Just Do It

Rhythms of India: The Art of Nandalal Bose

by Shaun Brady

Through Sept. 1, Philadelphia Museum of Art, 2600 Ben Franklin Parkway, 215-763-8100, philamuseum.org

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It's somewhat jarring, in the middle of an exhibit full of images drawn from the Hindu tradition, to suddenly be confronted with Jesus Christ. But the struggle of drawn ribs and straining arms under the weight of a heavy wooden cross is one that resonates with the work of Nandalal Bose, regardless of specific faith. Bose saw a continuity between the struggles of lower-caste Indian people and the yearning for divinity, a "life rhythm," steady and urgent as a heartbeat, that gives the PMA's gorgeous exhibit its name.

Originally co-curated by the San Diego Museum of Modern Art and the National Gallery of Modern Art, New Delhi, "Rhythms of India" features nearly a hundred of Bose's works in a wide variety of media: drawings, paintings, prints, linocuts, sculpture. Though many of the works have a timeless, folkloric quality, populated by bold colors and mythic scenes, Bose was part of a movement to find a modernist, purely Indian mode of expression in the early part of the 20th century. His public works, made between 1919 and 1951, draw on national traditions and Japanese influence, moving over time from gods to godforsaken, as India's untouchables become increasingly represented, their more direct ties to the natural world an obvious object of the artist's admiration. Those inclinations endeared Bose to Mahatma Gandhi, and proliferated in his thinking: Bose's last decade and a half was spent in private reflection, creating minimalist, monochromatic ink depictions of nature as acts of meditation.

The exhibit also includes several works by Bose's mentors and peers, providing a context sorely lacking from most art history. The PMA adds to that context with a supplementary exhibit of its own scant holdings of contemporary Indian art, "Multiple Modernities," which offers a century of fascinating reflections on modern existence.