 1600 to Now
The Box, Plymouth, 7 October 2023 — 28 January 2024
Beyond the Page explores how the traditions of South Asian miniature painting have been reclaimed and reinvented by modern and contemporary artists, taken forward beyond the pages of illuminated manuscripts to experimental forms that include installations, sculpture, and film. The exhibition features work by artists from different generations working in dialogue with the miniature tradition, including Hamra Abbas, Zahoor ul Akhlaq, David Alesworth, Nandalal Bose, Noor Ali Chagani, Lubna Chowdhary, Adbur Rahman Chughtai, Olivia Fraser, Samuel Fyzee-Rahamin, Alexander Gorlizki, N.S. Harsha, Howard Hodgkin, Ali Kazim, Bhupen Khakhar, Matthew Krishanu, Jess MacNeil, Imran Qureshi, Nusra Latif Qureshi, Mohan Samant, Willem Schellinks, Raqib Shaw, Gulammohammed Sheikh, Nilima Sheikh, Arpita Singh, the Singh Twins, Shahzia Sikander, Abanindranath Tagore and Muhammad Zeeshan. Contemporary works are shown alongside examples of miniature painting dating as far back as the 16th century drawn from major collections including The Royal Collection, the Victoria & Albert Museum, and The British Museum, many on public display for the first time.
Anthony Spira and Fay Blanchard, eds., with essays by Emily Hannam and Hammad Nasar and catalogue entries by Emily Hannam, Cleo Roberts-Komireddi, and Elizabeth Brown, Beyond the Page: South Asian Miniature Painting and Britain, 1600 to Now (London: Philip Wilson Publishers, 2024), 224 pages, ISBN: 978-1781301258, $40.
Exhibition | Indian Skies: The Howard Hodgkin Collection
An Elephant and Keeper, India, Mughal, ca. 1650–60, opaque color and gold on paper
(New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Howard Hodgkin Collection, 2022.187)
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Opening next month at The Met:
Indian Skies: The Howard Hodgkin Collection of Indian Court Painting
The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 6 February — 9 June 2024
Over the course of sixty years, British artist Howard Hodgkin (1932–2017) formed a collection of Indian paintings and drawings that is recognized as one of the finest of its kind. A highly regarded painter and printmaker, Hodgkin collected works from the Mughal, Deccani, Rajput, and Pahari courts dating from the 16th to the 19th centuries that reflect his personal passion for Indian art. This exhibition presents over 120 of these works, many of which The Met recently acquired, alongside loans from The Howard Hodgkin Indian Collection Trust.
The works on view include stunning portraits, beautifully detailed text illustrations, studies of the natural world, and devotional subjects. The exhibition will also display a painting by Hodgkin, Small Indian Sky, which alludes to the subtle relationship between his own work, India, and his collection. This exhibition is accompanied by an issue of The Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin.
New Book | The Art of Cloth in Mughal India
From Princeton UP:
Sylvia Houghteling, The Art of Cloth in Mughal India (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2022), 280 pages, ISBN: 978-0691215785, £58 / $68.
In the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, a vast array of textiles circulated throughout the Mughal Empire. Made from rare fibers and crafted using virtuosic techniques, these exquisite objects animated early modern experience, from the intimate, sensory pleasure of garments to the monumentality of imperial tents. The Art of Cloth in Mughal India tells the story of textiles crafted and collected across South Asia and beyond, illuminating how cloth participated in political negotiations, social conversations, and the shared seasonal rhythms of the year. Drawing on small-scale paintings, popular poetry, chronicle histories, and royal inventory records, Sylvia Houghteling charts the travels of textiles from the Mughal imperial court to the kingdoms of Rajasthan, the Deccan sultanates, and the British Isles. She shows how the ‘art of cloth’ encompassed both the making of textiles as well as their creative uses. Houghteling asks what cloth made its wearers feel, how it acted in space, and what images and memories it conjured in the mind. She reveals how woven objects began to evoke the natural environment, convey political and personal meaning, and span the distance between faraway people and places. Beautifully illustrated, The Art of Cloth in Mughal India offers an incomparable account of the aesthetics and techniques of cloth and cloth making and the ways that textiles shaped the social, political, religious, and aesthetic life of early modern South Asia.
• Winner of the Charles Rufus Morey Book Award, College Art Association
• Shortlisted for the R.L. Shep Memorial Book Award, Textile Society of America
Sylvia Houghteling is assistant professor of history of art at Bryn Mawr College.
c o n t e n t s
Note on Transliteration
Introduction
1 Landscapes of Cloth in the Mughal Empire
2 The Tell-Tale Textile: Fabric and Emotions in Mughal Hindustan
3 The Moving Walls of the Amber Court
4 The Fame of Machilipatnam Cloth
5 The Flowering of Mughal Textiles in Britain
Conclusion
Acknowledgments
Notes
Bibliography
Index
Image Credits
New Book | Des étoffes pour le vêtement et la décoration
From PUR:
Aziza Gril-Mariotte, Des étoffes pour le vêtement et la décoration: Vivre en indiennes, France, XVIIIe–XIXe siècle (Rennes: Presses Universitaires de Rennes, 2023), 216 pages, ISBN: 978-2753592445, €32.
Retracer une histoire du goût en étudiant l’usage des indiennes dans la mode et la décoration intérieure aux XVIIIe et XIXe siècles, tel est l’objectif de ce livre. Il montre comment les manufacturiers ont participé à l’essor d’une société consumériste où la question des modes et des couleurs est indissociable du développement d’une industrie textile. En appréhendant des pratiques vestimentaires et décoratives sur deux siècles, les phénomènes de recyclages, de renouvellement ainsi que de permanence de certains décors sont analysés à la lumière de la fascination que le XVIIIe siècle exerça sur la société du XIXe siècle. Dans la parure vestimentaire, l’usage des indiennes raconte la diffusion dans la société de pratiques longtemps réservées aux élites et la capacité des industriels à se renouveler pour accompagner l’essor de la consommation des étoffes, depuis les marchandes de mode jusqu’aux grands magasins. La question de la place des cotonnades dans la décoration intérieure offre un point de vue renouvelé sur le rôle des étoffes dans l’embellissement du cadre de vie qui perdure et se développe au XIXe siècle en participant au concept des styles historiques.
Avec le soutien de la Fondation Jeanne et Pierre Spiegel et du laboratoire CRESAT de l’université Haute-Alsace.
Aziza Gril-Mariotte est professeur des universités en histoire de l’art moderne à Aix-Marseille université et chercheuse à l’UMR TELEMMe. Elle a présidé le musée de l’Impression sur étoffes entre 2019 et 2022. Actuellement, elle dirige le musée des Tissus et des arts décoratifs de Lyon. Ses travaux portent sur la création et l’innovation dans l’industrie textile aux XVIIIe et XIXe siècles, ainsi que sur les phénomènes de muséification et de patrimonialisation des étoffes depuis le XIXe siècle.
s o m m a i r e
I. Des indiennes aux étoffes, définir l’objet textile
Une nomenclature variée
Une production artistique pour un objet usuel
Des créations pour des usages variés
II. Indiennes et toiles peintes pour la mode
De nouvelles étoffes dans les garde-robes
La fabrique des modes
L’indiennage entre collections annuelles et motifs immuables
III. Les toiles peintes dans les intérieurs
Les étoffes et l’art de vivre à la française
Décorer son intérieur en indienne
Décors et étoffes intemporels
New Book | Turkey Red
From Bloomsbury:
Julie Wertz, Turkey Red (London: Bloomsbury Visual Arts, 2024), 232 pages, ISBN: 978-1350216518 (hardcover), $110 / ISBN: 978-1350216501 (paperback), $37.
This multi-disciplinary study examines the exceptional Turkey red textile dyeing process and product. Prized for its brilliant colour and durability, yet notoriously difficult to produce, the textile was consumed locally and exported around the world. Considered one of the first instances of industrial espionage, the expansion of the Turkey red industry is closely linked to the Industrial Revolution and the emergence of a new global economy. Significant technological advances in chemistry and dyeing were motivated by the demands of Turkey red dyers and printers, who were located primarily in the west of Scotland, the north of England, and around Mulhouse, Switzerland.
This book explores the arc of the Turkey red industry, the evolution of the process through key producers and technical developments, the complicated printing process, and finishes with an examination of significant Turkey red collections and a selection of object case studies. The chemistry of the process is described in an accessible, contextual manner, highlighting the significance of the distinctive technique that yielded the best red attainable on cotton. Drawing on both historical and contemporary study, Turkey Red presents significant new research on the material characterisation of this fascinating, eye-catching textile, and offers an in-depth historical example of the global effect of textile consumption.
Julie Wertz is Beal Family Postgraduate Fellow in Conservation Science at Harvard Art Museums.
c o n t e n t s
List of Figures
Preface
Acknowledgments
Note on the Text
Introduction
1 The Most Brilliant Color Dyed on Cotton
1.1 Defining Turkey red
1.1.1 A reputable red
1.1.2 A complicated process
1.2 Identifying Turkey red
1.3 Material record
1.4 Conclusion
2 Global Exchanges and Anthraquinone Dyes
2.1 The origin and dissemination of Turkey red
2.1.1 India
2.1.2 Indonesia
2.1.3 The Levant and the Ottoman Empire
2.1.4 The Hapsburg Empire
2.1.5 France
2.1.6 Britain
2.2 Madder
2.2.1 The cultivation of madder
2.2.2 Madder composition and derivatives
2.3 Synthetic alizarin
2.3.1 Understanding alizarin
2.3.2 Alizarin synthesis and patent disputes
2.3.3 Synthetic alizarin products
2.4 Conclusion
3 The Dyeing, Chemistry, and Technological Advances of Turkey Red
3.1 Oiling
3.1.1 Oiling in the old process
3.1.2 The chemistry of oiled cotton
3.1.3 Ruminant dung and tannins
3.1.4 Turkey red oil and the new process
3.1.5 The Steiner process
3.2 Aluminium
3.2.1 Precipitated aluminium soaps
3.3 Dyeing
3.3.1 Color complexes in Turkey red
3.3.2 Blood and albumen
3.4 Clearing
3.5 Conclusions
4 Printed Turkey Red
4.1 Textile printing methods
4.2 Discharge printing
4.2.1 Lead plate press discharging
4.2.2 Acid paste discharging
4.3 A bright palette
4.3.1 Black, blue, yellow, and green
4.3.2 Identifying colorants on Turkey red prints
4.4 Design
4.4.1 Industrial design and production
4.4.2 European design for the export market
4.5 Conclusions
5 Turkey Red in the Industrial Revolution
5.1 Turkey red industry by country
5.1.1 France
5.1.2 England
5.1.3 Scotland
5.1.4 Switzerland
5.1.5 The Netherlands
5.1.6 North America
5.1.7 Other locations
5.2 Working conditions and labor
5.3 Colonialism
5.4 Conclusions
6 Trade, Use, and Object Record
6.1 Documentary evidence of availability
6.2 How Turkey red was used
6.2.1 Bandanas
6.2.2 Domestic textiles, quilts and bedcovers
6.2.3 Accessories, garments, and tools
6.3 Conclusions
Conclusions
Glossary
References
Index
Exhibition | Fashioning an Empire: Textiles from Safavid Iran
Textile with Pink, Red and Blue Flowers, Iran, 1700–22, silk and metal-wrapped thread
(Doha: Museum of Islamic Art, 2014.282)
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From the press release (via Art Daily) for the exhibition:
Fashioning an Empire: Textiles from Safavid Iran
Smithsonian’s National Museum of Asian Art, Washington, DC, 18 December 2021 — 15 May 2022
Museum of Islamic Art, Doha, 23 October 2023 — 20 April 2024
The Museum of Islamic Art, Doha is currently showcasing Fashioning an Empire: Textiles from Safavid Iran, a captivating exhibition that highlights the critical role silk played during the Safavid period (1501–1736). The exhibition is organised into four sections: starting with the establishment of the silk monopoly and state-funded manufacturing and exploring the production and technical components of textiles; the rise of Isfahan as imperial capital; fashion and trends in Safavid society; and lastly, contemporary commissions created by local designers inspired by Safavid textiles. Fashioning an Empire was conceived by and first presented at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Asian Art, Washington, DC (2021–22).
Silk’s complex manufacturing process and supple feel against the skin make it a valuable and highly prized luxury good. Since the 6th century, Iran has produced high quality silk, widely appreciated and traded long distances. It was, however, during the reign of Iran’s most important ruler in modern history, Shah ‘Abbas I the Great (r. 1588–1629), that silk became a state-controlled industry—it boosted the country’s economy by supplying both an eager internal demand and feeding a vigorous export market spanning from England to Thailand. Shah ‘Abbas was the fifth shah of the Safavid dynasty (1501–1722). Under the Safavids, Iran experienced a period of renewed political strength and artistic creativity, geographical borders were consolidated, and most of the population adopted Shi‘a Islam, which became the country’s official state religion. The rise of the silk economy during Shah ‘Abbas’s reign had effects beyond the markets, inspiring artistic development and fostering cultural exchange.
Born out of a collaboration with the National Museum of Asian Art in Washington, DC, the exhibition explores the development of the silk industry under Shah ‘Abbas. It presents the capital city of Isfahan as the heart of the Safavid state and showcases fashion styles during a time when Iran established itself as a major player in the global arena.
The exhibition ends with a series of contemporary works created by Qatar-based designers in collaboration with M7, Qatar’s epicentre for innovation and entrepreneurship in fashion and design. Their artworks respond to the splendid historic textiles on display and illustrate the powerful creativity that Safavid silks still inspire in today’s creative minds.
Call for Articles | Valuing Luxury
From ArtHist.net:
Valuing Luxury: Controversial Collections, Divisive Displays, and Ethical Exhibits
Collection of essays edited by Elisabetta Maistri and Robert Hanson
Proposals due by 15 March 2024; complete essays due by 1 November 2024
In an era concerned with social and historical injustices, of wealth inequality and exploitation, and increasing awareness of the anthropogenic ecological impact, the vast collections of luxury goods that fill museums seem at odds with the current political mood. Whilst luxuries have driven much of human development, our attitude towards justice compels us to ask the question: how should museums present their collections in a manner that celebrates humanity’s triumphs without erasing the injustices that fuelled them? This interdisciplinary anthology focuses on the dark side of luxuries from early modern empires, exploring the questions of how we should acknowledge, respond to, and represent their problematic legacies in the contemporary era in public and private collections. The book investigates the role and responsibilities of museums, our relationship with luxuries, and our duties to historical legacies, both good and bad.
We invite scholars to contribute case-study driven chapters which will see authors discuss the history, concept, and normativity of luxury status through the following thematic lenses:
1 Conceptualising Luxury
2 Decolonisation and Social Justice
3 Environment and Sustainability
4 Negative Heritage
5 Inequality and Excess
6 Appropriation and Repatriation
7 Luxury and Desperation
Abstracts should be no more than 500 words and should be submitted to rwhem19@gmail.com by 15th March 2024. Authors should state which theme their paper should be associated with. Please name the file as follow: Surname_THEME NUMBER_TOPIC
Successful abstracts will be called to submit the complete paper to the same email address by 1 November 2024, and will be subject to double-blind peer review prior to the submission of the anthology to the publishing house. Priority given to submissions on objects created prior to the 20th century and to objects associated with the global south. We are also particularly keen to promote the work from underrepresented demographics in the scholarship, particularly women and scholars from the global south.
More information is available here»
Exhibition | Within Reach of Asia
Eight-leaf screen, depicting a Palace Scene with the Arrival of a Delegation and Festivities in Honor of Tang General Guo Ziyi 郭子儀, Qing dynasty, Kangxi (1662–1722) or Qianlong (1736–1795) period, late 17th or 18th century; wood, ‘Coromandel’ lacquer, 135 × 346 cm (Dijon: Musée des beaux-arts). In the 18th century, the screen was part of the collection of Jehannin de Chamblanc (1722–1797).
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A review of the exhibition (in French) by Gilles Kraemer, with excellent installation photographs, is available at Le Curieux des Arts:
Within Reach of Asia: Asian Art Collectors and Dealers in France, 1750–1930
Musée des Beaux-Arts, Dijon, 20 October 2023 — 22 January 2024
Curated by Catherine Tran-Bourdonneau, Pauline d’Abrigeon, and Pauline Guyot
On 20 October 2023, the Musée des Beaux-Arts in Dijon opened its new exhibition À portée d’Asie: Collectors, Collectors and Dealers of Asian Art in France, 1750–1930, labelled of national interest by the Ministry of Culture. In partnership with the Institut National de l’Histoire de l’Art (INHA), the exhibition highlights two centuries of enthusiasm for Asian arts in France, from the royal collections of Louis XV and Marie-Antoinette, to collections gathered for commercial and scientific purposes between 1850 and 1930, along with the vogue for Japonism shared by artists, collectors, and simple amateurs of the bibelotage in the 19th century.
Extending a research program of INHA, the exhibition brings together national collections and Far Eastern collections of regional museums, which include multiple objects brought from Asia over the ages. With more than 300 works—diverse technically (with lacquers, porcelains, ivories, bronzes, screens, prints and illustrated books, silk paintings, and theater masks), as well as historically and geographically (with objects from China, Japan, Korea, and Cambodia)—the exhibition draws on prestigious loans from important national institutions, including the Musée Guimet, the Louvre, the Palace of Versailles, the Musée des Arts Décoratifs, and the Musée du Quai Branly. Also well represented are the Asian collections of the region (those of Florine Langweil in Colmar and Strasbourg, Jules Adeline in Rouen, and Adhémard Leclère in Alençon) and especially those of Dijon’s Musée des Beaux-Arts. Moreover, through a participatory sponsorship campaign, €10,000 was raised for the museum’s restoration of a Coromandel lacquer screen from the 18th-century collection of Jehannin de Chamblanc.
Organized by the City of Dijon, in partnership with the National Institute of Art History (INHA), the exhibition is recognized as being of national interest by the Ministry of Culture, which provides exceptional financial support. The label ‘Exhibition of National Interest’ (Exposition d’intérêt national) was created by the Ministry of Culture in 1999 to support remarkable exhibitions organized by French museums in different regions. Such exhibitions highlight themes that reflect the richness and diversity of the collections of museums in France. The label rewards an innovative museum discourse, a new thematic approach, a scenography and a mediation device with the aim of reaching various audiences.
Pauline d’Abrigeon, Pauline Guyot, and Catherine Tran-Bourdonneau, eds., À portée d’Asie: Collectionneurs, collecteurs et marchands d’art asiatique en France, 1750–1930 (Paris: Lienart éditions, 2023), 320 pages, ISBN: 978-2359064049, €35.
Exhibition | Shopping in Canton
Opening this month at the Hong Kong Museum of Art:
Shopping in Canton: China Trade Art in the 18th and 19th Centuries (Phase II) / 廣州購物誌──18至19世紀外銷藝術（第二期）
Hong Kong Museum of Art, 13 January — 15 November 2024
Barber’s basin with floral design in painted enamel, mid 18th century, copper, 36 × 28 × 7 cm (Hong Kong Art Museum, C1987.0010).
During the 18th and 19th centuries, Canton (Guangzhou) was the centre of foreign trade in China. There were some busy shopping streets near the Thirteen Factories district in the southwest suburbs of the Canton city along the Pearl River, with rows of stores selling various crafts and curiosities, tea leaves, local products, snacks and drinks. The target customers were mostly foreign merchants. This exhibition showcases a wide variety of China trade art collections to reconstruct scenes of the bustling shopping paradise in Canton. Visitors will immerse themselves in the interactive animations created by local animators the Tsui Brothers, as they go window-shopping down the memory lane while discovering the art and history of this thriving neighbourhood.
New Book | Pierrot and His World
From Manchester UP (and currently discounted dramatically at Amazon). . . .
Marika Takanishi Knowles, Pierrot and His World: Art, Theatricality, and the Marketplace in France, 1697–1945 (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2024), 264 pages, ISBN: 9781526174093, £85 / $130.
Pierrot, a theatrical stock character known by his distinctive costume of loose white tunic and trousers, is a ubiquitous figure in French art and culture. This richly illustrated book offers an account of Pierrot’s recurrence in painting, printmaking, photography and film, tracing this distinctive type from the art of Antoine Watteau to the cinema of Occupied France. As a visual type, Pierrot thrives at the intersection of theatrical and marketplace practices. From Watteau’s Pierrot (c. 1720) and Édouard Manet’s The Old Musician (1862) to Nadar and Adrien Tournachon’s Pierrot the Photographer (1855) and the landmark film Children of Paradise (1945), Pierrot has given artists a medium through which to explore the marketplace as a form for both social life and creative practice. Simultaneously a human figure and a theatrical mask, Pierrot elicits artistic reflection on the representation of personality in the marketplace.
Marika Takanishi Knowles is a Senior Lecturer in Art History at the University of St Andrews.
c o n t e n t s
Introduction
1 Antoine Watteau and the fête marchande
2 Pierrot-co-co
3 New Paris, Old Pierrot (New Pierrot, Old Paris)
4 Nadar Charlatan
5 Old Clothes and the Dreams of the Artist
Conclusion
Index
Enfilade 
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