Aditi and others
Posted by Catherine Cartwright Jones on January 24, 2000 at 18:19:45:
In Reply to: Sackler/Freer Galleries info posted by Wendy on January 24, 2000 at 15:41:23:
The Smithsonian published an excellent book on their Indian
Exhibition, called "Aditi, The Living Arts of India" .. I noticed a
copy in the art section at Borders last week. (I'd previously lucked
onto a used copy). Great book! Has some lovely "Mandana" (also known
as Rangoli and a few other words, because so many languages are spoken
in India)... those are the paintings women do in the ground and walls
of their homes for festivals and celebrations.
Yes, the patterns in mandana are very closely related to the
traditional Indian henna patterns from 50 to 100 years ago. They
aren't particularly sacred, but many of them are definitely household
magic ... others are simply representations of the delights and
creature comforts of women's life in rural India. There are some very
nice mandana (NOT "Mandala", that's something else entirely) in
"Aditi". Some nice henna and wonderful folklore, too. It's a yummy
book, generally.
Generally speaking, if you see a book that features pieces from the
Freer... dive for it! There's amazing stuff there ... expecially if
you get one of the magnifying glasses with a light and double lens
.... the old henna, tattoos, and harquuses sometimes take some real
digging to find, but they're absolutely lovely, and the Freer has some
of the best!