Crafting BNG’s legacy

Nobel laureate Ernest Hemingway once wrote that “every man has two deaths: when he is buried in the ground and the last time someone says his name. In some ways, men can be immortal”. On August 15, the 92nd birth anniversary of one of India’s most respected art historians — Padma Bhushan awardee Brijinder Nath Goswamy (1933-2023) — was celebrated in Zurich, Switzerland, a place close to his heart and where his legacy has found a permanent address.

The Museum Rietberg in Zurich has been intimately associated with seminal work on South Asian art, particularly miniature paintings. In a fitting tribute, the museum, in association with private donors, has established a Foundation named after three art historians who brought South Asian miniature paintings to the world — the late Dr Goswamy, the founding chairperson of Panjab University’s fine arts department who made Chandigarh his home; the German art historian and ethnologist Dr Eberhard Fischer (born in 1941), and the former director of the Smithsonian’s Freer Gallery of Art, Dr Milo Cleveland Beach (born in 1939).

It was in the 1970s that Dr Fischer, the then head of the Museum Rietberg, discovered the world of Pahari miniature paintings at the first lecture given at the museum by Dr Goswamy. Fischer, a specialist in African and Indian art, became fascinated with Indian miniature painting — one of the world’s most intricate styles. Beach, an American art historian who worked mainly on Mughal and Rajput paintings, collaborated with the duo on the landmark exhibition, ‘Masters of Indian Painting’, held first at the Museum Rietberg in 2011 and then at New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art.

To honour their dedication to fostering, supporting, publishing, and promoting research, the Museum Rietberg last year launched the GBF Foundation for Collaborative Research on South Asian Art and Artists, which seeks to advance research and appreciation of this shared cultural heritage.

The Foundation’s mission is to strengthen the museum’s role as an international centre for research on South Asian art, particularly painting, and to advance global recognition of its collections. A key focus is supporting the education and professional development of emerging scholars and curators from South Asia, especially India and Pakistan, specialising in South Asian art history.

The Foundation also aims to facilitate scholarly research based on original artworks from the museum’s collection.

This August, the Foundation held Musavvari, a 10-day summer school offering 12 selected participants hands-on experience in traditional Pahari miniature painting techniques. The programme trained art historians, conservators, and artists in every stage of practice — from preparing paper and pigments to brush-making and final compositions.

Johannes Beltz, managing director of the Foundation, shares the vision: “As a museum curator, I am committed to sharing our collections with diverse local and global audiences, experts and non-experts alike. I want to initiate joint research projects with our colleagues around the world — particularly those from South Asia — to study our collections and learn from each other. This learning should be based on open access to our collections. Apart from sharing our archives and online database, I want experts to work with the original artworks in our storage facilities. Handling real artworks cannot be replaced by digital copies.”

Beltz is also committed to supporting the next generation of museum professionals. “Now, more than ever, museums need well-trained and experienced staff as they face increasing global challenges in terms of funding, political autonomy, media attention, and relevance.” Much like Dr Goswamy, Beltz is an author, teacher, curator, and historian. He lectures at the University of Zurich and the Zurich University of Teacher Education and has authored books such as ‘Mahar, Buddhist and Dalit: Religious Conversion and Socio-Political Emancipation’ and ‘Elephants, Swaying Gods, and Dancers in Trance’, which focuses on bronze sculptures from the Bastar region.

“We work in three areas,” he says: “research residencies at the Museum Rietberg, summer schools, conferences, training, teaching, and publications.”

The Foundation’s programmes are already proving to be innovative and engaging. The residency programme, ‘One Object in Question’, invites artists and scholars to immerse themselves in a single object from the collection and use it as the basis for new research, writing, and creative work. Featured objects included a Mahishasur Mardini Devi painting by the Nainsukh family, and a tantric painting from Udaipur.

Sonika Soni, Guest Curator of the GBF Foundation’s Fellow Research programme, who earlier won a fellowship to research a mid-18th century Ragamala painting series from the Bundi-Kota region, curated an exhibition on Ragamalas at the museum earlier this year. Two contemporary miniature artists were invited: Murad Khan Mumtaz, an assistant professor at Williams College, University of Virginia, and Manish Soni. Interestingly, Soni portrayed Nainsukh in Amit Dutta’s film of the same name and serendipitously, Milo Beach also once chaired the art department at Williams College. For the exhibition, Mumtaz created a painting on Basant Raag, while Soni

created one on Megh Raag.

Musavvari, the name of the summer school, comes from the Arabic word al-Mus, one of the 99 names of God. Through the Mughals, it became established in South Asia. Practising artists call themselves Musavvir, mostly in the northern Hindustani tradition. “We thought because we’re teaching historical practice, it would be nice to use the word that goes along with it originally, rather than just ‘miniature painting’. It’s a wonderful group because they’re all professionals related to miniature painting — conservators, art historians, artists, and educators. So, it’s about giving them a hands-on experience with elements they already know historically,” says Mumtaz.

The participants were thrilled. “We often think miniature painting is a dead tradition. But it’s high time we start thinking of it as a living tradition that continues uninterrupted... Seeing masters like Manish and Murad working together reminded me of Mughal ateliers, where artists from different regions collaborated,” says Indranil B, an art historian who has both won a GBF research fellowship and participated in Musavvari.

Sonika Soni adds, “The materials probably remain the same. What has changed is perception, and how we see the world. The world of paintings in the 15th or 17th century kept changing, and it changes today as well. Perceptions change, but the materiality remains consistent.”

“Right now, especially in India and in other parts of the world as well, there is fresh awareness about working in the museum field and in archiving and documentation,” Mumtaz observes. “A lot of youngsters are already stepping in. Even collectors are more conscious of the upkeep of paintings. I think we are in a very, very good position compared to probably 50 years ago.”

But, these tiny pieces of paper painted with watercolours are easy to overlook and destroy, and history gets rewritten often. The GBF Foundation is nurturing a new international generation, inspired by the work of the three stalwarts over half a century, to ensure the vibrant traditions of South Asian art not only survive, but thrive.

— The writer is a Delhi-based contributor

MASTERCLASS

Indian art history was a world shrouded in secrecy illuminated only by people like the Ceylonese metaphysician and historian Ananda Coomaraswamy (1877-1947). BN Goswamy was an accidental entrant into the field, having left the Indian Administrative Service in 1958 to pursue a PhD in history with a focus on miniature paintings.

While paintings were typically known by their patrons, in the post-Independent India, Goswamy was determined to identify the artists. He recalled that his family name was registered with their family panda (priest), and by sifting through the bahis (ledgers) in Haridwar, he found unimpeachable evidence of a painter named Nainsukh, his brother Manaku, their father Pundit Seu and their descendants. Fischer was learning to handle miniatures and Goswamy, who gave an annual lecture at the museum, helped him date and attribute paintings. Their relationship developed, and they collaborated on a catalogue of the Alice Boner collection. By 1997, Artibus Asiae released a book on Nainsukh. In 2010, inspired by Goswamy’s monograph, Fischer and the Museum Rietberg produced Amit Datta’s film, ‘Nainsukh’. The New Yorker included it in its list of the best biopics ever made. A book about the film was published by the museum.

Nainsukh is now recognised as one of India’s most important miniature artists. A painting by him depicting Raja Balwant Dev hosting a musical soiree sold for Rs 15 crore at a Mumbai auction in 2024. Fischer was awarded the Padma Shri in 2012.

Milo Cleveland Beach collaborated on the exhibition in Zurich and New York. Accompanied by a two-volume publication covering artistic traditions, techniques, and cultural contexts from 1100-1650 and 1650-1900, the project is considered a significant contribution to the understanding of Indian art history.

Prof BN Goswamy, who passed away in 2023, wrote a column for The Tribune for 27 years.

Rietberg Museum’s past

The Museum Rietberg has a complex history. It consists of three 19th-century villas and a coach house. One of these buildings, Villa Schonberg, was once home to composer Richard Wagner. He fled to Zurich from Germany in 1849 to avoid arrest for his involvement in the May Uprising in Dresden and his radical views.

The owners gave Wagner and his wife Minna asylum, and he composed masterpieces like ‘Tristan und Isolde’ here. He also famously fell in love with Mathilde. The property was later owned by the Rieter family, who hosted even German Emperor Wilhelm II and Adolf Hitler.

In the early 1940s, the city of Zurich purchased the Rieterpark and the Wesendonck Villa. In 1949, a referendum called for the villa to be rebuilt into a museum for the art collection of Baron Eduard von der Heydt, a German-Swiss banker. He described his collection of Asian, African, American, and Oceanic art, acquired primarily in the 1920s and 1930s, as ars una — there is only one art.

The Museum Rietberg der Stadt Zurich opened in 1952. Today, it is Switzerland’s largest art museum dedicated to non-European art and design.