Indian art works captivate at UK museum

Nainsukh’s ‘Galloping Elephant’ from Howard Hodkin’s collection; and (right) Bhadrakali (auspicious Kali) stands astride a corpse

n Include painting by legendary Pahari artist Nainsukh of Gulern Part of British artist Howard Hodkin’s private collection

A rare painting by legendary Pahari artist Nainsukh of Guler is among the 115 works of Indian art currently being exhibited at the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford.

Visions of Mughal India from the private collection of British artist Howard Hodkin, described as one of the finest private collections of its kind, include royal portraits, epics, myths, scenes of court life and hunting scenes from the Punjab hills, Rajasthan, the Deccan Sultanates and the Imperial Mughal court from 1550 to 1850.

The work of Nainsukh, who flourished in the mid-18th century under the patronage of Balwant Singh of Jasrota, is described as an elongated hunting scene in which Balwant Singh and other nobles on horseback surround a huge and defiant tiger (see photo).

Another later work attributed to either Naisukh or his close followers includes the 'Disrobing of Draupadi' and a study of Pahari singers singing by the wayside. One of the most outstanding works in the collection that has attracted widespread attention is a Basohli work of a bejeweled Bhadrakali (auspicious Kali) standing astride a corpse (see photo).

In her bloody lower hands she holds three-four severed heads of Brahma and the limp corpses of Vishnu and Shiva. With her upper hands she flourishes a sword while feeding corpses into her gaping mouth. Severed hands hang from her belt.

For devotees of the Tantric tradition, her supreme cosmic power is seen to absorb the powers of all other gods, transcending the bonds of Time, Karma and Death.

Other paintings that have attracted attention include a work of art from Arki near Shimla that shows two yogis making music while seated on a leopard skin.

A third painting from Kota in Rajasthan depicts the surging power of a red-eyed elephant with a blazing orange pupil fixed on the yellowing space ahead of him. Hodgkin, who is 80, started collecting pictures during his schooldays in the late 1940s. He says of his collection: "These pictures have been chosen because I thought they were beautiful, because they touched my emotions and not for any scholarly purposes."

In an earlier filmed interview he told how, "The first Indian paintings I saw astounded me because they depicted a whole world in away which was completely convincing but totally separate from the tradition of Western art which I was used to. At least it seemed so at the time. I've realised long since that it wasn't nearly as separate as I first thought, but as it was a whole world in which everything was very precise and visible and yet somewhere else. I was very excited by this."

Asked by The Tribune if the process of collecting had made him an India expert, Hodgkin replied, "No that would be very presumptuous." But he agreed that the paintings and an earlier friendship with the late Baroda-based artist Bhupen Khakhar had generated for him an interest in India and the Indian way of life.

"In the beginning when I was friendly with Bhupen Khakhar and I visited him at home and met his family, then it became something else."

Hodgkin said his own favourite paintings in the collection were from Kota in Rajasthan, including paintings of elephants, "because they are such great drawings". He also commented on two other unique paintings -- one of Aurangzeb and one of the sad-eyed last Mughal king Bahadur Shah about whom Hodgkin says, "It was very tragic, all our fault."