August 19, 2004
The Washington Post Finds SikhismArts and Entertainment
Well, not really, but they did find the recently created Sikh contribution to the Smithsonian Institution's National Museum of Natural History.
Part art history, part anthropology, it provides an opportunity to view 19th-century miniatures alongside contemporary pictures. Much of the 20th-century work, particularly Arpana Caur's self-taught oils, is heartfelt schlock overly indebted to Western kitsch. But the English tag team of Amrita and Rabindra Kaur Singh achieves a pungent synthesis of East and West, old and new. The twins' gold-dusted 1998 gouache "Nineteen Eighty-Four (The Storming of the Golden Temple)," which commemorates the slaying of hundreds of Sikh nationalists by Indian troops that year, melds Punjabi traditions of detail and decoration with the significant gesture of Giotto and the satirical intent of British wartime realism.
sajit on August 19, 2004 06:15 PM in Arts and Entertainment · T·r·a·c·k·b·a·c·k address · Direct link · Email post
That was actually my favorite painting of the lot. The sisters are quite talented; I love their modern take on miniatures.