Page 47 - Studio International - December1996

mantra, just as the host changes into 'the exact likeness' The Primordial Waters
of the Body and Blood of Christ in Mass. Mantras are Painting, probably 18th century Rajasthan
grouped in a definite order to reveal the pattern of
thought forces. Hidden in them are secret guides which
unfold visionary images. The astonishing pictures in this
book are depictions of these hidden images.
V. S. Naipaul, in his grim book on India, An Area of
Darkness, says: 'Nearly every Indian who writes on
Indian Art feels bound to quote from the writings of
European admirers. Indian Art has still to be compared
with European; and the British accusation that no
Indian could have built the Taj Mahal has still to be
rejected as a slander. Where there has been no Euro-
pean admiration there is neglect.'
This is quite true, for the discovery of the Indian past
was largely the work of Jesuits in India, and of Europeans
employed by the East India Company. This book on
Tantric Art, however, seems to be the exception to
Mr Naipaul's criticism, as this field of Indian Art has so
far not found many European admirers. So this book,
the joint product of an Indian scholar and collector and
an enterprising firm of Indian Art dealers, the Kumar
Galleries run by the Kumar brothers, will no doubt, on
publication, attract European (and American) as well as
Indian admirers.
Admiration and patronage of the Arts is a European
interest both in aesthetic and monetary terms. Indians
have never come to regard art with admiration. Nor
have they regarded it as good investment. Usually quick
to imitate, they have never, until in recent years, in-
vested in art, mainly because it would mean spending
money on something of doubtful value.
I criticized the text earlier on. I find it not only poor
but inadvertently comic. The plates are another matter,
and if the book is worth anything at all it is because of
the plates.
Beautifully printed, these pictures are bound to astonish
the Western art world, because they are so relevant to the
present art scene. A Rothko from Rajasthan done in
the nineteenth century, plate 95. A painting of atoms
done in Rajasthan in the eighteenth century, plate 12. A
Hard Edge painting more beautiful than any Hard
Edge painting I have seen in the West, done in Rajasthan
in the eighteenth century, plate 20. Two Martin Bradleys
painted on cloth in Rajasthan in 1769, plates 47 and 48.
A Bascholi stone goddess, plate 44, done incredibly in a
nonfigurative inconography, in fact a sixteenth-century
sculpture in abstract-cubism. A stone carving, Cosmic
Moon, plate 35, done by a Banaras Barbara Hepworth
and plate 34, a Banaras Brancusi. And plates 79 and 80
are incredible discs done by an unknown eighteenth
century Marcel Duchamp from Jaipur, who is better
than his contemporary parallel. Plates 40 and 53 are
eighteenth century Rajasthan Picassos and Mondrians.
And examples of Pop art in plates 77, 83, 86, 87, 89, and
94 are all done unbelievably more than a hundred years
ago.
The author concludes: 'It is not astonishing that man)
great Indian artists finally become saints.' After seeing
this book, it will be difficult for any of us to hope to
achieve this kind of sanctity, whatever it may be. q