Media release | Zurich, September 2018

Family Ties – The Indian Painters Manaku and 4 October 2018 – 17 February 2019

For the first time, the exhibition Family Ties – The Indian Painters Manaku and Nainsukh examines the oeuvre of the two legendary artist brothers by way of comparison. The artist family from Guler in the Pahari region of the Himalayan foothills heralded a turn in in the late 18th century.

The brothers Manaku and Nainsukh of Guler are among the great masters of Indian miniature painting. Although they both learnt the art of painting from their father Pandit Seu, their oeuvres are of a very different nature. But it is not only their artistically outstanding work that is of significance: Manaku and Nainsukh are among the few original Indian painters whose names and artistic careers are known.

Pioneering family history The story of Manaku and Nainsukh of Guler begins with their father and teacher Pandit Seu (ca. 1680–1740). The name Seu has been handed down in pilgrim registers and on pictures. The inscriptions mention him as the father of Manaku and Nainsukh and indicate that he was from the small hill state of Guler and a painter by profession, while his epithet Pandit suggests that he was of Brahmin descent. Family lore tells of how one of Pandit Seu’s forebears once gave up his vocation as a priest, and thus also his social status, to become a painter – undoubtedly a decision with far- reaching consequences for the family.

In artistic terms Pandit Seu, above all, made a name for himself with his unfinished picture series of the epic, which he created around 1720. For the most part the work is in line with the traditions of that age, at the same time it reveals an artistic personality full of wit and with a keen sense for experimentation. Later works bear evidence to individual influences from Mughal art. Although we do not exactly know how this shift came about, it probably also laid the foundation for the open-mindedness and care with which Pandit Seu instructed his two sons. Apart from that, one can rightly say that Pandit Seu ushered in a new dawn in the tradition of .

Two brothers – two big names Manaku (Engl. “Ruby”) was the elder of the two. He grew up during the time his father was busy rendering the great Indian myths in painting. This is possibly one of the reasons why Manaku developed into a great pictorial storyteller. In general, his paintings indicate – in the absence of practically any other sources of information – that he was the brother who felt more committed to upholding the family tradition. His first major series was an attempt to complete his father’s Ramayana series. Yet without success, it too remained unfinished. But like his father before him, he remained loyal to his Guler home, taking it on himself to keep the family atelier going after Pandit Seu’s death.

The younger brother, Nainsukh (Engl. “Delight of the eye”), in turn, found artistic acclaim at the court of where he created his first major works for Raja Mian Zorawar Singh. Later, he painted numerous, remarkably intimate court scenes for the raja’s son and successor, Balwant Singh. The change of style might be due to the fact that Nainsukh learnt to paint from his father at a later stage in Pandit Seu’s career than his brother. The relationship between Balwant Singh and Nainsukh was so closes that the young artist accompanied the raja on many journeys and even stayed at his side when the latter was forced to leave Jasrota and move to Guler around 1755/60. It shows that Nainsukh worked in a quite different environment than his brother Manaku who is not known to have been closely linked with any specific court.

A great legacy – the next generation At first sight it seems as though Manaku and Nainsukh had received different impulses from their father Pandit Seu and had gone quite different artistic ways. Two brothers who couldn’t be more different? Far from it! A closer look at their works reveals a common legacy from their father and teacher. Numerous details indicate that the two brothers remained in close contact over the course of their careers, personally as well as in creative terms. What is even more revealing is the fact that their respective sons got together again and created a number of impressive picture series. Together with their cousins Kama, Gaudhu, Nikka, and Ranjha, Manaku’s sons Fattu and Khushala developed a homogenous, exceedingly harmonious, new family stile which merged Manaku’s talent for storytelling and vibrant colours with Nainsukh’s airiness and sense for natural settings. The work of this generation of Guler artists took Pahari painting to new artistic heights around 1770/80.

Escaping anonymity The names and life histories of many Indian artists of foregone centuries remain mostly unknown to admirers today. Very few of their works are signed or dated, and in terms of written sources researchers had little to go by for a long time. However, in more recent years, things got moving.

In the early twentieth century, the renowned historian and philosopher A. K. Coomaraswamy made Indian miniature painting an internationally recognized field of research. Relying on the method of style comparison, he was the first to create a time frame for a huge body of paintings and attribute them to specific eras and regions in . This classification system is partly still used today, and Coomaraswamy’s studies still rank among the classics. However, he did not name a single artist; on the contrary, he made the works appear as a kind of collective art or the product of a group of anonymous craftsmen. In the mid twentieth century, the works of W. G. Archer and M. S. Randhawa marked further milestones in the appreciation of Indian art. Coomaraswamy’s primary classification criteria were now joined by dynastic references. The names of princely clients and patrons of the arts completed the picture and the first family trees of artist families were created.

Later, in the 1960s, the distinguished Indian art historian Prof. B. N. Goswamy began focusing on individual painters as artists in their own right and on their status in society, identifying artist families as the main sources of artistic style and development. This was a key impetus for a new approach to Indian art history. Moreover, it laid the foundations for a real breakthrough which came in the early 1990s when Prof. B. N. Goswamy and Dr Eberhard Fischer – director of the Museum Rietberg from 1972 to 1978 – published their comprehensive study on a select group of painters from the Pahari region at the foot of the . For the first time individual artists from one of the great centres of painting were brought to the fore from centuries of anonymity and associated with specific ateliers, places, and princely courts. Roughly twenty years later, the approach was extended in an international collaboration to include other Indian art regions and movements. Thanks to this tireless research, Manaku and Nainsukh today rank among the best known and best researched representatives of Indian miniature painting. Moreover, they are also among the few of their guild who each has his own monograph and comprehensive work description, both compiled and written by B. N. Goswamy. Nor is it a coincidence that the artists’ journey from anonymity is closely linked with the Museum Rietberg, for it was here that Eberhard Fischer established a world-renowned collection of Indian miniatures with a focus on Pahari painting, granting viewers exceptional and exciting insights into the oeuvres of Manaku and Nainsukh and their respective families.

Exhibition curator Dr Caroline Widmer, curator for Indian art and assistant curator for India, Museum Rietberg

Further information: rietberg.ch/familyties

Selection of images

Fight of drunken monkeys and bears Folio from the (small-format) Ramayana series Pandit Seu of Guler Guler, Pahari region, India, c. 1720 Photo: © Rainer Wolfsberger, Museum Rietberg Zürich

Varaha battles with Hiranyaksha Folio from the small Guler Bhagavata Purana series Manaku of Guler Guler, Pahari region, India, around 1740 Purchased with means of Balthasar und Nanni Reinhart, Museum Rietberg Photo: © Rainer Wolfsberger, Museum Rietberg Zürich

Raja Balwant Singh relaxing in front of a fireplace Nainsukh of Guler Jasrota, Pahari region, India, around 1755 Gift of Lucy Rudolph, Museum Rietberg Photo: © Rainer Wolfsberger, Museum Rietberg Zürich

The palace of the Pandava brothers set in fire Folio from the (large-size) Guler Bhagavata Purana series Workshop of Fattu of Guler Guler, Pahari region, India, c. 1775 Collection of Barbara and Eberhard Fischer, on loan to the Museum Rietberg Photo: © Rainer Wolfsberger, Museum Rietberg Zürich

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Media texts and images for editorial purposes: rietberg.ch/press