Tantra: Tantric, Jain and Cosmic Art from India
This beautifully illustrated book accompanies an exquisite exhibition of 70 tantric, Jain and related objects, paintings, manuscripts and drawings.
In as far as the Indian term 'tantrism' is known in the West, it is generally linked with mystery and mysticism as well as with sex, magic and hocus-pocus. Indeed, tantrism is connected with all these and even more, as Jan van Alphen, chief curator of the BOZAR in Brussels, discusses in the introductory essay to the catalogue. Buddhism, Hinduism, Taoism, Jainism, Vajrayana, Bönpo, Ayurveda and Shamanism are some of the philosophies, religions and sciences that were somehow influenced by tantrism.
A highlight of the exhibition is the beautiful 19th-century Rajasthani painting in gouache and gold pigment on cloth, Cosmic Manifestation of Vishnu (Vasudeva).
Joost van den Bergh
48 pages, paperback
245 x 320 mm, 60 colour illustrations
ISBN: 978 0 956682 40 6
Exhibition
Accompanied an exhibition at Joost van den Bergh Ltd. The exhibition, on view from 4 to 30 November 2010, was part of Asian Art in London.