Raqib Shaw: Ballads of East and West
On view in the Huntington Art Gallery among the masterpieces in its historical art collection, seven works by Shaw bring the viewer into a lush fantasy world of landscapes and imagined interior spaces deeply influenced by and often directly responding to world-renowned Old Master artworks. Steeped in South Asian aesthetics, his work pays homage to the grand gestures and epic storytelling seen throughout Renaissance, baroque, and rococo Europe. Shaw’s intricately detailed paintings incorporate ornamental elements from Japanese prints and kimonos, Persian miniatures, and Indian textiles. He frequently incorporates self-portraiture, landscapes in peril, historic painting references, or moments from his own life into his work. His painting surface is luscious, glossy, and rendered in infinite colors and shades with a precise technique of enamel paint applied with porcupine quills to birch wood panels.
Raqib Shaw, The Retrospective, 2002–22, 2015–22. Acrylic liner, enamel, and rhinestones on aluminum, 84 1/4 x 107 in. | © Raqib Shaw. Photo © Shaw Studio.
Raqib Shaw, The Departure (After Tintoretto), 2021–22. Acrylic liner and enamel on aluminum, 31 1/2 x 33 4/8 in. | © Raqib Shaw. Private Collection. Photo © Raqib Shaw and (White Cube) Theo Christelis.
Raqib Shaw, La Tempesta (After Giorgione), 2019–21. Acrylic liner and enamel on birch wood, 53 7/8 x 42 7/8 in. | © Raqib Shaw. Private Collection. Photo © Raqib Shaw and (White Cube) Theo Christelis.
Raqib Shaw, Ode to the Country without a Post Office, 2019–20. Acrylic liner and enamel on birch wood, 31 4/8 x 33 4/8 in. | © Raqib Shaw. Private Collection. Photo © Raqib Shaw and (White Cube) Theo Christelis.
Born in Kolkata (formerly Calcutta), India, in 1974, Shaw spent most of his childhood in the Kashmir Valley, which he remembers as a paradise on Earth encircled by the Himalayas. He left as a teenager when the region erupted in sectarian conflict. References to the beauty and trauma of his childhood appear throughout his work. He moved to London in 1998 to study art after becoming fascinated by Old Master paintings at the National Gallery.
Shaw first visited London in 1992 and discovered the National Gallery’s collection of Italian and Northern Renaissance art. Profoundly moved, he decided to become an artist. Shaw enrolled at Central Saint Martins and completed his master of arts degree in painting in 2002.
In 2014, Shaw had a breakthrough when he started mixing his own paint with a machine, resulting in enameled colors of glossy intensity that he manipulates with porcupine quills. The new paint inspired him to engage directly with Renaissance paintings and their glorious representations of textures, fabric, and stone.
Courtesy of Tate © Tate, 2024
Raqib Shaw: Ballads of East and West is a nationally touring exhibition organized by the Frist Art Museum, Nashville, and the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, Boston. It was first presented at the Frist Museum from Sept. 15 through Dec. 31, 2023, followed by presentations at the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum from Feb. 15 through May 12, 2024; The Museum of Fine Arts in Houston, Texas, from June 9 through Sept. 2, 2024; and The Huntington from Nov. 15, 2024, through March 20, 2025.
Raqib Shaw: Ballads of East and West is organized by the Frist Art Museum, Nashville, and the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, Boston, with guest curator Zehra Jumabhoy.
Generous support for this exhibition is provided by Dorian Huntington Davis. Additional support is provided by the Cassat Art Endowment, the Douglas and Eunice Erb Goodan Endowment, the Pasadena Art Alliance, and the Philip and Muriel Berman Foundation.
Essay and catalog entries by Zehra Jumabhoy with a foreword by Seth Feman, CEO and executive director of the Frist Art Museum, and Peggy Fogelman, Norma Jean Calderwood Director of the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum.