To celebrate twenty-five years of Asian Art in London we are delighted to announce our upcoming exhibition 'From Tantra to Tribal' in association with Rob Dean Art which opens with a reception on Thursday, 20 October from 5 - 8 pm. The exhibition continues until 28 October 2022.
The exhibition will explore the influences of Indian Tantric and Tribal traditions on 20th Century Modern Art Practices, and the continued influences that these artistic traditions have on contemporary artists from the region and elsewhere.
In 1971 Ajit Mookerjee wrote two books on Tantric art, titled Tantra Asana and Tantra Art its Philosophy and Physics. These books provided a platform for a renewed discussion concerning Tantric Philosophy within academic circles, but it reflects a similar surge of interest in Tantric thought and aesthetics amongst an important group of Modern Indian artists that included Jagdish Swaminathan, G R Santosh, S H Raza and Prafulla Mohanti that had evolved almost a decade earlier. The exhibition presents works by some of these artists, but also explores the artistic sources that influenced their thinking at this pivotal moment in Indian art.
For many of these modern artists Tantra continued to be an integral part of their artistic vocabulary for the remainder of their careers, but by the 1980s Jagdish Swaminathan's own artistic journey had turned once more, to the even more ancient artistic traditions of the Indigenous communities of India. Here he found his true calling, helping to establish Bharat Bhavan in Bhopal a multi-disciplined art complex where he presented the art of Indigenous communities from around India in a public space, exhibiting these ancient traditions as part of the contemporary dialogue. Most famously Swaminathan discovered the young Gond artist, Jangargh Singh Shyam painting on the mud walls of his home, and brought his exceptional talent to the world stage.
This exhibition presents a selection of paintings by the 20th Century Masters of two ancient artistic traditions, Tantric and Tribal, alongside the work of contemporary artists placing them within the artistic context that Swaminathan felt they most belonged. 'We cannot by any device of mental gymnastics relegate our Adivasi communities to the past. Their Artistic expressions cannot be treated as curio objects, things of interest only because of their 'primitive' character. They are living expressions of living peoples and we cannot but treat them as contemporary expressions.' (Jagdish Swaminathan, The Adivasi, The Perceiving Fingers, Bharat Bhavan, 1987, p. 13.)
Rob Dean Art
Opening Hours
Weekdays: 10 am - 5.30 pm
Saturday 22 October: 12 - 4 pm
Sundays: Closed
