Talks
A Short History of Beauty: Pahari Painting Revisited
Dr. Debra Diamond
Pahari paintings are among India’s most beautiful works of art, yet much about them remains unexplored.
In this talk, Dr. Debra Diamond uses close observation and new research into the communities where artists lived and worked to explore how diverse styles emerged and coexisted across the region, while offering a clearer historical framework for understanding these remarkable works on paper.
This event is in collaboration with Art, Resources and Teaching Trust.
Image credits:
The Poet Sundar Das (1597–1689) Before the Emperor Shah Jahan (r. 1628–58), from a Sundar Shringar (Sundar’s Love Poems)
Attributed to an artist from the generation (ca. 1725–ca. 1785) after Nainsukh and Manaku
Himachal Pradesh state, probably Guler, ca. 1750–60
Freer Gallery of Art Collection
Purchase from the Catherine and Ralph Benkaim Collection—Charles Lang Freer Endowment
F2017.13.4
Bookings
Dr. Debra Diamond
Dr. Debra Diamond is the Elizabeth Moynihan Curator of South Asian and Southeast Asian art at the National Museum of Asian Art, Smithsonian Institution. A specialist in Indian court painting and the visual culture of yoga, she has received research, exhibition and publication awards from the College Art Association, the Association of Art Museum Curators, and the Smithsonian.
Her exhibitions include Of the Hills: Pahari Paintings from India’s Himalayan Courts (opens April 18, 2026), Delighting Krishna: Paintings of the Child God (2024-5), co-curated with Allen Richardson, The Art of Knowing in South Asia, Southeast Asia, and the Himalayas (2023-ongoing) co-curated with Emma N. Stein and Hillary Langberg; A Splendid Land: Paintings from Royal Udaipur (2022-23) co-curated with Dipti Khera; Encountering the Buddha: Art and Practice Across Asia (2017-22) co-curated with Robert DeCaroli and Rebecca Bloom; Yoga: The Art of Transformation (2013) co-curated with Sita Reddy; Worlds within Worlds: Imperial Paintings from India and Iran (2012) co-curated with Massumeh Farhad, and Garden and Cosmos: The Royal Paintings of Jodhpur (2008-09), which was co-curated with Karni Singh Jasol and Catherine Glynn Benkaim. Dr. Diamond’s contemporary exhibitons at NMAA include Perspectives: Simryn Gill (2006); Perspectives: Do Ho Suh (2004), and Autofocus: Raghubir Singh's Way into India
(2003)
