November 1, 1989
Deccani Painting, an exhibition of 29 works from The Brooklyn Museum’s permanent collection of Indian paintings, will open November 18 and will remain on view in the Indian Painting Gallery, located on the second floor, through February 6, 1990. The exhibition features 18th- and 19th-century paintings from the Deccan, which comprises the southern states of Ahmadnagar, Bijapur and Golconda. The works include religious themes, palace pasttimes, personifications of the musical scales, as well as portraits.
As a result of extensive trade with the Middle East and Africa and its own diverse ethnic population of Muslims, Hindus, Turks, Arabs and Persians, the Deccan assumed by the seventeenth century a position of political and cultural importance in India. The Deccani paintings of the next two centuries reflect this ethnic diversity through the combined presence of native, Persian, Turkish and Western painting traditions.
Deccani Painting was selected and organized by Amy G. Poster, Curator of Asian Art, with the assistance of Usha Ramamrutham, Research Associate for Asian Art. It is the second in a series of exhibitions that will eventually reveal the Museum’s complete collection of Indian paintings. The series will culminate in the publication of a catalogue raisonné written by Ms. Poster.
Brooklyn Museum Archives. Records of the Department of Public Information. Press releases, 1989 - 1994. 1989, 161. View Original
