Until a few years ago, Indian painting was studied from the point of view of schools and styles. In the early 1990s, Marg published a volume on the works of individual artists of the Mughal ateliers (a sequel to which has just been published), and B.N. Goswamy and Eberhard Fischer organized their important exhibition and catalogue Pahari Masters.
Painters of the Pahari Schools makes a further major contribution to the study of painters who lived and worked in the hill states of the western Himalaya. It includes a wealth of new information and opinions of several scholars – often sharply divergent. Recently discovered material forms the basis for fresh insights and attributions. Characteristics peculiar to specific hill states are identified and an attempt is made to address several unresolved problems related to the development of painting at various centres. Apart from the masters DevMasa, Laharu, Mahesh, Pandit Seu and his sons Manaku and Nainsukh, research on artists of the later generations of Pandit Seu’s family – Fattu, Nikka, Ranjha, Harkhu, Chhajju, Gursahai, and Chaitu, who have not been previously studied individually, is also presented here. The social background which went into the making of the vision of each painter and some details of his training are described. Attention is also drawn to certain less-known facts which explain the spirit of Pahari painting and the influence of the themes illustrated on its development. An effort has been made to cover as many reputed series of Pahari paintings as possible, making for rich visual material.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR Roy C. Craven
Roy C. Craven, Jr (1924-96) was Professor Emeritus of Art History, University of Florida, where he taught Indian art for over thirty years. He was the Director of the university's art gallery. From 1944, he travelled widely in India studying its art. He curated exhibitions and lectured and wrote extensively on the subject, and his Concise History of Indian Art (1967) is used internationally as a standard introductory text. He edited Ramayana: Pahari Paintings for Marg in 1990.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR Vishwa Chander Ohri
Vishwa Chander Ohri worked as curator at the Bhuri Singh Museum, Chamba and at the Himachal State Museum, Shimla. Author of several articles and books on Pahari painting and other arts and antiquities of the Western Himalayas, he has also edited several books on these subjects. He is a native of Himachal Pradesh and has travelled widely across the region. He visited several Indian, European and American museums in connection with his study of Indian painting. Dr. Ohri's book On the Origins of Pahari Painting (published by Indian Institute of Advanced Study, Shimla in 1991) was received well by the scholars of Indian painting and was reviewed in Oriental Art, New Series, Vol. XXXVIII, 3 Autumn 1992. His other book is Sculpture of the Western Himalayas. He has contributed articles on several Pahari Schools of painting and the sculpture of north-west India of the medieval period in MacMillan's Dictionary of World Art. He is the co-editor of Painters of the Pahari Schools (1998) published by Marg Publications, Mumbai which contains an Introduction and two research articles by him.
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