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Archive: December, 2010

Installing the Delhi Durbar Painting

December 7th, 2010

How do you install a six by four metre painting? Rather carefully.

What tools should you not forget? Why, your iron (but no ironing board) and your paintbrushes.

That’s what I learned while watching both V&A and AGO staff install Roderick McKenzie’s oil painting of the 1903 Delhi Durbar. It was impressive to see the kind of attention to detail necessary in such work. The painting commemorates the coronation of King Edward VII, which was celebrated with a procession led by the Viceroy Lord Curzon and his wife, then followed by the Duke of Connaught and his wife, and then the Maharajas in order of importance.

First, take a look at the historic frame. I’ve been told it was a gift from the Nizam of Hyderabad, with verses from the Qur’an adorning it.

The next picture shows the backing frame for the canvas against the wall. There is also plastic sheeting on the floor for added protection of the installation process. Each side of the frame was unpacked and then began a slow work of fitting and locking the pieces back together again.

The jigsaw puzzle is getting done!

Notice how the styrofoam wedges keep the frame from touching the ground.

The next day, the canvas had been stretched onto the backing frame. But each time the painting is rehung, a conservator must retouch areas such as the edges, where the oil paints may have been scraped away by the frame.

The sides of the canvas are being ironed so the Delhi Durbar will fit snugly into the decorative frame.

Re-touching and ironing. Ironing and re-touching. A conservator’s work is never done.

I included this because I have no image of the completely installed painting. You’ll have to visit the exhibition to see it properly!

Piali Roy is a Toronto writer with a long-held interest in South Asian culture and history. You can contact her at yourvoice@ago.net.

Posted in Maharaja: The Splendour of India's Royal Courts | No Comments »

Performing in Maharaja: Rina Singha Kathak Dance Organization

December 2nd, 2010

The Rina Singha Kathak Dance Organization will be performing at the AGO as part of the exhibition Maharaja: the Splendour of India’s Royal Courts. For the full performance schedule, click here.

The Rina Singha Kathak Dance Organization (RSKDO) was founded by Rina Singha, one of Canada’s premier Kathak dancers. In 1982 Rina Singha founded The Kathak Institute aimed at passing on her Guru Shambhu Maharaj’s legacy with all its elegance, precision and dramatic excellence to others. By 1985 a selected group of senior students became The Kathak Institute Dancers. They were launched with much acclaim, at the Ontario Multicultural Theatre Festival in 1985. Later that year they represented Canada at an International festival in Peurto Rico and the flowing year at major festivals such as Womad and Ontario Place’s Showcase India.

With an invitation from the Premiere Dance Theatre in 1991 to be part of CIBC Dance Season, the name of the group was changed to Rina Singha Kathak Dance Organization. It was incorporated in 1992 as a Non Profit Company with a clear goal of developing innovative performance and audience education initiatives, that would help audience to understand and appreciate both the in depth artistry of Kathak and to encourage upcoming dance professionals.

Visit their website at sites.google.com/site/rinasinghakathakdance

About Rina Singha

Kathak dancer Rina Singha was born in Calcutta. While attending university in Hyderabad, she was chosen for a government-sponsored project intended to revive and preserve India’s classical dance styles. She subsequently became a soloist in India’s premier kathak dance company and an internationally acclaimed performer who has toured the world.

In 1960, while Singha was working on her PhD in geography in England, she was asked by esteemed dancer Ram Gopal to become the lead female dancer in his company. Five years later, Singha and her family immigrated to Canada where she worked to improve the understanding of dance traditions from around the world.

To this end, in the 1970s she designed and taught a world dance course at York University and developed Heritage Canada, one of the first multicultural programs for the Toronto public school system. In addition, she created a “Cultural Clues Approach to Learning” program that has been implemented in numerous schools. She has also been involved in creating educational videos for UNICEF.

In the late 1990s, she collaborated with the Music Gallery in Toronto to create the Legacies In Dance festival, which presents and promotes non-Western dance. To increase awareness of kathak dance, Singha founded the Kathak Institute as well as the Rina Singha Dance Organization.

As a dance ethnologist, Singha has researched dance narratives from around the world. As a choreographer, she is noted for blending her Christian faith with her kathak training in works such asYeshu Katha – 4 women tell the story of Jesus (1991).

For the Toronto Star‘s profile of Rina, click here.

Posted in Maharaja: The Splendour of India's Royal Courts, South Asian Music and Dance Demonstrations | No Comments »

Maharaja Marketplace

December 1st, 2010

The Maharaja Marketplace offers a modern twist on the best picks of an Indian market. There is something for everyone, from collectibles to edibles, and the prices are amazing.

The metal bowls that line the table tops aren’t filled with loose spices, but rather with fabulous trinkets. From bindis to bejeweled bracelets, you’ll find it all. The most awesome stocking stuffers ever are a selection of deliciously coloured bangles for $10. Bright, sparkly, and fun! Who can resist?

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Julian Schnabel’s JMB

December 1st, 2010

Julian Schnabel’s JMB is on display for a limited time as part of the exhibition Julian Schnabel: Art and Film.

The day fellow artist Jean-Michel Basquiat died, Schnabel painted this enormous tarpaulin work. In the upper right corner Schnabel inscribed the letters JMB and beneath it, in much smaller scale, the date Aug 12. This painting declares the enduring presence of the absent artist through the initials of his name, it commemorates the day of his death, and through its white paint, expresses a metaphor of Basquiat’s life lived – jagged, ascendant, infinite. In spare terms yet on a monumental scale, Schnabel achieves a funereal ode to another artist, which serves as a precursor to his first film.

You can hear the artist discuss his work by downloading the Julian Schnabel: Art and Film Audio Tour, FREE from iTunes.

JMB

Julian Schnabel
born New York City, New York, United States, 1951
JMB
1988
oil and gesso on tarpaulin
Private Collection, Italy; courtesy of Marco Voena, London-Milano

Posted in Julian Schnabel: Art and Film | 1 Comment »

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