Museum objects, artifacts, and archival items from the Sarmaya collection.
This folio titled ‘The First Miracle at Cana’ is a part of the Issanama series. The Issanama commission lies at the intersection of art and history, and offers lush evidence of the plurality and syncretism inherent in Indian culture. It’s an artistic collaboration between the founder of Sarmaya, Paul Abraham and traditional miniaturist and third-generation… Read more »
This folio titled ‘Samaritan Woman at the Well’ is a part of the Issanama series. The episode depicts the meeting of Jesus with a woman in Samaria, who gives him water to quench his thirst and a conversation between them follows. The Issanama commission lies at the intersection of art and history, and offers lush… Read more »
The scene here shows Jesus and his twelve apostles huddled around a fire, on what seems like a cold and silent night, for a simple meal. This painting is the artist’s homage to a great work by the 18th-century Pahari master Nainsukh.
This is a reinterpretation of the Biblical episode in the style of the Hamzanama original titled ‘The Prophet Elijah Rescuing Prince Nur ad Dahr’. The juxtaposition of the figures in this work with the original folio is interesting, and so is the clever replacement of Christ in place of the prince.
This folio titled ‘Jesus at the Temple’ is a part of the Issanama series. The Issanama commission lies at the intersection of art and history, and offers lush evidence of the plurality and syncretism inherent in Indian culture. It’s an artistic collaboration between the founder of Sarmaya, Paul Abraham and traditional miniaturist and third-generation artist,… Read more »
This folio titled ‘The Birth of Christ’ is a part of the Issanama series. The Issanama commission lies at the intersection of art and history, and offers lush evidence of the plurality and syncretism inherent in Indian culture. It’s an artistic collaboration between the founder of Sarmaya, Paul Abraham and traditional miniaturist and third-generation artist,… Read more »
Bengal Pattachitra or Patua is a particularly absorbent, versatile, secular form of uniquely Indian art. The narratives are drawn from Hindu mythology—both mainstream, like the Ramayana, and regional, like the Manasa cult of the east Read more here. Many of the artists are descendants of Partition refugees and Islamic by faith. Uprooted from their lives… Read more »
Primarily located in the villages of Bengal’s Midnapore region, the chitrakar community or patuas have been creating exquisite narrative scrolls on handmade paper for generations. These scrolls (or patas) depict stories from various religious myths and local legends. This object, the Manasa pata, is a contemporary take on the traditional scrolls. It uses a largely… Read more »
Zarina Hashmi, who goes only by her first name, is a master of the art of printmaking. Born in 1937 in Aligarh, she studied mathematics and statistics before finding her artistic calling on the road. While accompanying her husband on various diplomatic missions around the world, Zarina studied the art of printmaking and woodblock printing… Read more »
In 18th-century warfare, before you sent in the soldiers, you had to send for the cartographer. This military map by Thomas Kitchin, for instance, served as a tool not only to orient troops to an alien landscape, but also as a journal of sorts with a wealth of information on camp locations, dates and strategic routes. This is not a document you want getting into enemy hands.
A pioneering Indian modernist, Jamini Roy sought inspiration from tribal Indian design, Kalighat paintings and the art of the Santhal community. He was also moved by Byzantine art and much of his later works, especially those with Christian themes, betray this influence. Many of Roy’s Christ paintings narrated the episode of The Last Supper, a Biblical event in which Jesus shared a final meal with his apostles before the crucifixion.
The tradition of painted photography was a syncretic visual culture that began in India in the 19th century, at almost the same time as photography made its debut here. This genre became extremely popular, particularly in Rajasthan and Gujarat, fuelled partly by a dissatisfaction with black and white photographs and partly by rising unemployment among… Read more »
B Prabha was a feminist artist at a time when there wasn’t much support for women’s voices. Born in 1933 to a middle-class family in Nagpur, she graduated from the JJ School of Art in Mumbai and spent a few years exploring different mediums before finding the perfect fit for her elegant style with oil… Read more »
Gilles Robert de Vaugondy, along with his son Didier, were map publishers, engravers and cartographers active in the Paris of mid-18th century. They are well-known today for the detail and accuracy of their maps, where they excellently used all material and resources available to produce the most “fantasy-free” maps possible..
KH Ara was one of the founding members of the PAG. His artistic expressions were characterised by robust nudes and still lifes, marked by a life-affirming positivity and zeal. He was a self-taught artist who ran away from home to pursue his artistic career in Bombay. His take on art and artistic processes was that… Read more »
The tradition of Mata ni Pachedis (Gujarati for ‘behind the goddess’) was developed by the nomadic tribe of Vaghris in Gujarat. It is believed that because the tribe was barred from entering village temples, they came up with the ingenious solution of painting the Goddess Durga on a cloth, hanging it at the back of… Read more »
This Latin map by Johann Baptist Homann is an important historical record as it shows English, Dutch, French, Danish and Portuguese establishments in the Deccan in the early 1700s. Johann Baptist Homann was a German cartographer, geographer, publisher and engraver of the mid-17th century. His family business was perhaps the most famous German map publishing… Read more »
The tradition of painted photography was a syncretic visual culture of photography and painting, which began in India in the 19th century, almost at the same time as photography came to India. This genre became extremely popular in the country for two main reasons. One, it brought colour to the relatively quiet world of black… Read more »
Badri Narayan was entirely self-taught and his art betrays a deeply introspective gaze. All of his work was in some way or the other an exploration of the self. He was inspired by various movements and art forms, particularly traditional miniatures, narrative paintings and popular Indian iconography. For his own work, this artist from Andhra… Read more »
Samuel Bourne was a banker with itchy feet. Paintings of India so enamoured him that he quit his job in Nottingham and arrived in Calcutta in 1863. Now regarded as one of the earliest travel photographers in the world, Bourne started exploring Indian landscapes in the hills of Shimla and spent months in Kashmir, returning… Read more »