March 18 - April 15, 2006

Hurst Gallery's upcoming Stages of Depiction: Indian Drawings, 17th - 19th Centuries presents a unique opportunity to consider the artistic process involved in the creation of Indian works on paper. Exhibitions and publications of finished paintings from this region are far more common than those focusing on drawings per se. The drawings are predominantly Northern Indian, offering works composed in a variety of different workshops, including those of the Bundi, Kotah, Pahari and Mughal schools.

The exhibition offers a balance between genre and group scenes, mythology and religion, and portraiture. It includes a rare schematic series of preliminary sketches for a set of Janamsakhi illustrations. The sketches depict scenes of the life of Nanak, a 16th-century saint revered for founding the Sikh religion. Also noteworthy are six preparatory drawings from a set of illustrations of Barahmasa poems. Beginning in the early 16th century, Barahmasa poem sets described the twelve months, with a focus on the festivals that ushered in each season. Individual scenes center on the romantic bond between a man and a woman. This imagery functions as a metaphor for life, and embodies the effects of the seasons in a rural society.

Stages of Depiction also displays rare renditions of foreigners, such as one finely tinted color and ink drawing of a Portuguese soldier. The soldier's sleeves are ringed with designs and his sash displays carefully scalloped edges; his facial features are idealized rather than naturalistic. Another sheet contains studies of fashionable European women intermingled with traditional motifs sketches.

The exhibition accepts the drawings' varying states of completion, inducing the viewer to concentrate on areas where the artist focused the most attention. The small scale of the works featured in Stages of Depiction suggests that these drawings were intended for private, intimate consumption, including use in domestic worship by their patrons. Some of these drawings may have been placed in the home-altar, others may have been intended to illustrate manuscripts. Still others memorialized commonplace or notable contemporary situations.

The exhibition is accompanied by a fully illustrated catalogue. Prices for the drawings range from a few hundred to several thousand dollars. Hurst Gallery is located at 53 Mount Auburn Street, Cambridge MA 02138 (617-491-6888). The exhibition is accompanied by a fully illustrated catalogue ($25 pp.); it may also be viewed on line at http://www.hurstgallery.com.