I’ve been getting lots of tips today about the early Sikh art exhibit opening today at the Rubin Museum of Art in New York. 
There is a surprisingly effusive review of the exhibit by Holland Cotter up at the New York Times:
But what about Sikhism itself? Few Westerners have even basic information.
How many people are aware that it was conceived as a universalist, open-door religion?
Or that its view of society was radically egalitarian? Or that its holy book, the Adi Granth, far from being a catalog of sectarian dos and donÂ’ts, is a bouquet of poetic songs, blending the fragrances of Hindu ragas, Muslim hymns and Punjabi folk tunes into a music of spiritual astonishment?
This is precisely the information delivered by the small and absolutely beautiful show titled “I See No Stranger: Early Sikh Art and Devotion” at the Rubin Museum of Art in Chelsea.(link)
All very admirable and correct. The only thing I find a little odd is that the review is less an evaluation of the art in the exhibit than it is a summary of the basic points about Sikhism covered. For Cotter, the art is more a vehicle for acquiring knowledge than beautiful in its own right. Not a great tragedy, perhaps; in fact, even this short article is pretty informative. But still, it might have been interesting to hear more about how or whether this art fits into the broader picture of religious art in the Indian subcontinent during this historical period. (Call me an academic geek, but the question crossed my mind.)
The other slightly odd moment is this:
The painting is paired in the show with the workshop drawing, produced by a master artist, that served as its model. The contrast is striking. In the drawing the prince, far from being restrained, practically levitates from his saddle with ardor and leans toward Nanak as if drawn to a magnet. Mardana plays and sings with fervor of a contemporary bhangra star. It is in the drawing, rather than in the painting, that the Nanak Effect, so evident in poems and songs, comes through. (link)
Bhangra, huh? Not quite, Cotter-saab. Bhangra is secular, festive, and pro-intoxication. Nothing at all to do with Bhai Mardana. This is a forgivable slip; Holland Cotter is a dedicated art critic, and as far as I can tell this is the first time he’s ever written on Sikh-related art.
Incidentally, the Rubin Museum is doing an extensive array of programs to coincide with this show, including Sikh-related film screenings (organized through the Spinning Wheel Film Festival folks) as well as lectures.
Bhangra, huh? Not quite, Cotter-saab. Bhangra is secular, festive, and pro-intoxication.
I agree. I would say Bhangra has more to with its agrarian roots, and farmer’s culture of Punjab. Doesn’t every society has dancing associated with success in crop yields and commerce, etc.
I agree that the bhangra comment was silly, and that the article reads like wikipedia entry of Sikhism.
In Cotter’s defense, RMA’s website states that the exhibition was developed to “identify core Sikh beliefs and explore the plurality of Sikh cultural traditions,” and I suppose that’s what he was doing in his article.
Although, I do agree that it would be interesting and informative to have the art in the show contextualized – and not just in terms of the subcontinent.
That’s why it’s interesting that there was such little art-crit in there. Maybe he’s just not comfortable criticizing religious art, or being critical of it.
A long overdue introduction to Sikh tenets through art. Looking forward to checking it.
Sikh Jokes – 1) Sikh culture is agri culture 2) Banta Singh goes to watch a movie, in which a scene shows the heroine about to take a bath by the farm tubewell. Just when she is about to disrobe, a train passes by, blocking her nakedness from the camera. Banta is intirgued and determined. He comes back to watch the same movie the next day and , the day after and, the day after and, the day after…..finally, the ticket seller asks him, “Banta, why such osession with this movie?” Replies Banta – I am hoping to catch the heroine of the movie naked, on that one day when the train runs late.
3) A Sikh gentleman has his fourth child. To register the birth, he fills data in the birth certificate.
“Mother: Sikh. Father: Sikh. Kid: Chinese.”
“How come you write “Chinese” when both parents are Sikh?”
“Aah, Sardarji have read in newspaper, it says that every 4th person born on the Earth is a Chinese.”
Ennis, the art critic’s brief is critique, not criticizing. A subtle but vital difference.
In any case, Cotter’s a really good critic, knowledgeable about (and intelligently sympathetic to) a staggering range of “world” art.
Thanks Amardeep. It looks like a fascinating show. I hope I’ll have time to check it out.
Interesting post Amardeep.
Yah, but I didn’t see much of that either. Was trying to figure out why, thought it might ‘ave to do with the graduate slide from critique ==> critical ==> criticize.
No, you’re right. It’s no model of interpretive nuance (bhangra? Macotter, please).
But I guess sometimes an art critic is just a journalist. Tell us what the show is about, fill us in on the basic background, leave the rest to us.
Amardeep,
Good article. Thank you for writing this. I remember Kush T posting this on the News tab (thanks Kush).
I was faintly uncomfortable about the references to “bhangra” and Bhai Mardana too — bhangra has nothing to do with Sikh religious history or its associated music. Perhaps Holland Cutter would benefit from actually listening to some Gurbani kirtan, although I believe some was being played over the loudspeakers during the exhibition (according to his article). Which makes the bhangra references all the more curious and inappropriate. Whatever.
However, on the whole I liked his article and found it to be sympathetic, along with hopefully being informative for those with little/no knowledge of Sikhism or its history.
During the summer of 1999 the Victoria & Albert Museum in London had an exhibition called “The Arts of the Sikh Kingdoms” which was excellent too. Lots of artifacts from Maharajah Ranjit Singh’s period onwards. I enjoyed it and there was quite a large number of visitors too; quite crowded.
I think we’d best ignore post #5, at least due to its inappropriateness in relation to this thread’s main topic.
Prof, I was waiting for your posts on this asa I read it in NYT. And yes it did seem more like a PR for sikhs rather than about the actual exhibit. Going this weekend to check it out
tamasha posted a bunch of Sikh movies that the Rubin Museum will also be showing (on the Events tab). Here’s a link as well that shows all of the movies on their calendar (scroll down).
Spinning Wheel NY Schedule
I think Holland Cotter has done a good job of explicating the context of the art in the exhibition. Most educated folks in USA (maybe india too 🙂 have little idea who the sikhs are, their history etc. Without this context is there really much point to articulating a detailed critique of these works? And would more than say a few hundred people have any interest in such a critique?
Here is a simpler question: is there a catalog or publication describing the exhibition available anyplace? My interest would be in purchasing it for my home, as I probably wont make it to NYC in the next couple of months.
It’s always struck me as odd that a dance in celebration of um, bhang, would be quite so energetic.
Wow. I never thought bhangra was about bhang!
I can’t wait to see the show at the Rubin. Al beruni: as far as I can tell, no catalog has been published, alas.
This is an exciting season in the northeast for lovers of Indian art; there’s also the Masterworks of Indian Painting show at the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston until November 26. Anyone here seen it yet? Did I miss a post about it?
And in other Sepia Mutiny-relevant art news, Pakistani-born, NYC-based painter Shazia Sikander is a 2006 MacArthur fellow. Yay.
Well, it’s unlikely that anyone has seen the Indian painting show at the Boston MFA; it is scheduled to open tomorrow.
For the Southies in the room, what does “bhang” mean?
Thanks for the post.
Saw the exhibit last weekend. It was good overall although I would like to have seen different types of art included in the exhibit, as almost all works were from the “miniature” school of paintings. Are there other types of Sikh art?
Also, there is a catalogue of the paintings on sale at the RMA bookstore. Don’t see it on their website yet, but I suppose they’d provide info if you contacted them – 212-620-5000 ext.318 or info@rmanyc.org
Don’t mean to change the subject, but indulge me for a moment… If you’re heading to London anytime soon, there’s a show at the British Museum (almost abbreviated it as BM!) called Voices of Bengal. Lots of interesting programming too.
Earlier this year I read a NYT review of Japanese modern dance and of course the critic mentioned manga. The NYT sports reporters were a little out of their depth covering the World Cup, so in their writing they dragged the Fall of the Wall into it. It’s just lazy writing and pseudo sociology, although overall I thought the Cotter piece was quite informative.
C’mon man, you’ve never ordered a “special lassi” before?
Link has a pic that throws my entire conception on desi Aunties and Uncles into question.
A well intended Exhibition of Sikh Art, titled “I See No Stranger: Early Sikh Art and Devotion” has recently been curated at Rubins Museum of Art in Chelsea, a suburb of Boston. An otherwise adulatory art review of this show that the New York Times published (September 18) reminded me of that controversial ad in which an employee derogatorily splits the name of his boss, HARI by saying H for ‘Hitler’, A for ‘arrogance’ and so on. For, the review says that the word ‘Sikh’ is pronounced as “Sick” with an enunciated H. Though the pronunciation tip is not phonetically wrong the choice of its association is surely hurting, particularly when quite a few dictionaries club the phonetic association of ‘Sikh’ with the word “seek”, which is both closer to the actual pronunciation as well as rightly indicative of its correct meaning.
Another disturbing aspect of the review is, apart from spelling the name of the first Sikh Guru differently, as Nanek and Nanak, at different places, that in a painting Mardana “plays and sings with fervor of a contemporary bhangra star”. Associating Sufi saints, who were the personification of sophistication, with robust modern folk dancers is a serious sacrilege.
In a country where a Sikh was shot dead, as a sordid part of hate killings after 9/11, considering him to be an Arab Muslim, it is perhaps difficult to make those people aware of the soft nuances of Sikhism. Before describing Sikhism, in his peculiar way, the reviewer says at the outset that “Few Westerners have even basic information”. How true he is!