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Is this what we think about when we discuss Indian art?

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Contemporary Indian artists discuss what has influenced them.

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New Masters of Modern & Contemporary Indian Art

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Urban Manners. 15 Contemporary Artists from India

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Urban Manners. 15 Contemporary Artists from India is a project by ART for The World and Hangar Bicocca. The exhibition - curated by Adelina von Fürstenberg - opened at the Hangar Bicocca in Milan in October 2007 featuring the works by 15 emblematic Indian artists: SHEBA CHHACHHI, ATUL DODIYA, ANITA DUBE, PROBIR GUPTA, SUBODH GUPTA, RANBIR KALEKA, JITISH KALLAT, REENA SAINI KALLAT, BHARTI KHER, NALINI MALANI, RAQS MEDIA COLLECTIVE, RAGHUBIR SINGH, VIVAN SUNDARAM, HEMA UPADHYAY and AVINASH VEERARAGHAVAN.

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A short video about the influence of the British Raj on Indian fashion

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Whistling Woods School of Fashion & Design

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Racist Imperial British Empire in India Part

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Influence of British Raj (1858-1947) on Indian Fashion - Toolika Gupta

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16th - 19th century Mughal Emperor Portraiture

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Mughal India: Art, Culture and Empire - Curator's Introduction

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Enter the world of the Mughals, one of the world's great dynasties, in our new major exhibition. **** 'a revelation' The Daily Telegraph **** 'spectacular' The Times **** 'enthralling' Metro At its peak, the Mughal Empire stretched from Kabul in the northwest and covered most of the South Asian subcontinent.

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The Influence of the Empire on British Art

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The Influence of the Empire on British Art

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A short video produced by the V&A with contemporary artists discussing the influence of the Empire on British art.

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The rise and fall of empire has been crucial to Britain's history and it also influenced art and design on many levels in Britain and the colonies. In this video, contemporary artists Lubaina Himid, Jane Adam and Yinka Shonibare discuss how empire and cultural exchange has influenced and shaped British design.
View transcript of video

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culture; empire; trade; exchange; britain; yinka shonibare; lubaina himid; jane adam; design; history

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Art, design & empire: contemporary artists and the legacy of empire

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This film shows how three contemporary artists respond to the legacy of empire, in terms of their own work and how they view historic objects. Lubaina Himid, Jane Adam and Yinka Shonibare discuss how empire and cultural exchange has influenced and shaped British design.

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A short essay on the effect of the British empire on Indian art.

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Washington Crossing the Delaware by Emanuel Leutze, 1851

One of the most famous American historical paintings, of George Washington Crossing the Delaware on the eve of the battles of Princeton and Trenton, was painted by the German-born artist Emanuel Leutze in 1851. Born in Wurtemberg in 1816, Leutze came to the United States as a child.

Known for his 435-painting Birds of America, John James Audubon was born in 1785 on his father's sugar plantation in Saint-Domingue (today's Haiti) and spent part of his childhood in Nantes, France before coming to America at age 18. Traveling with a set of paints, a gun, and an assistant, he spent the early 1820s traveling America to gather specimens, notes and sketches of American birds.

The Oxbow (The Connecticut River near Northampton) by Thomas Cole, 1836

The founder of the so-called "Hudson River School," Thomas Cole was born in England in 1801 and immigrated to the U.S. in 1818. His paintings of American wilderness landscapes inspired a generation of painters.

Also part of the Hudson River School, Albert Bierstadt was born in Prussia (present-day Germany) in 1830 and came to the United States with his parents at age one. He was active in the Hudson River School and painted large-scale landscapes of the American West, especially the Sierra Nevada.

The Robert Gould Shaw Memorial, Boston Common (1884-1897) (cc) Carptrash

Sculptor Augustus Saint-Gaudens was born Ireland in 1848 to a French father and an Irish mother. His family came to the United States when he was just six months old. As a sculptor, Saint-Gaudens adopted a naturalistic style that departed from the staid neoclassicism that had been popular for decades. Saint-Gaudens' "Robert Gould Shaw Memorial" (1884-97) a frieze honoring a Civil War leader, is considered one of his masterpieces.

Abstract expressionist Willem de Kooning was born in Rotterdam, the Netherlands in 1904.

Mark Rothko, a pioneer of so-called "color field painting," was born in the Russian Empire (present-day Latvia) in 1903, and immigrated with his family to the U.S. in 1913.

Battle of Lights, Coney Island, Mardi Gras, by Joseph Stella, 1913-14

Modernist painter Joseph Stella was born in Italy in 1877. He came to the United States in 1896 as a medical student, but switched to painting. His works were displayed in the influential 1913 Armory Show.

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These Notable American Artists Were Also Immigrants

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ne of the most famous American historical paintings, of George Washington Crossing the Delaware on the eve of the battles of Princeton and Trenton, was painted by the German-born artist Emanuel Leutze in 1851. Born in Wurtemberg in 1816, Leutze came to the United States as a child.

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Understanding Indian iconography is key to deciphering meaning.

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Hinduism employs the art of symbolism with amazing effect. No religion is so replete with symbols of this ancient religion. And all Hindus are touched by this all-pervasive symbolism all through the life in some way or the other.

Basic Hindu symbolism is enunciated in the Dharmashastras, but much of it developed with the evolution of his unique 'way of life'. On the surface, many Hindu symbols may seem to be absurd or even dumb, but discovering the deeper meaning of such symbolism is a sheer joy!

As the cross is to Christians, the Om is to Hindus. It is made up of three Sanskrit letters, aa, au, and ma which, when combined, make the sound Aum or Om. The most important symbol in Hinduism, it occurs in every prayer and invocation to most deities begins with it. As the symbol of piety, Om is often found at the head of letters, pendants, enshrined in every Hindu temple and family shrines.

This symbol is actually a sacred syllable representing the Brahman or the Absolute -- the source of all existence. Brahman, in itself, is incomprehensible so a symbol becomes mandatory to help us realize the Unknowable. The syllable Om occurs even in English words having a similar meaning, for instance, 'omniscience', 'omnipotent', 'omnipresent'. Thus Om is also used to signify divinity and authority. Its similarity with the Latin 'M' as also to the Greek letter 'Omega' is discernable. Even the word 'Amen' used by Christians to conclude a prayer seems to be akin to Om.

Second, in importance only to the Om, the Swastika, a symbol which looks like the Nazi emblem, holds a great religious significance for the Hindus. The swastika is not a syllable or a letter, but a pictorial character in the shape of a cross with branches bent at right angles and facing in a clockwise direction. A must for all religious celebrations and festivals, Swastika symbolizes the eternal nature of the Brahman, for it points in all directions, thus representing the omnipresence of the Absolute.

The term 'Swastika' is believed to be a fusion of the two Sanskrit words 'Su' (good) and 'Asati' (to exist), which when combined means 'May Good Prevail'. Historians say Swastika could have represented a real structure and that in ancient times forts were built for defense reasons in a shape closely resembling the Swastika. For its protective power, this shape began to be sanctified.

If there is any color that can symbolize all aspects of Hinduism, it's saffron -- the color of Agni or fire, which reflects the Supreme Being. As such, the fire altar is regarded as a distinct symbol of ancient Vedic rites. The saffron color, also auspicious to the Sikhs, the Buddhists, and the Jains, seems to have obtained religious significance much before these religions came into being.

Fire worship had its origin in the Vedic age. The foremost hymn in the Rig Veda glorifies fire: " Agnimile purohitam yagnasya devam rtvijam, hotaram ratna dhatamam." When sages moved from one ashram to another, it was customary to carry fire along. The inconvenience to carry a burning substance over long distances may have given rise to the symbol of a saffron flag. Triangular and often forked saffron flags are seen fluttering atop most Sikh and Hindu temples. While Sikhs regard it as a militant color, Buddhist monks and Hindu saints wear robes of this color as a mark of renunciation of material life.

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The Major Hindu Symbols Everyone Should Know

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Hinduism employs the art of symbolism with amazing effect. No religion is so replete with symbols of this ancient religion. And all Hindus are touched by this all-pervasive symbolism all through the life in some way or the other. Basic Hindu symbolism is enunciated in the Dharmashastras, but much of it developed with the evolution of his unique 'way of life'.

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A short essay which examines the Hindu ideals between how to live and art.

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The Met's Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History

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Hinduism and Hindu Art | Essay | Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History | The Metropolitan Museum of Art

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"Although a Hindu temple is dedicated to the glory of a deity and is aimed at helping the devotee toward moksha, its walls might justifiably contain sculptures that reflect the other three goals of life."