Asian Art
Bengaluru’s New Museum
“The city of Bengaluru in Southern India has a new private museum, the Museum of Art and Photography. Asian Art Newspaper looks at its mission and collections before its virtual opening this December.
The new Museum of Art and Photography (MAP) in Bengaluru (formerly Bangalore) is set to receive a collection of 464 objects from the Barbara Kipper Collection in New York. Work on the new museum, due to physically open in December 2020, but is now scheduled for 2021, due to coronavirus restrictions. This gift from the Kipper Collection follows promised gifts to the Art Institute of Chicago, The Metropolitan Museum in New York, and the Asian Art Museum in San Francisco. The collection includes over 1,300 objects dating from the 7th century to the 1950s, collected from countries bordering the Silk Road, including a large number of gau (an amulet or portable shrines, used for protection on perilous journeys and often gifted to monasteries) its silhouette consciously evokes the shape of a single lotus petal, which is a symbol of purity. It is formed as a box so the contents can be individually created and re-created. Also in the collection are women’s ornaments, including necklaces, earrings and headdresses, plus a number of ritualistic items.”
Read the full story by Asian Art here.
