 Bibliography
cont.
Several of Dr. Jyotindra Jain's books are also
indispensable to me, chronicling the evolution of traditional arts
into their contemporary forms, or the evolution of popular arts
forms into tradition: Ganga
Devi: Tradition and Expression in Mithila Painting (Ahmedabad:
Mapin Publishing, 1997);
Other Masters: Five Contemporary Folk and Tribal Artists of India
(New Delhi: Crafts Museum, 1998); and Kalighat
Painting: Images from a Changing World (Ahmedabad: Mapin Publishing,
1999).
Jain's Ganga Devi, especially, is the best model
I know of biography for a traditional visual artist in India, carefully
examining the rare points at which such an artist adds her own expression
to (rather than abandons) traditional form.
Stuart Cary Welch's huge survey, India:
Art and Culture 1300-1900 (New York: Metropolitan Museum of
Art, 1985), is my standard visual reference guide, supplemented
by Pratapaditya Pal's Court
Paintings of India: 16th-19th Centuries (New York: Navin Kumar,
1983), Stuart Cary Welch's Gods,
Kings, and Tigers: The Art of Kotah (Munich: Prestel, 1997),
and Barbara Rossi's From
the Ocean of Painting: India's Popular Paintings, 1589 to the Present
(New York: Oxford, 1998).
Accompanying the 1985-86 Festival of India in Washington,
D.C., Aditi: The Living Arts of India (Washington: The Smithsonian
Institution Press, 1985) follows the fertility cycle, placing crafts
and objects in relation to their ritual functions.
I use many excellent books which look at Indian
art in the 20th century, both in urban and rural non-gallery settings:
Herbert J. M. Ypma's Indiamodern:
Traditional Forms and Contemporary Design (London: Phaidon Press,
1994) is my favorite, followed by Suzanne Slesin's Indian
Style (New York: Clarkson N. Potter, 1990), and Priya Mookerjee's
Pathway
Icons: The Wayside Art of India (London: Thames and Hudson,
1997).
For the conceptual inspiration that photography
can provide, I often use Gayatri Sinha's beautifully produced WOMAN/GODDESS
(New Delhi: Multiple Action Research Group, 2000), Madanjeet Singh's
This
My People (New York: Rizzoli, 1989), Raghu Rai's Dreams
of India (San Francisco: Collins, 1988), Aman Nath's and Samar
Singh Jodha's Jaipur:
The Last Destination (London: Tauris Parke Books, 1996), and
Jean-Louis
Nou's Taj Mahal (New York: Abbeville Press, 1993).
More academically, Carol Radcliffe Bolon's Forms
of The Goddess Lajja Gauri in Indian Art (University Park: Pennsylvania
State University Press, 1992) is an excellent photographic record
and discussion of the "lotus-headed" goddess.
Among many excellent books on Indian textiles,
I admire Martrand Singhs's Handcrafted
Indian Textiles: Tradition and Beyond (New Delhi: Roli Books,
2000) and Kokyo Hatanaka's Textile
Arts of India (Kyoto: Kyoto Shoin Co., Ltd., 1993).
 And, among so many other books, I must mention
my guidance from Pupul Jayakar's The
Earth Mother (New Delhi: Penguin Books, 1989) and also her The
Children of Barren Women: Essays, Investigations, Stories (New
Delhi: Penguin Books, 1994), as well as Helena Norberg-Hodge's Ancient
Futures: Learning from Ladakh (San Francisco: Sierra Club Books,
1992). These books return my focus on the details of particular
artistic forms and examples to their rich historical, mythological,
ritual, and cultural contexts.
I would like to mention some books which help me
specifically with seeing art in Nepal. Hugo E. Kreijger's Kathmandu
Valley Painting: The Jucker Collection (Boston: Shambhala, 1999)
is a fine study of art mostly on cloth and paper. Hannelore Gabriel's
survey of The
Jewelry of Nepal (New York: Weatherhill, 1999) is a huge contribution
to the classification of "worn ornament."
Paul de Smedt's Divine
Support: Ghurras, Wooden Churning-Rod Holders from Nepal (Kathmandu:
Pilgrims Bookhouse, 2000) is an enthusiastic, important study of
one type of simple, vernacular object and its cultural significance.
Michael Hutt's Nepal: A Guide to the Art and Architecture of the
Kathmandu Valley (Boston: Shambala, 1995) is a great reference book.
And, though his paintings are extremely different from mine (more
like Andrew Wyeth's), Robert Powell's Earth
Door Sky Door: Paintings of Mustang (London: Serindia, 1999)
is inspirational to me for how his paintings are documentary, and
for how he presents his paintings with casual but visionary accompanying
notes.
And, in studying Sri Lankan art in particular,
I am most indebted to Senake Bandaranayake's and Gamini Jayasinghe's
The
Rock and Wall Paintings of Sri Lanka (Colombo: Lake House Bookshop,
1986) and to the brilliant survey of Buddhist symbology in Karunaratne
Gunapala Senadeera's Buddhist Symbolism of Wish-Fulfillment (Delhi:
Sri Satguru Publications, 1992). The photography of Nihal Fernando
is a great visual record of art on the island in Serendip to Sri
Lanka: Immemorial Isle (Colombo: Studio Times Limited, 1991), and
Stephen Champion's Lanka:
1986-1992 (Reading: Garnet Publishing Ltd., 1993) is a good
photographic reminder of the recent political context in which artists
have had to work.
Finally, for its Thoreauvian curiosity and archaeological
and naturalist's detail-rather like a nineteenth century Sri Lankan
counterpart to Khushwant Singh's Nature Watch (New Delhi: Lustre
Press, 1990)-I read and re-read John Still's Jungle
Tide (Dehiwala, Sri Lanka: Tisara Press, 1992).
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