NEW YORK, NEW YORK, September 27, 2011 (WNYC): It’s a big season for Indian art at New York City museums. As the Brooklyn Museum wraps up its “Vishnu: Hinduism’s Blue-Skinned Savior” exhibit this weekend, the Metropolitan Museum of Art opens its own major show of art from the subcontinent on Wednesday.
The show, called “Wonder of the Age: Master Painters of India, 1100-1900,” features 200 works by over 40 classical Indian artists. It’s the largest exhibition of South Asian art to be shown at the Met since 1985.
Most of the 200 paintings in the “Wonder of the Age” exhibit are small works that would have been included in religious manuscripts or picture albums documenting the royal courts. The works are organized into sections by the artist who painted them, and include biographical information on each artist.
What makes “Wonder of the Age” unique is the concept behind the exhibit: the show focuses on the painters themselves, drawing attention to individual talents who helped shape the course of Indian art history.