Highlights
- Expressions of India showcases 200-year-old Indian paintings
- Exhibition available to view online
- Indian paintings are from the Ronald and Catherine Berndt Bequest Collection
Expressions of India, the collection of Indian paintings from the Ronald and Catherine Berndt Bequest Collection is currently being showcased online for free by the Berndt Museum of Anthropology in collaboration with the University of Western Australia’s Lawrence Wilson Art Gallery.
Originally intended as a physical exhibition, Expressions of India changed shape in response to Covid-19 and will remain on display, online till June 12, 2020.
The exhibition features a selection of 54 paintings created in India from across the 18th to 20th centuries and collected by anthropologists Ronald and Catherine Berndt.
The featured paintings belong to an extensive collection of over 950 examples of cultural material from across Asia, assembled by the Berndt’s throughout their career as internationally renowned anthropologists.
Lovingly cared for and displayed in their sprawling Peppermint Grove residence, this collection was essentially hidden from the outside world until bequeathed to the Berndt Museum following Catherine’s passing in 1994.
The Berndt’s had a long-standing interest in India, grounded in their study of religion and its interaction with social anthropology.
Generous funding from the Indian Grants Commission made it possible for Ronald and Catherine to travel extensively throughout India in 1965, where they visited university departments of anthropology and sociology across the country, as well as some of the temples and sites depicted in this exhibition.
Expressions of India exhibition
Expressions of India investigates three distinct groups of paintings from the Bequest Collection.
The first, ‘Court’ paintings, is a style of painting cultivated within the Rajput palace courts of the north-western province of Rajasthan. These intricate paintings from the eighteenth and nineteenth century reflect a long history of shifting cultural and political influences.
The second group is a collection of Kalighat paintings from late nineteenth century Kolkata, in the north-eastern province of Bengal. The then lively capital of British India, bustling with pilgrims, merchants and tourists, Kolkata provided an endless source of interest in these economical and lightweight paintings on paper.
The third group of paintings is the mid-twentieth century Pattachitra (cloth-painting) originating from the province of Odisha in eastern India. This folk-art practice centres around Jagganath Temple in Puri where demand for pilgrim souvenirs and inexpensive, transportable conduits of devotion evolved.
The overall selection of works cuts across social circumstance, place and time to provide a glimpse into pockets of everyday life from across India and from varying contexts.
All three collections of painting explore scenes or depictions from Hindu-based narratives and scripture.
The exhibition has been curated by Berndt Museum staff Sofie Nielsen and Michael Houston in consultation with Professor Krishna Sen of the Department of Asian Studies and can be viewed online here.
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