What if you could imagine music as imaginary people with feelings and moods that you can not only describe but also depict? This is exactly what has happened in India over the centuries. A unique art form has developed there that combines music, poetry and painting.
These series of pictures, known as "garlands of melodies" (Ragamala), are multimedia works of art that appeal to several senses simultaneously. They invite viewers to discover the pictures with all their senses and perhaps even become part of the stories told.
The exhibition provides insights into the visual, linguistic and sound worlds of these paintings and allows the often hidden information to be deciphered. A closer look is required: what do the peacock, the lightning bolt, the drinking vessels by the bed or the flowers mean? What do the two birds stand for and why is the main character in the foreground crying? The exhibition brings to light the emotions hidden in the paintings, such as melancholy, pain or love.
The upcoming exhibition is a day full of art and emotions. 50 selected paintings from the museum's collection will take visitors on a day's journey full of music, poetry and images, from dawn to midnight. The exhibition is complemented by contemporary commissioned works by two contemporary painters from South Asia. Conversations with painters and musicians provide an insight into the practice, creative processes and challenges faced by today's artists in dealing with this extraordinary art form.
The exhibition is the result of the Ragamala project, which was established in 2021 as part of the GBF research program for Indian art and artists at Museum Rietberg. Over the course of three years, the young Indian art historian Sonika Soni examined hundreds of Ragamala paintings in the museum's collection. With this exhibition, she is making groundbreaking new research accessible to the public for the first time.
The exhibition is generously supported by the Parrotia Foundation and the GBF Program for Collaborative Research on Indian Art and Artists.
September 20, 2024 to January 19, 2025
