Festival of India in the United States 1985-1986

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Titel: Festival of India in the United States 1985-1986
ISBN: 9780810909373
Conditie: Als nieuw

In what is believed to be the largest cultural program of its kind, India will export many of its major artists, craftsmen, performers and national art treasures to American museums and cultural institutions as part of a ''Festival of India'' in the United States in 1985 and 1986.

Dozens of major cultural events from and about India - focusing on its entire art history, its contemporary cultural life, its political history and its scientific achievements - will be offered at museums, universities and cultural institutions throughout the United States.

Plans for the event, which is patterned after a smaller and highly successful ''Festival of India'' in England in 1982, were set during Prime Minister Indira Gandhi's visit with President Reagan in July 1982.

Technology One Aspect

''The festival is intended to bring India alive to the people of the United States,'' said Pupul Jayakar, the festival's principal organizer and an adviser on cultural affairs to Mrs. Gandhi. ''India is a country with a very ancient tradition that is still alive. There are people today producing objects with the same techniques and skills that were used a couple thousand years ago.'' But the festival will also emphasize the less-known modern India. ''Besides the village life,'' Mrs. Jayakar said, ''there is also a new India of doctors and scientists and researchers. We hope to present a picture that it is possible for the two to coexist, and to show that technological revolution does not mean the end of the whole past.''

The Indian Government will sponsor an exhibition about science in India that will begin at the Museum of Science and Industry in Chicao in the summer of 1985, and will later travel to other science museums around the country.

'Gandhi' Film Played a Part

The festival will cost about $9 million, of which the Indian Government will pay a third, according to Indian and United States officials. The rest will be raised largely from government and private sources in the United States by the individual institutions holding exhibitions.

''There's a tremendous interest in India in this country now,'' said Patrice Fusillo, assistant director of the Indo-U.S. Subcommission on Education and Culture, the United States agency that is helping to organize the festival. The interest, she said, was stimulated, among other things, by the film ''Gandhi,'' which ''brought India right in front of people, and made them want to know more.''

In exchange for the ''Festival of India'' in the United States, a far smaller number of American art exhibitions and performing groups will travel to India this year and next. These will include an American art exhibition to be shown at the National Museum of Modern Art in New Delhi in November 1985, a performance in New Delhi by the New York Philharmonic led by Zubin Mehta, and a performance by Metropolitan Opera singers.

Indian Art at the Met

The two highlights of the festival in this country will be its inaugural exhibition of ancient Indian sculpture, opening to the public next May at the National Gallery of Art in Washington, and a vast exhibition of Indian art, including paintings, sculptures, textiles, arms and armor, jewels and architectural ornaments, at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City in September 1985.

Indian Government officials say that more than 1,500 pieces of art will be lent for the festival, many of them from small rural museums and temples owning treasures unseen in the West. The American museums will complement these items with objects from the permanent collections of institutions outside of India. About 20 art exhibitions are planned.

New York exhibitions and events planned for the festival are an Indian film series offered by the Museum of Modern Art and the University of California at Los Angeles in the fall of 1985; a major exhibition of Indian terra cotta sculpture at the Brooklyn Museum, from November 1985 to January 1986; an exhibition of painting, sculpture and decorative arts from the historic city of Fatehpur Sikri at Asia Society, from October 1985 to January 1986, and a performance of ''Mahabarata,'' an ancient epic Indian poem, adapted for the stage with music and dance by Peter Brook, at Lincoln Center in late 1985 or early 1986.

Other American museums planning large exhibitions are the Cleveland Museum of Art, the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, the Wight Art Gallery of U.C.L.A., and the Asian Art Museum, housed in the M. H. de Young Museum of San Francisco.

As it is now scheduled, the festival will have two ''openings'' in the United States - the official opening, and another one nicknamed the ''second opening'' by the festival's planners.

The first will be that of the National Gallery exhibition in Washington, where the official opening ceremonies will take place next June. The festivities will likely include a formal dinner and a gala musical performance at the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts.

Salute to Enduring Forms

The National Gallery exhibition of ancient stone and bronze sculptures will emphasize the continuity of the formal qualities of Indian sculpture over several milleniums. A highlight of the exhibition is a nearly life-size stone sculpture of a bull, the beast that traditionally carries the divinity Siva, quietly munching grass as children play happily around him.

The National Gallery show will probably travel to other United States museums later, although its touring schedule is not yet determined.

The second opening'' will be that of the Metropolitan Museum's exhibition, ''India!,'' in September 1985. Indian art in nearly every medium, of every style, and from every geographical region of India from the 14th to the 19th centuries will be shown.

An exhibition of Indian costumes, with Diana Vreeland as curator, will also be presented at the Metropolitan that month, as will a special single performance with an Indian theme by the New York Philharmonic, created by the orchestra's Indian-born director, Mr. Mehta.

The Metropolitan Museum show, many of whose objects were lent on a ''one-show'' basis, will not travel, although some individual objects will be lent to other exhibitions.

Lively Arts Get Own Stage

A different kind of exhibition is planned for the Smithsonian Institution's National Museum of Natural History; it will be held next summer, roughly concurrent with the National Gallery show. It is an exhibition of living Indian folk arts, mixed with performances by Indian puppeteers, magicians and singers.

Called ''Aditi,'' after an Indian goddess who is the mother of all other Indian gods and goddesses, the show achieved the greatest popular success of any exhibition in the British ''Festival of India.''

The Metropolitan Museum and National Gallery exhibitions are intended to be among the fullest surveys of Indian art ever seen outside of the subcontinent. The only previous art exhibitions of a similar scale are believed to be a show at the Burlington House in London in 1947-48, which was held to celebrate Indian independence, and exhibitions at the Hayward Gallery and the Victoria and Albert Museum in London in 1982, which were part of the British festival.

The centerpiece of that festival was the highly acclaimed ''In the Image of Man'' at the Hayward Gallery. Selected objects from it will be shown in the Metropolitan Museum and the National Gallery shows.

photos of Indian art; photo of Indian dancers

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