From India and Beyond: Gifts from Stephen Huyler and the Pal Family Collection
March 6 - June 6, 2010 

     
Images left to right: Saint Mirabai, Pemji of Chitod, India, Mewar, dated 1838, color and gold on paper. Gift of
Pratapaditya and Chitra Pal. Vishnu, Kashmir, 8th century, stone. Gift of Pratapaditya and Chitra Pal. Yaksha Rattle,
Chandraketugarh, West Bengal, Shunga period,1st century BCE, double-molded terracotta. Gift of Stephen P. Huyler.
Bearded Goddess Durga with Lion, India, Bikaner,18th century, color and gold on paper. Gift of Pratapaditya and Chitra Pal.

Related Event:
Experiencing Indian Art and Culture: Dialogues wiht Dr. Stephen Huyler and Dr. Pratapaditya Pal (details)
Sunday, May 2, 10 am - 3:30 pm

The Pal Family collection gift, dating from the 2nd century to the early 20th century, has greatly expanded the scope of SBMA’s collection of Indian pictorial art, including manuscript illustrations, miniature paintings, drawings, popular paintings from Orissa and West Bengal, and works from the British colonial period. It also includes important Hindu and Buddhist stone and bronze sculptures from Kashmir, Nepal, and Tibet as well as paintings from Myanmar (Burma) and Sri Lanka.

The examples of pictorial art usually illustrate the most significant cultural and religious tales. Goddess Durga is the consort of the Hindu god Shiva. Together, Shiva and Durga represent the male and female principles of the cosmos. The above, far right image, is a representation of Durga with both principles combined symbolically to suggest that they are in fact inseparable, a non-duality. The feminine face of Durga is shown with a beard and holding some of Shiva’s attributes —an hourglass-like drum, a trident, and a beggar’s bowl. She is not, however, without attributes to identify her as the great goddess Durga. In her hands one finds swords and a garland of white flowers as well as a voluminous scarlet pouch hanging from her left shoulder. Her animal vehicle, the lion, licks its paws, ready to give her a ride.

From India and Beyond celebrates the beauty and diversity of South Asian art through the distinctive visions of two scholars whose life-long collecting and generosity have so enriched this Museum. In recent conversations with the collectors, both Dr. Huyler and Dr. Pal expressed a growing sense of detachment from worldly possessions, in the spirit of Hindu and Buddhist teachings that led to the gifting of their collections.

More About the Donors:
Dr. Stephen Huyler grew up in Ojai and credits his lifelong fascination with the arts and crafts of India to the mentorship of his neighbors, F. Bailey Vanderhoef, Jr., late Trustee and major benefactor of the Museum, and Beatrice Wood, renowned ceramic artist. In 1986 at the Brooklyn Museum of Art, Huyler assisted in curating the first major exhibition devoted to the subject of Indian terracotta art, From India Earth:
400 Years of Terracotta Art. Ten years later, he published Gifts of Earth: Terracottas and Clay Sculptures of India (1996), an intensive study of the Indian potters' and clay sculptors’ art today.

Dr. Pratapaditya Pal remains one of the most influential forces in advancing the interest and understanding of South Asian and Himalayan art. Over a four decade long curatorial career, Pratapaditya Pal has been associated with the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Norton Simon Museum, Pasadena and the Art Institute of Chicago. Currently he is General Editor of Marg Publications, Mumbai. Dr. Pal characterizes his private collecting as driven by idiosyncratic preferences and, to avoid conflicts of interest, outside the main focuses of the museum collections he oversaw. Consequently, the Pal collection is diverse, offering fresh insight into the rich history of art and culture in South Asia.