The Smithsonian’s National Museum of Asian Art is organising an international exhibition A Splendid Land: Paintings from Royal Udaipur, in association with the City Palace Museum in Udaipur and supported by Friends of Mewar, USA. The exhibition will display about 75 pieces of art from various collections, including paintings that date from the 1700s to the 1900s. By Ralan Kithan
Udaipur in Rajasthan is often called India’s City of Lakes, courtesy of the many white palaces tucked away in a valley of calm water bodies. Its iconic status was partly established by its painters. In the 18th century, Udaipur’s erstwhile artists focused on large-scale paintings of the city’s palaces, streets, and landscapes, in turn setting themselves apart from other Indian painters. They attempted to capture the sensory and lived experiences of these locations in a way that would inspire emotions like delight or amazement.
About A Splendid Land: Paintings from Royal Udaipur
A Splendid Land: Paintings from Royal Udaipur will be held at The National Museum of Asian Art, Washington, DC from November 19, 2022 to May 14, 2023 and at the Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, Ohio from June 10, 2023 to September 10, 2023.
Many of these paintings have never been exhibited outside of Udaipur, while some have never been exhibited anywhere in the world. 30 works on paper—including a sketch, paintings, and photographs—are from the collection of The City Palace Museum, Udaipur.
The artworks chronicle significant occasions, journeys, processions, and celebrations with an underlying emphasis on the mood (bhava) that the locations, such as the city’s palaces, lakes, and mountains, evoked—starting at Udaipur’s Centre and expanding outward to the city, then to the countryside, and finally to the cosmos.
A Splendid Land: Paintings from Royal Udaipur will highlight the atmosphere of the place by invoking unique moods in each gallery through sensory experiences. A digital projection, sound recordings, and poetic verses will be displayed alongside masterpiece artworks.
The curators of this exhibition are Dr. Dipti Khera, an associate professor at New York University, and Dr. Debra Diamond, the curator of the National Museum of Asian Art at the Smithsonian Institution. They will co-author a fully illustrated catalogue for the show. Renowned experts in South Asian literature, history, and art history will also contribute to the publication.
The National Museum of Asian Art
With more than 45,000 objects from the Neolithic Period to the present, the National Museum of Asian Art is home to extraordinary collections of Asian art and is dedicated to preserving, presenting, and interpreting outstanding works of art including renowned and iconic objects that originate from China, Japan, Korea, South and Southeast Asia, the ancient Near East, and the Islamic world. The National Museum of Asian Art is committed to advancing the knowledge of Asian art through a diverse range of exhibitions, publications, conservation projects, research, and educational and public events. Recent major exhibitions of Indian art here include Garden and Cosmos: The Royal Paintings of Jodhpur.
The City Palace Museum, Maharana of Mewar Charitable Foundation, Udaipur
The Maharana of Mewar Charitable Foundation (MMCF) was established to carry forward Eternal Mewar, a self-sustainability model, and act as a shrine of inspiration for future generations. MMCF’s scope and reach are very broad and include all forms of community service. A project of the MMCF, the City Palace Museum in Udaipur, is home to a rare collection of items that were produced between the sixth century and the present, including paintings on cloth and paper, old pictures, sculptures, textiles, silver, and arms and armour.
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