Tag: anomalous dreams

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Kashmir by Modern Painters

Kashmir by B. Prabha (1933 – 2001) 
via: bonhams
Kashmiri Woman by B. Prabha.
via: bonhams

 From ‘Kashmir Series’ by B. Prabha.
via:Sotheby’s
Kashmir by N.S. Bendre (1910-1992)
source: saffronart.com
‘Kashmiri Woodcutter’ by Abdur Rahman Chughtai (Pakistan, 1897–1975)
via: bonhams
Srinagar by Biren De (1926-2011)
Source: techsoftlabs.com
Previously: Srinagar Post Card by Biren De 
‘In the snows of Kashmir’ by G.R. Santosh (1929-1997).
Source: sothebys.com
Kashmir Valley by Syed Haider Raza (India, b.1922)  FOOTNOTES Provenance- Private UK-based collection. Acquired directly from the artist in Bombay in 1951. 

via: bonhams.

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View-Master Kashmir, 1952

An interesting addition to the archive.
A View-Master Reel of Kashmir from 1952. There are seven images (14 for 3d effect) shot on full color Kodachrome film.

Right now, I don’t have the viewer for it so spent the day hacking up a basic viewer out of a card box.

The result….an experiment in color and sound.

Update: 16th Jan 2014

Finally got a viewer.
 

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Flute Player, 1922

Kashmiri Pundit Playing the Flute
Every Note in Kashmiri Music is overlaid with Grave Notes, to give brilliance to the performance
Photograph by Pandit Vishinath Kampassi

“The melodies belonging to the lakes and rivers are of course unlike those of the mountains. Never shall I forget the charm of being paddled in our shikara, one beautiful moonlight night on the Dal Lake in Kashmir, with our crew singing softly a well-known boatman’s song punctuated by the rhythemic stroke of the paddles. An equally idyllic memory springs to my mind of the fine forests on the mountainous sides of the Lolab valley, and, seated beneath the shade of a lofty pine, a slender stripling playing plaintively upon his simple wooden flageolet. This mournful melody was called “The Parrot” and its theme was a tale of a lady taken captive to Kashmir, who released her favourite parrot to carry a chenar leaf in its beak as a message to her lover. “

“Shikara” on the Dal Lake with Kashmiri Fluting
A Shikara Ride on the Dal Lake, on a Beautiful Moonlight Night, with the Crew Singling Softly a Boatman’s
Song Punctuated by the Rhythmic Stroke of the Paddles, Leaves an Idyllic Memory
Photograph by Pandit Vishinath Kampassi
From ‘Asia : journal of the American Asiatic Association (Volume v.22, November 1922)’, ‘Echoes of Himalayan Flutes’ by Muriel Percy Brown (1874-1943), daughter of Sir Adelbert Talbot, Resident of Kashmir from 1896 to 1900, and wife of art historian Percy Brown. She is more famous for  here book, ‘Chenar Leaves: Poems of Kashmir’ (1921)
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Flying to Kashmir


It’s not so far
There’s just a mountain
And at night
we can always fly

Music: Claudio Arrau playing Beethoven’s “Moonlight Sonata”,The Piano Sonata No. 14 in C minor. Video: Flying from Jammu to Srinagar

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Kashmir in ‘L’espace bleu entre les nuages’ by Cosey, 1978

From personal collection

Kashmir in Jonathan series ‘L’espace bleu entre les nuages‘ (The blue space between the clouds) by swiss artist Cosey (Bernard Cosandey) for Tintin Magazine No.147, July 4, 1978.

The plot revolves around sale of rare European paintings meant to fund a militant movement run from Srinagar. The movement in this case happens to be a veiled reference to ‘Free Tibet’ movement whose main agents have taken refuge in Kashmir.

Much like the old European travellogues, Srinagar here is presented as the springboard to the roof of the world. The comic comes from a time when comics were art, this collection apparently is supposed to be read with the background score of Beethoven (Concerto No. 3 in C minor op. 37) and Chopin (Concerto No. 2 in F minor op. 21).


To get the art and feel of the place right, Cosey actually travelled to Kashmir and seems to have soaked it all in quite well. The issue also carried a brief piece by Cosey about his experience in Kashmir  (along with some photographs by Paquita Cosandey, who usually did script and design for him).

Tintin Magazine was meant to be a space where new and future comic works by various artists could be showcased. ‘L’espace bleu entre les nuages’ as a complete work came out later in 1980.

At that time the west seemed to be much taken by Tibet, in this particular issue of the magazine, I would find two more comics themed around Tibet.

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Previously:
Kashmir in Indian Comics

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European ‘Village Life in Kashmir’, 1760

Village Life in Kashmir, c. 1760. By Mughal painter Mir Kalan Khan. A painting imitating European style, explaining why Kashmiri village here looks more like an alpine village.

Via: British Library:

“Gouache painting with gold of village life in Kashmir, by Mir Kalan Khan, working in the Lucknow/Faizabad style, c.1760. Inscribed on the border in Persian: ‘majlis-i kashmir, ‘amal-i mir kalan’ (A Kashmiri assembly, the work of Mir Kalan).

This painting depicts scenes of village life and in the centre a group of people are shown gathering grapes and wood while also cooking. On either side are several multi-storied buildings, and numerous waterways can be seen in the distance with buildings on the land in between. Mir Kalan Khan’s distinctive Europeanised style was adopted by other Lucknow artists, yet this kind of scene and subject matter remained unique to Khan. The source of his European influence is uncertain, but his extensive scenes often relate to Dutch and Flemish paintings. The facial type is distinctive, with frequent use of three-quarter face instead of profile. The artists place of origin is uncertain, but he may have been trained at the Delhi court, indicating that he came to Faizabad or Lucknow later in his life.”

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