Vishvarupa

1961

Not on view

Returned to lender

This work of art was on loan to the museum and has since been returned to its lender.

Throughout 1961 Srimati worked in Chennai on fifteen paintings commissioned to accompany a luxury edition of the Bhagavad Gita, published in 1964 as Bhagavad Gita: The Song Celestial. Vishvarupa, her study embodying the cosmology of Vishnu-Krishna, is among the most dynamic of the works in this series. Its emphasis on infinite multiplication evokes the immeasurable power of Arjuna’s vision of Vishnu-Krishna manifest as the supreme savior. In this image Srimati directly references Rajput miniature paintings and medieval sculptures of the subject. This painting was particularly admired by the artist’s friend and patron Stella Kramrisch, an eminent art historian and then curator of Indian art at the Philadelphia Museum of Art.

Artwork Details

Overview

Exhibition History

References

Title: Vishvarupa
Artist: Y. G. Srimati (Indian, 1926–2007)
Date: 1961
Culture: India (Chennai)
Medium: Watercolor on paper
Dimensions: Image: 7 × 5 in. (17.8 × 12.7 cm)
Mat: 14 1/2 × 19 1/4 in. (36.8 × 48.9 cm)
Classification: Paintings
Credit Line: Lent by Michael Pellettieri
Curatorial Department: Asian Art