Photos: Birds of India, DAG’s stunning exhibition of paintings from 1800 to 1835
The works, on display at the DAG gallery in Delhi, were created by Company painters, Indian artists who worked in a new hybrid style that used Indian and European influences.
Company Paintings - 1800 to 1835 is India’s first exhibition of its kind devoted entirely to Indian birds. They’re works by unknown Indian masters commissioned by the British East India Company in the late 18th and early 19th centuries, to document India’s animals, plants, monuments and people. This image is of a Cinereous Vulture (Aegypius monachus).(Courtesy DAG Gallery)
2/12
The exhibition features 125 paintings. The birds depicted in this exhibition include raptors, game birds, coastal waders and many woodland and forest birds, some very familiar and several that are now scarce. This image is of a Scaly-breasted Munia (Lonchura punctulata).(Courtesy DAG Gallery)
3/12
The majority, 99 images have been sourced from the album of Cunninghame Graham, with works dated from 1800 to 1804. Additional works have come from an 1810 album of birds from north-east India, which use exaggeratedly vivid colours; the Faber album from 1830; and four folios by Chuni Lal of Patna assembled in 1835. This image is of a Spot-billed or Grey Pelican (Pelecanus philippensis).(Courtesy DAG GAllery)
Combining the delicacy and details of Mughal atelier-trained artists with the refinement and rationalisation of European art, the works signify a hybrid Indian style unique to the Indian subcontinent whose patronage was almost entirely British. This image is of a Blyth’s Kingfisher (Alcedo Hercules).(Courtesy DAG GAllery)
5/12
Unfortunately, the patrons who commissioned these works didn’t record the names of the artists who worked on them. The Indian painters, then, remain largely anonymous. This image is of a Spotted Owlet (Athene brama).(Courtesy DAG Gallery)
10
Modus Vivendi (1000 people – 1000 Homes), 2000: In this self-portrait, a work of mixed media on canvas, Kallat appears as a swaggering, bespectacled juggler of heart and brain. The painting is an exploration of selfhood in the city of Mumbai, where he grew up and lives. The individual, lost in the multitudes, wanders in a state of perpetual disorientation, as reflected in the work. The radiating streaks of red, orange and green, reminiscent of thermal imagery, were achieved by texturing the canvas with layers of paint or canvas and then peeling off some parts to attain the desired visual effect.
5
Sheer delight: While out surveying the remote Phoenix Islands Archipelago, Schmidt Ocean Institute scientists captured rare footage of a “glass octopus”, named so because it is completely see-through. What one does see when one shines a light on it is its optic nerve, eyeballs, and digestive tract. Even though this species has been known to science since 1918, scientists were forced to study about this animal through specimens found in the guts of predators, before this sighting.
7
Herald / Harbinger is a permanent public art installation by Ben Rubin and Jer Thorp. It broadcasts the sounds of the Bow Glacier cracking and breaking 200 km away, to the centre of Calgary, one of Canada’s largest cities, almost in real time. The sounds and imagery shaped by data from a glacial observatory are broadcast through 16 speakers and seven LED arrays.
10
Everything Everywhere All At Once (2022): The movie explores the many dimensions of parenthood and love through the story of a Chinese-American immigrant named Evelyn Wang (played by Michelle Yeoh) who, while struggling to run a failing laundromat business, uses her newfound powers to travel across multiple realities to save the world and work on her strained relationships with her loved ones. It’s a family drama that’s fast-paced, funny and, above all, tackles earnestly the idea of healing from intergenerational trauma.
6
At first sight: For centuries, sunspots were thought to be Mercury passing across the Sun. By the early 17th century, with the invention of the telescope, astronomers could get a clearer look. In 1610, Galileo Galilei (who first used the telescope to observe space) in Italy and his British contemporary Thomas Harriot identified these as spots on the Sun. Seen here are 35 drawings of sunspots created by Galileo between June 2 and July 8, 1612.
