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ISSN 1460-8537


themselves in the contemporary art world, the art community has divided them in two categories : the young generation of the likes of Jitish Kallat, Subodh Gupta, and Atul Dodiya or the earlier artists with icons such as Vasudeo S Gaitonde, or Nasreen Mohamedi. Manish Nai (b 1980 in India) belongs to the next generation of artists from India, relying on their surroundings as source of inspiration who use local materials to create their work. With basic elements such as jute, used clothes, or newspapers for his paintings, installations or sculptures, Manish Nai has completed a ‘tour de force’, creating work that through a savvy process is meaningful whilst very pleasing visually and aesthetically. Enthusiastic about exploring new ideas, processes and media, Manish Nai discusses his endeavour with the Asian Art Newspaper.


A Manish Nai. Photo: Anil Rane NEWS IN BRIEF


projects to promote ‘dialogue in the face of fanaticism, and culture in the face of terrorism. Te Bamiyan Buddhas in Afghanistan and Mali’s libraries in Timbuktu are other UNESCO sites that have suffered destruction at the hands of extremists. Te new 10-country group is due to meet again in Bolivia next year, the Greek foreign ministry said. In March, seven countries including France and Saudi Arabia joined forces with US philanthropist Tom Kaplan to pledge US$75.5 million to a UNESCO-backed fund aimed at protecting the world’s cultural heritage against war and terrorism. Teir International Alliance for the Protection of Heritage in Conflict Zones, based in Geneva, aims to raise US$100 million by 2019.


BRITISH MUSEUM, LONDON To celebrate the 70th anniversary of India’s independence, the British Museum has organised Sculpture from the Great Shrine at Amaravati, from 10 August to 8 October, in the Asahi Shimbun Display room. Founded around 200 BC, probably to house a relic of the Buddha, this southeast Indian site flourished for over a thousand years. Slowly abandoned sometime during the 14th century, by the late 18th century materials from the site were being recycled for new buildings and temples. In the 19th century a series of archaeological campaigns recovered the surviving sculptures.


ASIAN ART SUMMER QUARTER 2017


Today, the pieces are shared across a number of museum collections in India and around the world. Te British Museum houses more than 120 sculptures from Amaravati, which are housed in the Asahi Shimbun Gallery of Amaravati Sculptures reopening in November 2017. Te collection forms the single most important group of early Indian sculptures outside the subcontinent, and this display will focus on one of its highlights: a two-sided limestone relief, carved in the 1st century BC (featuring the Buddha as a symbolic empty throne), and then turned over and carved in the 3rd century (featuring a corporal Buddha standing in front of the shrine).


CINCINNATI ART MUSEUM, OHIO Te museum has appointed Ainsley M Cameron as Curator of South Asian Art, Islamic Art, and Antiquities. In this position, Dr Cameron will oversee acquisitions and collections from South Asia (India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, and Sri Lanka), Nepal and the Himalayan region, as well as Iran and Afghanistan. In May, the museum also announced the single biggest monetary gift in its history – a US$11.75 million endowment for its collections of art from South Asia, Greater Iran and Afghanistan. It was bequeathed by Alice and Carl Bimel and establishes the Alice Bimel Endowment for Asian Art. Te Bimels were great supporters of the museum during their life time.


KOREAN SEASON, LONDON Te Korea/UK season is a programme of extensive cultural activities taking place across the UK. Te season will see multiple institutions present exhibitions, performances, residencies, workshops and public art installations of Korean artists, from 2017 to 2018. Rehearsals from the Korean Avant- Garde Performance Archive run from 26 June to 29 July 2017 and explore the development of South Korea’s performance art scene during the late 1960s and 70s. At the Korean Cultural Centre UK, Grand Buildings, 1-3 Strand, London, www.kccuk.org.uk


SOTHEBY’S, LONDON Sotheby’s May series of Chinese sales totalled £6,537,125, nearly double its low pre-sale estimate. Te top lot of the series, returning to Sotheby’s London for the fourth time in its history, was a large carved cinnabar lacquer dish, which sold for £1.57 million, a sum almost one thousand times the price it achieved when last offered at auction in 1972, when the dish fetched £1,600.


CHRISTIE’S, LONDON At Christie’s May sales, a pair of butterfly famille-rose double-gourd vases, made for the court of the Qianlong Emperor, Qing dynasty (1644-1911), sold for £14.7 million, making them one of the top 10 most-expensive Chinese ceramic lots sold at auction and the second highest Chinese work of art sold at Christie’s in London.


Asian Art Newspaper: You started experimenting with jute very early on. Initially, what fascinated you with this medium which is most unusual and untypical?


mong the various artists from India who have made a name for


Manish Nai: My father used to run a packing material business, not only jute, but also other packing material. While at art school, it was not until my final years that I became aware of the diversity of the materials that I had available at home. Ten, around 2001, my father lost his business and, as a result, there was a lot of tension in the family. At the same time at school, my teacher was showing us abstract modernist painters from India and the United States like Rothko and Pollock. I was very attracted towards abstraction and decided to rely on whichever medium I could find at home to create work. Tat is basically how I started my painting. In addition, there was a lot of construction going on in the city that I used to observe, taking notes of what I would see on billboards, or on concrete walls. Taking note of certain sections of billboards or walls that were in decay and not yet rebuilt – these looked abstract to me and were a source of inspiration. Basically, I tried to go about my painting very spontaneously using jute while capturing what I saw in my immediate surroundings.


AAN: Did you start experimenting with the medium before your father’s business ended? MN: It happened at the same time. He lost his business while I started experimenting with jute. I became


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MANISH NAI By Olivia Sand


PEOPLE The painter, sculptor and installation artist, Manish Nai Jack Persekian, on contemporary art in Palestine Tim Clark on the new Hokusai show at the British Museum TRAVEL


Jakarta - once the famed Batavia of the Dutch East India Company China’s burgeoning contemporary art scene - where to go in Beijing and Shanghai The allure of Moorish Spain EXHIBITIONS


Hokusai, Beyond the Great Wave in London


Ancient Chinese bronzes at the Ringling Museum, Florida


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Heaven and Hell. An exhibition in San Antonio, Texas, explores the world of Japanese Buddhism PARIS


The exhibitions and auctions in the City of Light this June CONSERVATION Restoring a 16th century Japanese screen in Seattle REVIEWS Exhibitions Fair, London


Auctions and gallery shows Gallery shows Listings


Islamic Arts Diary


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