Decoding Tantra Art

Tradition to the Indian Modern

Lecture by Prof. (Dr.) Madhu Khanna

Moderated by Dr Ritu Sethi

Series: Conversations on Culture

In collaboration with Craft Revival Trust

21 July 2024 | KNMA Saket | 5:00 pm 

Kiran Nadar Museum of Art in collaboration with Craft Revival Trust present ‘Conversations on Culture’, a talk series offering fresh perspectives on cultural practices and tradition. The third lecture in this series by Prof. (Dr.) Madhu Khanna explores traditional tantra art and its modern expressions. 

The lecture proposes to offer an in-depth interpretation of some rare masterpieces of Tantra art in the collection of the National Museum, New Delhi, in the light of its visual-metaphysics, yogic, and spiritual illuminations. It will also comment on the significant contribution that the art of Tantra has made in forming a new aesthetic canon of anthropomorphic and abstract signs, and symbols enriching the repertoire of Indian Art.

The second part of the lecture traces the global impact and resurgence of Tantra-inspired art by some artists of the first wave (G.R. Santosh, Sohan Qadri, Biren De, etc.) of the last century and demonstrate that this form of expression is not restricted to the past but has a decisive role to play in the future.

'Conversations on Culture’ is envisaged as an umbrella series of talks and discussions that take us out into India and the world by advancing new ideas, offering new perspectives, and giving access to insight, research and practice on culture and tradition. The subjects range from history, heritage, modern and contemporary developments, craft, textiles, heritage arts, innovation, creative industries to fashion and design. Our core belief in the importance of arts and culture will stay central to the Conversations. The series also locates and reiterates the museum as a place of cultural dialogue. 

Established in 1999 the Craft Revival Trust (CRT) was founded on the principal that access to knowledge and its dissemination forms the vital core for safeguarding cultural heritage. CRT’s mission over the years has built a knowledge and policy framework that  is a continuing investment in empowering and strengthening the cultural and creative industries, and its individuals, groups and communities of practitioners and transmitters.

Prof. (Dr.) Madhu Khanna is the former Director of Centre for the Study of Comparative Religions Civilizations in Jamia Millia Islamia, New Delhi. Dr Khanna is also a Tagore National Fellow at the National Museum, New Delhi and the Founding Trustee of Tantra Foundation, New Delhi. An eminent scholar of Tantric Studies, curator and author and an alumnus of Oxford University. Her two earlier works Yantra, Tantric Symbol of Cosmic Unity and The Tantric Way (Co-Author), published by Thames and Hudson, London, have gone into 20 Editions and translated into five languages. She is an Author/Editor of 10 books and numerous academic papers in prestigious journals and books. Curator of a ground-braking and a book Tantra on the Edge: Inspirations and Experiments in Twentieth Century Indian Art, launched by DAG, New Delhi 2022 is based on the Tantra art collection bequeathed to the National Museum New Delhi is forthcoming; and Studies on Tantra in Bengal and Eastern India, published by Springer International 2023. 

Dr. Ritu Sethi is the founder-trustee of the Craft Revival Trust and the editor of Global InCH, the international journal of intangible cultural heritage. In addition she oversees the Asia InCH Encyclopaedia on the traditional arts, crafts, textiles of South Asia. Ritu’s research interests examine aspects of pre and post-colonial histories of the arts, textiles and the handmade, and their links to the modern and contemporary. She has authored and edited several publications including ‘Embroidering Futures - Repurposing the Kantha’, ‘Painters, Poets, Performers – The Patuas of Bengal’; ‘Designers Meet Artisans - A Practical Guide’ (translated into Spanish and French),  among her other writings in Indian and international publications. 

She currently serves on several advisory boards including - IRCI UNESCO CAT II Centre, Japan. In India she serves on the Advisory Board of the ICH committee, Ministry of Culture; National Crafts Museum and Hast Kala Academy, Government of India; Asia Society (South Asia) besides other institutions/committees

Image courtesy: Tantra Foundation