Carved granite figure of Nandi, the Bull, 16th Century, from South India. Height 86cm.
The objects above and below are from the British Museum and have significance for me through India, my birthplace, as I was Hindu before I turned Christian. Nandi was the gate guardian of the main God Shiva, father of Ganesh. When we celebrated Ganesh's festival it was a really big occasion, we’d buy a sculpture of Ganesh made of clay which was drowned on the tenth day of the festival. I was never given the reason for why we put Ganesh in the water to drown with his Goddess Gowri, to whom we made offerings, such as jewellery, The thing I used to love most about the festival was that Ganesh loves sweets and we feasted on special food like ladoos.
The figure of Nandi is rough in texture, but the Ganesh sculpture is smooth, as different stones were used and the Ganesh figure has more detailed design.
I love coming across Indian objects in this country because I miss it. I would also like to look into Indian designs in my developing stages.
Carved schist sculpture of Ganesh, 13th Century, from Orissa, India. Height 101.6cm
Robert Delaunay 1885-1941, Born France, Worked France, Spain, Portugal.
Endless Rhythm 1934, oil paint on canvas.
What I found interesting about these two painting above and below is that it is from two different people but have a similar style. Because they had the same surname, I searched them and they were a couple. The art movement they founded, with other artists, is called Orphism. Strong colours and geometric shaped are there main features. I particularly like Sonia's work because of the colours and shapes overlapping. I came across another work of Robert using watercolour in the same style as Sonia in The Art Book published by Phaidon in 2001
Sonia Delaunay 1885-1979, Born Ukraine, Worked Ukraine, France, Spain, Portugal.
Triptych 1963, oil paint on canvas.
