(attributed to Basavana)
(from an Indian restaurant)
While I have a moment waiting for daylight so I can carry on painting, and because I am disinclined to dust the house, let me share one of my other passions here; Moghul Art.
I discovered Moghul Art on the walls of an Indian restaurant in the curry houses of Club Row in London. I like art that catches you unawares as you eat or as you live or as you celebrate; art that is anonymous and in passing and easily missed, not the demonstrative kind in museums and galleries and art schools where signatures affirm their existent Selves, saying “look at me”.
This art you find in caves or the street or even TV shows…and once I found it in a mausoleum in Cairo where an artist, whose name I cant even remember, was buried amongst his works. (The Egyptians have an integrated understanding of life and death and even live in their cemeteries.)
Moghul Art is anonymous with its roots in the Manichean art of Persia (2/3rd Century) and influences from Byzantine iconography. For instance, the halo, or glow around heads, was first used in Manichean art with its emphasis on Light.
The moghul emperor, Akbar (16th century), created a progressive syncretic court where painters from all over the known world could exchange ideas freely, an environment not unlike that of 14th Century Granada when Mohammed V rolled up his sleeves to build The Alhambra, palaces whose architecture later influenced the Taj Mahal. Back and forth it goes in time and place, islands of illumination.
The results were stunning, in particular the painted miniatures in the Hamzanama manuscripts. Here you can sometimes see the Byzantine influence on the painting of trees and mountains. The work attributed to Banavari, Basavari, Mukhilis and Dasavanta have taught me a lot, though it’s the survival of the painting, not the name that matters. Its the detail of their buildings using multiple perspective, and the movement in their landscapes that interest me. They knew their subject matter with contemplative intimacy and that’s a method I understand, though I realize slow contemplative thought is not popular or valued in a world of fast competitive thought. Different thought processes produce different worlds. One rises, the other falls. Back and forth it goes on the seesaw in the playground.
And now its daylight. I must go and paint….
