ARTS PROGRAM REPORT 2022-2023

ARTS PROGRAM REPORT 2022-23

Cover Credit:

Nilima Sheikh was the inaugural Distinguished Artist Fellow 2022-23 at the Mittal Institute.

Nilima Sheikh

SALAAM CHECHI (DETAIL), 2018

Triptych on board painted in casein tempera 185 x 440 cm

Arts

July 2022 – June 2023

06

08

42

LETTER FROM THE CHAIR

PROGRAMS

Scholars

Visiting Artist Fellowship 11 - 21

Distinguished Artist Fellowship 22 - 28

Platforms

Mapping Color in History to Transform the Study of South Asian Art 28 - 33

The State of Architecture in South Asia Project 34 - 40

Conservation Science Research and Training Program (CoSTAR) 40 - 41

MITTAL INSTITUTE GOVERNANCE

Arts Advisory Council: Financial Projections 42 - 43

Administration 44 - 46

Last fall, I had the great pleasure to witness firsthand the thriving South Asia Arts Program at the Mittal Institute. I returned to campus for a truly unforgettable daylong event to commemorate 75 years of independence from British rule. The Mittal Institute

Letter from the Chair

hosted nearly 100 South Asian arts enthusiasts from across the country and several from the Subcontinent, including fellow Arts Advisory Board Member Osman Khalid Waheed, who came all the way from Lahore. We were treated to a fascinating “from the vaults” tour of the MFA’s outstanding South Asian collection. The event then moved to the Sanders Theatre, where we witnessed a conversation between two giants of civil society in India and Pakistan, respectively, Amartya Sen and Syed Babar Ali. The evening ended with a bring-down-the-house performance by Harvard alum and Pakistani musical sensation Ali Sethi, who had the entire theater, including many fac-

ulty members, on their feet! The evening was an energizing reminder of the power of the arts to bridge borders and unite generations.

I’m delighted to share with you several major arts initiatives happening at the Mittal Institute, which I hope you will explore more in this report. Prof. Jinah Kim’s Mapping Color in History project is an extraordinary initiative that has the potential to transform how art is viewed; Prof. Rahul Mehrotra’s Art and Architecture project will culminate in a major conference and exhibit later this year and has also launched a successful series featuring young architects from around the region; and

“The evening was an energizing reminder of the power of the arts to bridge borders and unite generations.”

— DIPTI MATHUR

the Visiting Artist Program continues to thrive, bringing a broad range of visual artists from across South Asia to Harvard. This year, we are also pleased to host a Distinguished Artist Fellow for the first time.

The new Distinguished Artist Fellowship at the Mittal Institute supports the artistic endeavors and research of a senior artist from anywhere in South Asia, bringing them to Harvard’s campus in Cambridge to access Harvard’s intellectual and creative resources and share information about their practice and experiences. The senior artist is nominated by a selection committee of faculty and curators of modern and contemporary South Asian art in recognition of the artist’s contribution to important issues related to South Asia

through their use of artistic mediums and forms of expression. Nilima Sheikh is the inaugural Distinguished Artist Fellow for 2023, and we were delighted to have her on campus from April 1728, 2023. During her time, Nilima spoke at the Harvard Art Museums and at various classes, held several seminars, met with the Visiting Artist Fellows, enjoyed local museums, and even visited Mittal Friends of the Arts in New York City. It was truly an extraordinary time for all.

We are also working on a virtual exhibition featuring the exceptional work of select alumni who have participated in our Visiting Artist Fellowship program. The exhibition aims to showcase the current artwork of three-tofive talented artists and provide an

opportunity for the public to engage with the work of these artists whose artistic practice has been shaped and impacted by the VAF program. The exhibition will first be open to the Mittal Institute’s Arts Council and later made available for public viewing through our New Delhi office.

As we look ahead, we are energized by the Arts Program’s return to in-person events and active exchange between Harvard and the region. We are grateful for your continued support and look forward to engaging all of you in our future plans for the Arts Program.

DIPTI MATHUR Chair, Arts Council

The Mittal Institute Arts Program 2022 - 2023

The Lakshmi Mittal and Family South Asia Institute, Harvard University

Hosted new Visiting Artist Fellows, the first-ever Distinguished Artist Fellow Nilima Sheikh, as well as many other talks and seminars with leading scholars in the arts.

A happy crew after a successful exhibit opening during the Fall Visiting Artist Fellows’ Exhibit Launch!

(L TO R): Prof. Jinah Kim, Visiting Artist faculty mentor; Aamina Nizar, Visiting Artist from Sri Lanka; Sneha Shrestha, Mittal Arts Program Manager; and Sharbendu De, Visiting Artist from India.

The Lakshmi Mittal and Family South Asia Institute, Harvard University

TOP: Prof. Jinah Kim engages with fall Visiting Artist Fellows, Aamina Nizar and Sharbendu De, during their public lecture.

BOTTOM: Spring Visiting Artist Fellows, Manjot Kaur (l) and Dhara Mehrotra (third from left) celebrate a successful exhibit opening with Prof. Jinah Kim and Mittal Institute Executive Director Hitesh Hathi (r).

SCHOLARS

Visiting Artist Fellowship

The VAF Program, a unique research-based arts residency for mid-career South Asian artists, welcomed its first-ever artist from Sri Lanka and strengthened ties with 30 alumni-artists who are now practicing in nearly every country in the region.

The Mittal Institute was thrilled to welcome four Visiting Artist Fellows to Harvard after several years of virtual programming. The diversity of interests and mediums of this year’s Visiting Artists – from urbanization to biology and from painting to photography – exemplifies the program’s continued efforts to reach diverse artists in new places across South Asia.

The fall 2022 VAF exhibit opening, “Capturing the Change, Imaging the Future,” enjoyed a packed house – the largest attendance ever for a VAF opening. The exhibit featured the work of artists Aamina Nizar, the program’s first VAF from Sri Lanka, and Sharbendu De, a photographer from India. Aamina documents the rapidly changing landscape of her home city, Colombo, and at Harvard, took classes on problem solving in contemporary developing countries through the lens of artists, urban planners and scientists. Sharbendu exhibited his photo series, “Imagined Homeland,’’ which focuses on the Lisu indigenous tribe and their relationship with nature. During his fellowship, he researched climate change, indigenous cultures and their intersections with the arts, and attended classes on these topics.

The spring 2023 VAFs, both from India, arrived in March 2023 to start their eight weeks on campus. Manjot Kaur planned to further her current research based on speculative fiction. Dhara Mehrotra, whose work celebrates how things organize themselves in the natural world, planned to explore Harvard archives, museums, and libraries to inform her work. The artists later showed their work in an exhibit, “South Asian Art through Nature Narratives.”

Also, with a growing VAF alumni community, the Institute has been focusing efforts on new programming to strengthen ties and collaboration amongst the artists and with the Harvard community.

Sharbendu De

New Delhi, India | Medium: Photography

SHARBENDU DE is a lens-based artist, academic and a writer based in New Delhi, India. In 2018, Feature Shoot recognized De as an Emerging Photographer of the Year. He was shortlisted for the Lensculture Visual Storytelling Awards (2019) and Lucie Foundation’s Emerging Artist of the Year Scholarship (2018). His conceptual series “An Elegy for Ecology” (2016-21), dealing with climate change, premiered at the Asian Art Biennale 2021, Taiwan, followed by a solo at the Shrine Empire Gallery, New Delhi (2021-22). His series “Imagined Homeland” (2013-19) on the indigenous Lisu tribe from Arunachal Pradesh, India, has received critical appreciation. De has an MA in Photojournalism from the University of Westminster, London.

IMAGINED HOMELANDS

Photographs

Mittal

MAN WITH NO ROAD (2018)

Inkjet print on Hahnemühle Photo Rag® 16 x 24 in

Aamina Humaira Nizar

Colombo, Sri Lanka | Medium: Photography

AAMINA NIZAR is a commercial and documentary photographer from Sri Lanka. Her documentary, “The Colombo Project,” on the city’s urban changes was conceptualized as an installation at Colomboscope, Sri Lanka (2016) and at the Serendipity Arts Festival in Goa (2019). She collaborates with fellow artists and researchers in order to create artwork that broadens perspectives on themes she is exploring. These include “Let there be Light” (2018), “Permutations and Possibilities” (2018), annual events by the Women and Media Collective, “Closing Chapters” (2022) and “Brilliant Resilient” (2022). She has a Bachelor’s Degree in Mass Media (Journalism) from Sophia College, Mumbai, India.

The Lakshmi Mittal and Family South Asia Institute, Harvard University

VIEW FROM HAVELOCK TOWN (2016) Photographs

The Colombo Project Still from MP4

The Colombo Project (2016) Installation, Colomboscope Sri Lanka

Manjot Kaur

Chandigarh, India | Medium: Drawing, Painting

MANJOT KAUR’S drawings, paintings, and time-based media attempt to decolonize both the sovereignty of ecology and women’s bodies. She has been an artist in residence at Jan van Eyck Academie, Netherlands (2020-21); Fondazione Pistoletto, Italy, supported by Inlaks Shivdasani Foundation, India (2018); and Khoj International Artists’ Association, New Delhi (2018). In 2022, she received a “Generator Art Production Fund” grant from Experimenter Gallery, India. Recent participations include, “Where Shall We Plant The Placenta,” A Tale of A Tub, Rotterdam (2022); “Non- Fungible Speculations,” Nature Morte, New Delhi (2022); “The World Awaits You Like a Garden,” Latitude 28, New Delhi (2022); “Hurting and Healing - Let’s Imagine a Different Heritage,” Tensta Konsthall, Stockholm (2022); and “Garden State,” Garage Rotterdam, Rotterdam (2021). Manjot graduated from Government College of Art, Chandigarh, India.

The Lakshmi Mittal and Family South Asia Institute, Harvard University

WHEN A TREE GREW OUT OF HER WOMB (2021)

Gouache and watercolor on paper

43.3 x 58 cm

THE BOTANICAL WOMB (2022)

Gouache and watercolor on paper

40.4 x 48.5 cm

GARDEN STATE (2017) Drawing, Painting

Dhara Mehrotra

Bangalore, India | Medium: Painting

GOSSAMER, (2019-2020)

Acrylic and coir on wall

Wall Installation, Goethe Institut Max Mueller Bhavan, Kolkata

DHARA MEHROTRA is a visual artist whose recent works reflect upon the form, fabric, structure and topology of mycelium networks under the soil. These are fine threads like fungal networks that spread over great lengths, connecting the trees with each other, below ground. She received an MFA in Painting from the College of Art, Delhi University, India, and was the recipient of the Swapan Biswas Award for academic excellence; the Junior Fellowship Award from the Ministry of Culture, the Government of India; the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research (NCBS) Fellowship and exhibition Bangalore; and the Facebook / Meta Artist In Residence (AIR) award, Hyderabad. Selected exhibitions include the India Art Fair, New Delhi; Aicon Contemporary, New York; and The Anant Art, New Delhi. She has showcased works at the Gulf Art Fair, Dubai, the Museum Of Sacred Arts (MOSA), Belgium, and the China Art Museum, Shanghai.

The Lakshmi Mittal and Family South Asia Institute, Harvard University

WIRED VII (2020)

Acrylic, fiber and inks on archival paper

29 x 37cm

10.5 by 14.5in

Acrylic and ink on paper

LABYRINTH VIII (2022)

VAF Alumni Interview

Pakistani Artist Komal Shahid Khan Reflects on Her Work and Her Visiting Artist Fellowship

KOMAL SHAHID KHAN, based in Islamabad, Pakistan, was a Visiting Artist Fellow at the Mittal Institute in 2016. She received a Master’s in Fine Arts from the Fatima Jinnah Women’s University in Rawalpindi, Pakistan. She started her career with a focus on group shows in art galleries in Islamabad and Rawalpindi and later moved to Lahore and Karachi. She also taught at the National College of Arts Rawalpindi. In 2016, she held her first solo exhibition titled, “Imagined Immortals,” in Karachi. We caught up with Komal to learn more about life since her Visiting Artist Fellowship.

Tell us what you have been up to since completing your fellowship in 2016?

If I had to say it in one word, it’d be “much!” On coming back from the fellowship, I had a lot more energy to expand upon my ongoing art projects and painting series, which I believe became inspired by the exposure, communication and healthy interactions I experienced during my stay. I recalled meeting a few unexpected people while I used to walk around the roads of Cambridge, and I had begun my work on a series titled, “Above Us Only Sky,” which is a visual documentation of experiences that I found to be similar between my country and abroad. This series was exhibited as my second solo exhibition in Karachi, Pakistan.

In 2018, I exhibited my work in different cities, working with various mediums and surfaces, producing a few more series titled, “The Circle” (2019), “Us and Them” (2019), “Animals” (2020), “Modern Cults” (2022), and “The Fountain” (2022).

In addition to my exhibitions and personal art and design projects, I have tried to contribute a lot through my teaching position as an art and design instructor for Cambridge International Examinations and Pearson Art and Design. I was able to use my experiences with the art practices from other parts of the world as well as sharing teaching styles with co-teachers that I witnessed at Harvard. I try to reflect on the growth that I experienced being part of the fellowship, and it gives me satisfaction as a teacher to see my students encouraged and striving to excel. I also began running my home-based art space, Studio.K, where I instruct students and emerging artists to refine their skills and visual communication through their works.

How has your research and classroom experiences at Harvard informed your more recent work?

I feel I have become a risk taker! Visits to different galleries and museums really added to my artistic vocabulary and that has helped my work evolve into an even more matured form. Seeing original artworks at museums and being able to replicate each and every stroke in your mind has helped me practice and reflect upon many contemporary and traditional art styles and techniques. The classroom experiences were not only friendly, interactive and progress oriented, but they helped us a lot in understanding the correlation between different subjects, such as philosophy and art.

What’s a favorite memory from your time as a Visiting Artist Fellow?

My favorite memory is from the Fogg Art Museum. I was awestruck seeing the original Kota drawings preserved by the museum and the amazing collection of Mughal and Indian miniature paintings.

Some of the best memories from the fellowship are those with my fellow artist Meenakshi Sengupta. We not only shared a culture and could relate to each other on so many levels, but we appreciated and critiqued each other’s work, which helped us both better understand our future goals. And lastly, having multiple experts from all around Harvard sitting together to view and hear about my art journey was not less than a dreamscape during the Artist’s Talk session!

What are you working on now and what are your future plans?

I am currently working on a series of paintings that redefines gender roles. I have plans of incorporating photography, collage and thread within my miniature paintings. I am also experimenting with enlarging some of my ornamental miniature paintings on canvas and working with acrylic and powdered pigments. I aim to participate in more international exchange programs, residencies or exhibitions to represent my country and my art practices.

Five Panels

Panel

Five Panels

Panel 5:

The Lakshmi Mittal and Family South Asia Institute, Harvard University

BEYOND LOSS (2019)

Casein Tempera on canvas

4: 72 x 120in

BEYOND LOSS (2019)

Casein Tempera on canvas

72 x 108in

SCHOLARS

Distinguished Artist Fellowship (DAF)

The Mittal Institute selected Nilima Sheikh as its inaugural Distinguished Artist Fellow.

The Mittal Institute welcomed the inaugural Distinguished Artist Fellow (DAF), Nilima Sheikh, to the Harvard campus in April 2023.

The DAF program, which invites a senior visual artist from South Asia to the Harvard campus, is designed to bring forth critical issues relevant to South Asia through the lens of art and design. Sheikh was selected by a committee composed of Harvard faculty and contemporary South Asian art experts.

At Harvard, Sheikh engaged with Harvard faculty, students, and the Mittal Institute’s broader community, and shared her work through public lectures, including at the Harvard Art Museums, and classroom visits.

“She is one of South Asia’s most prominent artists whose paintings deal with some of the most pressing issues in the region through her brilliant visual language of color and form,” says Jinah Kim, George P. Bickford Professor of Indian and South Asian Art in the Department of History of Art & Architecture at Harvard. “Having Nilima on campus provides a rare opportunity to be in conversation with a leading artist whose long career inspires us to contemplate on the significance of art in the conflict-stricken world.”

Born in New Delhi in 1945, Sheikh joined the Faculty of Fine Arts at the University of Baroda in 1965, after studying history at Delhi University. Her work focuses on displacement, longing, loss, violence, the perception of tradition and ideas of femininity. She started exhibiting professionally in 1969 and recent solo exhibitions include Lines of Flight: Nilima Sheikh Archive, Asia Art Archive, Hong Kong; Terrain: Carrying Across Leaving Behind at Chemould Prescott Road, Mumbai, 2017 and Gallery Espace at Bikaner House, New Delhi, 2018; Each night put Kashmir in your dreams at The Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago in 2014. In 2023, the Asia Society honored her at the Asia Arts Game Changer Awards India.

This program is funded by the generous contribution of Dipti Mathur, Chair of the Mittal Institute’s Arts Council.

Nilima Sheikh

Distinguished Artist Fellowship

NILIMA’S paintings are influenced by East Asian, Persian, Central Asian, pre-Renaissance European and North Indian schools of tempera painting. She devises her forms of telling by adapting traditional forms like manuscript paintings, scrolls, Pichhvais (ritual backdrops), folding or enclosing screens and altarpieces. Her visual and textual layering, often marked by a subtle mix of lore and history, offer a depth of narration and glimpses of multiple worlds, and a commitment to feminist realities. Nilima was born in 1945 in New Delhi, and joined the Faculty of Fine Arts at the MS University of Baroda in 1965, after graduating from Delhi University in History. She studied painting in Baroda under the mentorship of KG Subramanyan.

She started exhibiting professionally in 1969. Her recent solo exhibitions include Lines of Flight: Nilima Sheikh Archive, Asia Art Archive, Hong Kong; Terrain: Carrying Across Leaving Behind at Chemould Prescott Road, Mumbai, 2017 and Gallery Espace at Bikaner House, New Delhi, 2018; Each night put Kashmir in your dreams at The Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago in 2014. Recent group participations include Thinking Historically in the Present, Sharjah Biennial 15, Sharjah, 2023; Woman is as Woman does, Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Vastu Sangrahalaya, Mumbai, 2022, Minyatur 2.0: Miniature in Contemporary Art, Pera Muzesi, Istanbul, 2020; Seismic Movements: Dhaka Art Summit, Dhaka, 2020, Kochi Muziris Biennale, Kochi, 2018; Documenta 14, Athens and Kassel, 2017; An Atlas of Mirrors, Singapore Biennale, Singapore, 2016; Diary Entries, Gallery Espace, New Delhi, 2015; Landscape of Thinking Slow: Contemporary Art from China & India, National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Seoul, Korea; Place-Time-Play, Contemporary Art from West Heavens to Middle Kingdom in Shanghai in 2010 and India moderna, Institut Valencia d’Art Modern at Valencia in 2008.

Nilima has collaborated with artists and craftspeople from Srinagar and Vadodara on a large multimedia mural project Conjoining Lands, 50’X 180’, for Terminal 2, Chhatrapati Shivaji International Airport, Mumbai. She has created the scenography and painted sets, banners and backdrops for the theatre collective Vivadi, between 1993 and 2000. She has written on art in books, journals and catalogue essays since 1971 and also illustrated books for children.

Photo credit to Sunday Guardian

I am beyond thrilled that we are hosting Nilima Sheikh as the inaugural distinguished artist fellow at the Mittal Institute. She is one of South Asia’s most prominent artists whose paintings deal with some of the most pressing issues in the region through her brilliant visual language of color and form. Having Nilima on campus provides a rare opportunity to be in conversation with a leading artist whose long career inspires us to contemplate on the significance of art in the conflict-stricken world.”

— JINAH KIM, GEORGE P. BICKFORD PROFESSOR

OF INDIAN AND SOUTH ASIAN ART IN THE DEPARTMENT OF HISTORY OF ART & ARCHITECTURE

CARRYING ACROSS LEAVING BEHIND (2016-2017)

TERRAIN:

Casein tempera on sixteen canvas scrolls, wood, and metal scrolls

83.8 x 34.2in each

Q&A with Nilima Sheikh

The Mittal Institute’s inaugural Distinguished Artist Fellow, Nilima Sheikh, is joining us in residence on the Harvard campus from her home of Baroda, India. A renowned painter, Nilima has been a career artist for more than 50 years.

Before arriving on campus, we spoke with Nilima Sheikh about what it means to be the Institute’s first DAF and her hopes for her experience.

You earned a degree in painting from the Maharaja Sayajirao University of Baroda, and began exhibiting professionally in 1969. Can you talk to us about those early years as an artist? What drew you to art as a profession, and how was it to embark on it as a career?

I was one of the lucky few in my childhood to have learned about making art in school from an inspiring artist couple, Kanwal and Devyani Krishna, instead of the conventional art teacher. They taught us the joys of creativity, of bending the rules of prescriptive art making, and exposed us to the sensitivities and adventures of an artist’s life. When, after completing my graduation in History from Delhi University, I was still interested in studying art in an art school, it was Krishna who sign-posted me to go to Baroda, enroll at the Faculty of Fine Arts in the MS University, and to seek out KG Subramanyan to learn from. Studying painting at Baroda under the mentorship of KG Subramanyan introduced me to the linguistics of varied art-making processes. I learned through his pedagogy, his practice, but also through the ambience in Baroda. It was at the time an invigorating confluence of diverse schools of thought: the Bauhaus shaped modernism, the professionalism and academic realism of Bombay, and the pan-Asiatic identities from Tagore’s Santiniketan in Bengal. The Faculty of Fine Arts was the first art school in India to offer courses in art history and critical studies with the purpose of creating a pedagogy that combined practice with theory and awarded degrees rather than diplomas. I enjoyed these courses and the influence of painter-art historian-teacher Gulammohammed Sheikh (whom I later married) was significant in opening up the art of the world to me. I had my first opportunity to exhibit my work professionally in 1969, while I was still studying for my Masters in Painting.

What are some of the main themes of your art? Have these themes shifted or changed over the years?

My work draws inspiration from pre-modern art histories and Asian art forms like the manuscript painting (popularly called miniature painting), scroll and screen painting. From the outset I have needed to find a personal voice and speak to and of female sensibilities.

I have addressed themes such as home, displacement, violence, loss, longing while exploring art-historical lineages, notably in relation to the lands in the north of India and South Asia. A feature that has been present in my work for many years has been in bringing together the painted image with text and lyric.

I often like to go back to append a theme I have previously worked with. And often pick up a theme to retrace. I do not seek a linear progression in my themes.

The Lakshmi Mittal and Family South Asia Institute, Harvard University

MOTHER SEQUENCE-VIGIL (2016)

Mixed tempera on sanganer paper

9.5 x 13.5in

TERRAIN: CARRYING ACROSS LEAVING BEHIND (2016-2017)

Casein tempera on sixteen canvas scrolls, wood, and metal scrolls

83.8 x 34.2in each

You were originally trained in Western-style oil painting and later transitioned to a miniature painter (self-taught!). Why did you decide to change mediums?

Our training in Baroda was not only in oil painting. We started with watercolor and rudimentary tempera paints. We were encouraged to try other skills, even mural techniques.

I do not see myself as a ‘miniature’ painter. I do not have the requisite skills to align with that ‘tradition’. I am deeply influenced by the manuscript/miniature painting of South Asia and Persia, and have tried to learn from their spatial structures, narration, aspects of the ornamental as a structuring device and surface delineations. Even though I use certain methods and materials used in making miniatures, it is the technology that informs my work, not the technique. I have tried different types of tempera media on handmade paper, canvas and board. The formats and modes of installation I employ are influenced by diverse Asian, but also pre-Renaissance European schools of tempera painting. I devise my forms of telling by adapting traditional forms like manuscript paintings, scrolls, Pichhvais (ritual backdrops), folding or enclosing screens and altarpieces.

This exploration of the tempera medium started with an impulse that I should try and use the technologies used in the traditions of painting I personally respond to. It is not that I do not admire the magnificent traditions of oil painting of Europe. It is a question of developing a personal language.

You have had many solo exhibitions, and in 2014 you even created a large mural called “Conjoining Lands” for the Mumbai airport. When you look at your career, is there an exhibit or creation that you are you most proud of?

That is very difficult to say. It is a cumulative process. Each work or series of work have their own satisfactions and dissatisfactions.

At Harvard you are participating in classroom meetings and will also give a public lecture. What are you most excited about for your experience?

There are going to be a medley of experiences, it seems. I look forward to the opportunity of sharing my work and engaging with the concerns of the remarkable people from the academic community, as well as students. Visiting the amazing museum collections with the eminent experts from the institution and learning from their knowledge as well as from the artworks are occasions I would not have anticipated. I feel immensely privileged.

Top: Anjali Jain (MCH-India project coordinator/conservator) examines the early 16th-century manuscript under the optical microscope, part of the MCH Mobile Heritage Lab, Dec 6, 2022

Bottom: MCH Mobile Heritage Lab in action: Early 16th-century manuscript being examined under Dynolite digital microscope, Nov 28, 2022, Asiatic Society, Mumbai Arts Program Report 2022-2023

The Lakshmi Mittal and Family South Asia Institute, Harvard University

PLATFORM

Mapping Color in History to Transform the Study of South Asian Art

Prof. Jinah Kim’s new initiative is upending the traditional Western color canon.

Deep in a bank vault of Mumbai’s Asiatic Society lies a revered treasure that is much studied in textbooks but rarely seen. The early 16th-century painted manuscript (dated 1516 CE), one of the oldest of its kind in the world, requires a committee’s approval to see the light of day – a committee that had remained elusive to Prof. Jinah Kim, an expert in South Asian art, for years. But last September, her proposal to study the painted manuscript finally got the go-ahead, and capturing the color from the rare piece of work may just change the study of South Asian art – and maybe all of Asian art – forever.

Kim has embarked on an ambitious project to create a new object-based pigment database that upends the traditional Western knowledge base. The Mapping Color in History [MCH] project is a searchable, open database for historical research on pigments that has started with South Asia but with the potential to expand much beyond. MCH brings together scientific data drawn from existing and ongoing material analyses of pigments in Asian paintings in an historical perspective.

“There is no baseline knowledge on the history of pigments in South Asia; it’s all based on what is known from the Western art,” says Kim. “If you look at the history of pigment usage over time, there are databases out there, but those are all very much pigments based on the Western European canon of art.”

She realized this gaping hole while researching her second book, Garland of Visions: Color, Tantra, and a Material History of Indian Painting. While working on the material history of Indian painting, Kim wanted to go deeper into what people were using. She began talking to different conservation departments across different institutions and realized there was a lot of research being done but not being widely shared.

The MCH platform aims to change that. It gets experts from different disciplines talking and exchanging and, perhaps, even working together. Color, says Kim, provides many clues that can be unlocked by many fields. The global database can trace transcultural contact through the movement of colorants, artistic practices, and exchange across Asia. Users are able to search a large collection of paintings by pigment and see where and when particular pigments were in use for what types of paintings.

For instance, according to Kim, if you browse by color, in yellow, you will see orpiment is the most dominant yellow pigment registered so far, followed by Indian yellow, that famous organic pigment made of kettle urine. “You can also browse our pigment data by elements, from which you can see mercury (Hg) is the most common element (the chemical composition of vermilion is HgS),” adds Kim, “and arsenic (As) is the third common element, which are, of course, considered quite toxic in today’s environmental standards.”

To bring the database to life, Kim, the George P. Bickford Professor of Indian and South Asian Art in the Department of History of Art & Architecture at Harvard, has engaged a truly interdisciplinary team of collaborators that includes research assistants, scientists, curators, conservators, specialists in conservation science and art history, and even software engineers. The list has grown so large that she has created an organizational chart to keep track.

Lakshmi Mittal and Family South Asia Institute, Harvard University

Jinah Kim, George P. Bickford Professor of Indian and South Asian Art in the Department of History of Art & Architecture at Harvard

Measuring 12th-century palm-leaf manuscript for condition report, MCH-India project at the Asiatic Society, Mumbai, November 16, 2022

“MCH is trying to help people appreciate the connection between art and science and bridge the two disciplines,” explains Kim. “Conservation scientists are talking to people who are interested in conservation science or conservators who are actually using this data to understand their material rather than art historians who are deeply invested in understanding the history. These two rarely overlap or talk to each other.”

Building the new color database is no small endeavor. The project has received support from the Faculty of Arts and Science at Harvard, the Mittal Institute, the Radcliffe Institute, and the National Endowment for the Humanities – and continues to grow and expand. Kim also finds there is no better place than Harvard from which to build the project: the Harvard Art Museums (HAM) and Boston’s Museum of Fine Arts have rich collections of South Asian art, and the HAM’s Straus Center for Conservation and Technical Studies has been a “true partner” in the endeavor, as well, lending time and expertise along the way.

In India, Kim has collaborated with several institutions, including the Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Vastu Sangrahalaya (CSMVS). She works closely with the museum’s conservation team, sending curated lists of historically important objects, who, in turn,

conducts analytical research on the objects and shares the data for the MCH team to interpret and inform MCH’s database. This year, the MCH-India collaboration will grow further with the MCH Mobile Heritage Lab, which will travel to collaborating institutions for on-site research and documentation.

Kim has many future plans for the Mapping Color in History project. Although the initial data collection is focused on Asian, especially South Asian and Himalayan, materials, in order to address the existing lacuna in the knowledge about historical pigments, the MCH’s database model will aim to accommodate data from any geographic locations and cultures.

As for the 16th-century manuscript and what she hopes that will add to the database, “It’s really incredible. This really will expand and challenge our understanding of painterly practices in South Asia.”

The Lakshmi Mittal and Family South Asia Institute, Harvard University

MCH Mobile Heritage Lab in action: Professor Kim and MCH graduate student research assistants Victoria Andrews and Akarsh Raghunath examining 15th-century manuscript folios in the Bharat Kala Bhavan collection

Mapping Color in History is trying to help people appreciate the connection between art and science and bridge the two disciplines.

Color provides many clues that can be unlocked by many fields.

JINAH KIM, GEORGE P. BICKFORD PROFESSOR OF INDIAN AND SOUTH ASIAN ART IN THE DEPARTMENT OF HISTORY OF ART & ARCHITECTURE AT HARVARD

PLATFORM

The State of Architecture in South Asia Project

Prof. Rahul Mehrotra’s new project explores fundamental questions related to architecture in a region in transition.

The State of Architecture in South Asia project, led by Rahul Mehrotra, John T. Dunlop Professor in Housing and Urbanization at the Harvard Graduate School of Design, interrogates fundamental questions related to architecture in South Asia today. South Asia is in a period of rapid change, and architecture and its different forms of engagement with society – whether preservation and reconstruction or new buildings – force societies to make choices for spatial organization but also identity formations and, more deeply, the representation of their aspirations.

The project has three components. The first, a virtual lecture series on young architects under 40 in the region, launched in Fall 2022 and has been hosting practitioners from Bangladesh to Bhutan and beyond. The popular series, “Emergent Practices in South Asia,” aimed to give a pulse on the emergent conditions and issues, as well as challenges, that young professionals are dealing with in the region. The series is being developed into a book.

The next phase of the project, a conference, “Architectures of Transition: Frameworks of Practices in South Asia,” will be held in New Delhi in December 2023, and will gather practitioners from the region who have more established practices and are displaying new models of practice. The project will end with a traveling exhibition that will start in the region, and as it gathers information and expands, will then travel back to the U.S.

The ultimate goal of the project is to address a critical gap in the discourse surrounding contemporary architecture and design in South Asia, given that much of the discourse has been focused on work prior to 2000 and on the Modernist phase in the post-independence era for a majority of countries in this region. The project will focus on the field in the post-2000 period (the last 20 years) and attempt to articulate the role of architecture in responding to this state of transition in South Asia.

The Lakshmi Mittal and Family South Asia Institute, Harvard University

Young Architects

Young Architects, from Nepal to Sri Lanka, Explore Form and Practice

THE STATE OF ARCHITECTURE

in South Asia initiative launched its “Emergent Practices in South Asia” speaker series in the fall of 2022, and project conveners Rahul Mehrotra, Chair of the Department of Urban Planning and Design at the Harvard Graduate School of Design (GSD) and an LMSAI Steering Committee member, and Pranav Thole, an urban design graduate student at the GSD and co-chair of the South Asia GSD student group, talked with us about young architects in South Asia and the way they are transforming both form and practice across the region.

What led you to conceptualize this project and corresponding lecture series?

RM: There were a couple of factors that led us to conceptualize this project and the related lecture series. The first was really the gap that we saw in terms of a discussion across South Asia for architecture and urbanism more broadly. This also became very clear when MoMA had a show on South Asian architecture, which really covered the early modernist period – post independence. It became amply clear that from the 1980s onwards, there is very little documentation in the context of South Asia. Also, on a more personal note, about seven years ago with two other colleagues, we mounted an exhibition on the state of architecture in India, which was held at the Museum of Modern Art in Mumbai. The last event for the exhibition was one that was focused on South Asia, and we invited architects from all the countries in the region, including Afghanistan and Bhutan, and it was a wonderful two day exposition of work from these different countries in South Asian. The commonality of issues, struggles, and emergent conditions became more than evident, and we were motivated at that point to try to extend this project. Interestingly, the Mittal Institute was one of the supporters for this conference, and so it is rather appropriate that we are now extending these conversations in the form of this project.

PT: For me, as the co-chair of the South Asia student group, this project presented an excellent opportunity to create a space for discussions revolving around architecture in South Asia. As a student body, we have been striving to develop a platform where we can convene to share our thoughts on the socio-cultural issues in the region that greatly influence the practice of architecture. There are hardly any forums present, even within South Asia, where architects from the region can speak to each other. Since all the countries in South Asia face similar and yet very distinct socio-cultural and political issues, it would be very insightful to share work and learn from one another’s experiences.

On a personal note, as a graduating architect looking to set up my own practice, this lecture series provided a great platform to explore what practicing architecture looks like for young architects in the region. I was curious to know what are new models of practice being explored and experimented with. What is the agency of architecture in the context of rapid transitions? What are the different forms of patronage, and how does one go about starting a practice?

What were some successes from the inaugural semester and what did you learn about the state of architecture in South Asia?

RM: The most interesting learning from the first part of this lecture series, which covered 12 practitioners, was that there is an entire range of ways of engaging with the built environment that is emerging in South Asia. Essentially, it became clear that there was no one model or universal definition of the role of the architect, given the diversity, plurality as well as uneven development in the region. The demand was for architects to respond in dramatically different ways to the problems they choose to engage with. It was absolutely heartening and incredibly motivating to see such a range of types of practices, experimentation with form and material, and, most importantly, the intense empathy that these practitioners seemed to bring to their craft.

PT: To add to that, it was inspiring to see many practitioners move beyond conventional modes of architectural practice. The mode of engagement in the public realm seems to have evolved for this generation of architects – where we have seen architects go above and beyond to pursue self-initiated projects with tangible outcomes in the public realm. In many cases, we saw architects take on the role of advocacy, operating between the realm of architecture and social work, expanding the scope of conventional practice.

We also noticed that there is an ongoing exchange of knowledge within the region, with students migrating to neighboring countries for education and returning to their home countries for practice.

Your lectures feature a wide range of emerging architectures from countries across South Asia. How do you choose your speaker list, and what do you hope these talks bring to the community?

RM: The choice of speakers was based firstly on the fact that they were under 40, because we really wanted to focus on the new generation. More importantly, the intent was to create a platform where they could speak to each other but also create networks that might be productive in the future. We also then tried to balance representation from different countries, and, naturally, India, given its size, dominates the number of speakers. But we have been lucky that we could identify talent in all the countries, and they have all been represented in the conversations. Lastly, we tried hard to create a gender balance, because one of the questions the project is asking is what the role of women and what might be the ways which they engage with building in a largely male-dominated profession.

PT: Additionally, we wanted to shift the focus away from architectural work done in the private sector to projects in the public realm, and understand the challenges faced while engaging with the public domain. We were interested in discovering

Pranav Thole co-chair, South Asia Student Group, GSD

how architects in the first decade of their practice employed the agency of architecture at different scales and meaningfully used design to improve public infrastructure and enact change.

What’s next for the State of Architecture in South Asia Project?

Rahul Mehrotra: The next stage is working towards compiling the lectures that we’ve had for the young practitioners in the form of a book but adding 15 or 20 other practices that we couldn’t accommodate in the lecture series. Following that, in late 2023, we are planning an in-person conference, where we will bring in more established practitioners from the South Asian region who have a substantial body of built work, and we will examine what lessons these hold for the future. The format we are envisaging is also bringing in a group of academics and theoreticians who work on the South Asian region, and we are hoping to set up a productive conversation between the theoreticians and the practitioners. This is something that doesn’t happen very much in the region and so we thought it could serve both as a precedent for conferences such as this, but also create a productive feedback loop for the practitioners, while giving the academics exposure to what is happening on the ground.

The Lakshmi Mittal and Family South Asia Institute, Harvard University

Images by CSMVS

PLATFORM

Conservation Science Research and Training Program (CoSTAR)

CoSTAR is transforming art conservation in South Asia by connecting leading scholars from Harvard and beyond to practitioners in South Asia at museums and institutions on the forefront of restoring and preserving the region’s treasures.

The CoSTAR program aims to bridge the gap between art history, museology, art conservation, and conservation science with the goal of strengthening art conservation practices in South Asia. It is a collaborative endeavor led by Jinah Kim, George P. Bickford Professor of Indian and South Asia Art at Harvard; Anupam Sah, Head of Conservation at Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Vastu Sangrahalaya (CSMVS) Museum, Mumbai; Narayan Khandekar, Director of the Straus Center for Conservation and Technical Studies at Harvard; and Meena Sonea Hewett, Arts Program Advisor at the Mittal Institute. CoSTAR is envisioned as a series of theoretical and practical modules covering a wide variety of topics in conservation science.

Now in its third module, CoSTAR III, set to launch in Spring 2023, plans to take technical studies from specific conservation areas and produce technical papers that address art history and conservation heritage.

This work builds off the success of the previous two modules. CoSTAR I, which launched in 2021, created a Knowledge Commons, a virtual platform to bring together museums and cultural and academic institutions to collaborate and share best practices that constitute a viable ecosystem for museums and the scientific study of cultural heritage in India.

CoSTAR II focused on building knowledge in technical studies of painted surfaces that can be applied on a day-to-day basis. Areas of focus included learning how to establish a workspace for analysis of painted surfaces of art objects, including miniatures, sculptures, textiles, oil paintings and more; how to conduct technical studies to identify pigments; and also how to interpret these results to add value to curatorial, museology, art history and art conservation expertise. This module also engaged with institutions committed to building up basic facilities for art conservation research; motivated early and mid-level career art historians, curators, museologists, art conservators; and scientists interested in the field of art and archeology.

Arts Advisory Council

Financial Projections FY 2023 - FY 2026

LMSAI Cambridge Headquarters

Arts Advisory Council Fund

Beginning balance and interest earned Arts Advisory Council Gifts

Total Expenses FAS Gift Assessment (15%) Net Operating (Deficit)/Surplus

(Projected)

LMSAI New Delhi

Office

Arts Advisory Council Fund

Balance Carry Over Arts Advisory Council Gifts

Total Expenses

FAS Gift Assessment (15%)

Net Operating (Deficit)/Surplus

NOTE: Exchange Rate: US$1 = 75 INR (Indian Rupee)

2023 (Actuals)

2024 (Actuals) $ 10,561 20,000 12,976 1,946 $ 15,639

2025 (Projected) $ 15,639

2026 (Projected)

Administration

EXECUTIVE COUNCIL

Aditya and Megha Mittal (UK)

Lakshmi and Usha Mittal (UK)

KP Balaraj, MBA ’97 (India), Chair, Advisory Council

Sumir Chadha, MBA ’97 (USA), Chair, Advisory Council

Dipti Mathur (USA), Chair, Arts Council

Tarun Khanna (USA), Faculty Director, The Lakshmi Mittal and Family South Asia Institute

ADVISORY COUNCIL

Chairs:

KP Balaraj, MBA ’97 (India)

Sumir Chadha, MBA ’97 (USA)

Aditya and Megha Mittal (UK)

Lakshmi and Usha Mittal (UK)

Syed Babar Ali, AMP ’73 (Pakistan)

Kushagra Nayan Bajaj (India)

Lucinda Bhavsar MBA ’97 (USA)

Kuntala Das and Bharat Das ’08, s/o late Purandar Das (USA)

Mark Fuller ’75, MBA ’78, JD ’79, and Jo Froman (USA)

Meera Gandhi (USA)

Vikram Gandhi, MBA ’89, ExEd ’00 (USA/India)

Mala Haarmann ’91, MBA ’96 (UK)

Rajiv Kothari OPM '14 (USA)

Anuradha and Anand Mahindra ’77, MBA ’81 (India)

Dipti Mathur (USA)

Karen ’82, and Sanjeev Mehra ’82, MBA ’86 (USA)

Victor Menezes (USA)

Chandrika and Dalip Pathak (UK)

Chandni and Mukesh Prasad ’93 (USA)

Sribala Subramanian and Arvind Raghunathan (USA)

Rajiv and Anupa Sahney (India)

Gaurav ’96 and Falguni Shah (USA)

Vimal MBA ’02 and Punyashree Shah (USA)

Vijay Shekhar Sharma (India)

Parul and Gaurav Swarup, MBA ’80 (India)

Tom Varkey MBA ’97 (USA)

Osman Khalid Waheed ’93 (Pakistan)

Arshad Zakaria ’85, MBA ’87 (USA)

ARTS COUNCIL

Faculty Director: Jinah Kim, George P. Bickford Professor of Indian and South Asian Art, Harvard University (USA); Chair: Dipti Mathur (USA)

Arts Program Advisors: Shanay Jhaveri (USA),

Meena Sonea Hewett (USA)

Archan Basu ’93 and Madeline Jie Wang ’97 (USA)

Poonam Bhagat (India)

Anurag Bhargava (India/USA)

Radhika Chopra MPP ’96 (India)

Sunil Hirani (USA)

Chandrika Pathak (UK/India)

Pinky and Sanjay Reddy (India)

Omar Saeed (Pakistan)

Sana Rezwan Sait (USA)

Nadia and Rajeeb Samdani (Bangladesh)

Shilpa Sanger (USA)

Gaurav and Falguni Shah (USA)

Osman Khalid Waheed ’93 (Pakistan)

FRIENDS OF THE INSTITUTE

Nadeem Elahi MBA ’01 (Pakistan)

Namita Luthra and Anil Shrivastava AB '90, MBA '96 (USA)

Usha and Diaz Neesamoney (USA)

Anwarul Quadir Foundation (USA)

INDIA ADVISORY BOARD

Aditya and Megha Mittal (UK)

Lakshmi and Usha Mittal (UK)

Gobind Akoi GMP ’10 (India)

KP Balaraj MBA ’97 (India)

Sumir Chadha MBA ’97 (USA)

Radhika Chopra MPP ’96 and Rajan Anandan (India)

FACULTY CABINET

Chair: Tarun Khanna, Faculty Director; Jorge Paulo Lemann Professor, Harvard Business School

Homi Bhabha, Anne F. Rothenberg Professor of the Humanities, Harvard Faculty of Arts and Sciences

Jacqueline Bhabha, Professor of the Practice of Health and Human Rights, Harvard TH Chan School of Public Health; Jeremiah Smith, Jr. Lecturer in Law, Harvard Law School; Adjunct Lecturer, Harvard Kennedy School

Martha Chen, Lecturer in Public Policy, Harvard Kennedy School

Sheila Jasanoff, Pforzheimer Professor of Science and Technology Studies, Harvard Kennedy School

Asim Khwaja, Sumitomo-FASID Professor of International Finance and Development, Harvard Kennedy School

Jinah Kim, George P. Bickford Professor of Indian and South Asian Art, Harvard University

Jennifer Leaning, Senior Research Fellow at the FXB Center for Health and Human Rights; Professor of the Practice at Harvard T.H Chan School of Public Health

Rahul Mehrotra, John T. Dunlop Professor in Housing and Urbanization, Harvard Graduate School of Design

Venkatesh Murthy, Raymond Leo Erikson Life Sciences Professor of Molecular and Cellular Biology, Harvard University

Vikram Patel, The Pershing Square Professor of Global Health, Harvard Medical School

Kristen A. Stilt, Professor of Law, Harvard Law School

Conor Walsh, Paul A. Maeder Professor of Engineering and Applied Sciences, John A. Paulson Harvard School of Engineering and Applied Sciences

FACULTY STEERING COMMITTEE

* includes members of Cabinet

Ali Asani, Murray A. Albertson Professor of Middle Eastern Studies; Professor of Indo-Muslim and Islamic Religion and Cultures, Harvard University

Satchit Balsari, Assistant Professor, Emergency Medicine, Harvard Medical School and Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center

David Bloom, Clarence James Gamble Professor of Economics and Demography, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health

Diana Eck, Professor of Comparative Religion and Indian Studies, Harvard Faculty of Arts and Sciences; Member of the Faculty of Divinity, Harvard Divinity School

Durba Mitra, Carol K. Pforzheimer Assistant Professor, Radcliffe Institute; Assistant Professor of Studies of Women, Gender, and Sexuality, Harvard University

Jukka-Pekka Onnela, Assistant Professor of Biostatistics, Harvard T. H. Chan School of Public Health

Parimal G. Patil, Professor of Religion and Indian Philosophy, Committee on the Study of Religion; Chair of the Department of South Asian Studies, Harvard University

Ajay Singh, Senior Associate Dean for Postgraduate Medical Education, Harvard Medical School; Director, Master in Medical Sciences in Clinical Investigation (MMSCI) Program

Doris Sommer, Ira Jewell Williams, Jr., Professor of Romance Languages and Literatures and in African and African American Studies, Harvard University

Pawan Sinha, Professor of Vision and Computational Neuroscience, Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Milind Tambe, Gordon McKay Professor of Computer Science and Director of the Center for Research in Computation and Society (CRCS), Harvard University

Ashutosh Varshney, Sol Goldman Professor of International Studies and the Social Sciences and Professor of Political Science, Brown University; Director, Center for Contemporary South Asia, Brown University

Muhammad H. Zaman, Howard Hughes Medical Institute Professor of Biomedical Engineering and International Health, Boston University

MITTAL INSTITUTE ADMINISTRATION

Tarun Khanna, Faculty Director; Jorge Paulo Lemann Professor, Harvard Business School

Hitesh M. Hathi, Executive Director

Mirela Vaso, Director of Finance and Administration

CAMBRIDGE

Shubhangi Bhadada, Project and Research Director, Lancet Citizens’ Commission

Carlin Carr, Communications Manager

Ahva Davis-Shiva, Financial Associate

Neha B. Joseph, Research Fellow

Kellie Nault, Writer/Editor

Selmon Rafey, Program Manager

Sneha Shrestha, Arts Program Manager

Danielle Wallner, Programs and Administrative Coordinator

IN-REGION

India

Amit Chaudhary, Administrative & HR Coordinator, Harvard Global Research Support Centre India

Pooja Gupta, Communications Director, Lancet Citizens’ Commission

Sweekruthi Kaveripatnam, Program Manager, Scienspur

Sushma Mehta, Grant and Finance Manager, Harvard Global Research Support Centre India

Namita Varma, Program Coordinator, Harvard Global Research Support Centre India

Pakistan

Mariam Chughtai, Pakistan Programs Director

Nepal

Pukar Malla, Nepal Programs Director

Monika Setia, Associate Country Director, Harvard Global Research Support Centre India

Lakshmi Mittal and Family South Asia Institute, Harvard University

CGIS South, 4th Floor, 1730 Cambridge Street, Cambridge, MA 02138, USA

B- 43, Middle Circle, Connaught Place, New Delhi - 110001, India

Lahore University of Management Sciences, DHA, Lahore Cantt. 54792, Lahore, Pakistan

https://mittalsouthasiainstitute.harvard.edu/