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New Delhi:
The world famous Art Institute of Chicago, where celebrated Indian
philosopher Swami Vivekananda delivered a historic address in
1896, is reviving its links with India in a big way.
"We have embarked on a mammoth project to exhibit royal art from
Jaipur in Chicago in 2013. The institute has joined hands with the
National Museum in Delhi and the royal family of Jaipur," its
president James Cuno told IANS in the capital.
Under a formal American global exchange programme, Chicago and New
Delhi are designated as "sister cities to facilitate
collaborations and exchanges in art, culture, business and
education", he recalled.
Cuno said: "The institute's curator of South Asian art, Madhuvanti
Ghose, is organising an exhibition of Jaipur royal arts down the
centuries with the support of the royal family and the National
Museum.
"The exhibition, one of the biggest that the international
community will ever see, will comprise miniatures, artefacts,
sculptures, textiles and relics of the Jaipur royalty created by
artists who were commissioned for the purpose.
"We will procure the art works from the Palace Museum in Jaipur,
the Albert Museum in the city, private collections, the National
Museum and from the Victoria Albert Museum in London."
Cuno added that the Art Institute of Chicago was also looking at a
long-term exchange with the National Museum for collaborations and
exhibitions of mutual benefits."
The institute has a "large South Asian and Indian collection of
art and objects related to art".
"Every year, we send American art students on a four-week
orientation programme to India so that they acquaint themselves
with Indian art," he said.
Cuno addressed issues of identity crises in a post-colonial world
and public references in art with critic Gita Kapoor, artists Homi
Bhabha and Jitish Kallat at the India Art Summit 2011 in Delhi.
During his two-week stay in India, he plans to explore the
possibility of new acquisitions, carrying forward the exchange
initiatives and meeting Indian artists.
The Art Institute of Chicago, founded in 1879, is one of the
largest and most important encyclopaedic museums of the world. It
is home to more than 300,000 fine art objects, spanning 5,000
years of creative exposition and is often considered the third
largest museum in the US after the Metropolitan Museum and the
Museum of Modern Art.
The museum registers footfalls of 1.9 million annually, Cuno said.
In 2009, the museum inaugurated its modern wing. The 264,000-sq ft
wing houses the museum's collection of 20th and 21st century art,
architecture, design and photography.
Swami Vivekananda's legacy and documents of his world famous
address at the World Parliament of Religions in 1896 are preserved
at the museum's Fullerton Hall, a much revered destination for
followers of Vivekananda's philosophy.
One of the Asian highlights at the museum is a public
installation, "Public Notice 3" by Indian contemporary artist
Jitish Kallat, which reconnects the philosophy of Vivekananda to
contemporary art. It uses words from the scholar's address to
convey the "liberal and inclusive nature of Hinduism", Cuno
pointed out.
According to Cuno, the extraordinary quality and size of Indian
art is astounding. "It is globally more recognised now than 10
years ago," he said.
(Madhusree Chatterjee can be contacted at madhu.c@ians.in)
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