Ballads of East and West at The Huntington

In “The Ballad of East and West,” Rudyard Kipling states that “East is East, and West is West, and never the twain shall meet.” On the contrary, Raqib Shaw demonstrates how art can unite the two with striking effect.

Last month, Raqib Shaw: Ballads of East and West opened at the Huntington Art Gallery. Organized by the Frist Art Museum and the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, along with curator Zehra Jumabhoy, the exhibition culminates its national tour at the Huntington. It is the artist’s first solo museum exhibition on the West Coast.

Raqib Shaw was born in Kolkata (formerly Calcutta), India in 1974 and spent much of his early years in the Kashmir Valley. As a teenager, Shaw left the long-disputed region when it plunged into sectarian conflict. During a visit to London in 1993, he developed a passion for the old masters’ paintings at the National Gallery. In 1998, he moved to London to study art at Central Saint Martins, where he has lived and worked ever since.

Shaw’s work reflects his transcultural life experience by merging references to Western art history, particularly Renaissance, Baroque, and Rococo Europe, with South Asian influences from his childhood.

One piece that pays tribute to Shaw’s upbringing is Ode to the Country without a Post Office (2019–20). Sitting on a Kashmiri carpet, he depicts himself coordinating the movement of fireflies while, behind him, the city of Srinagar is in chaos, alluding to the sectarian conflict of Kashmir. The bright fireflies are in stark contrast to the flames ravaging the city and the warplane in the sky. This piece exemplifies how Shaw engages viewers with intricately detailed depictions of imagined interiors and vibrant landscapes that transcend time and space.

His paintings act as visual diaries, a way to process the world and his life within it. “It’s my way of dealing with this world, it’s my way of escaping into another world,” he explained in an interview with the Frist. “I am a spectator, yet at the same time, I am a player.”

To create his art, Shaw utilizes porcupine quills and fine needles to apply enamel paint to birch wood panels. He also uses jewels, glitter, and semiprecious stones, which contribute to the vibrance of his pieces.

After a visit to the Huntington, Shaw was inspired to create pieces specifically for the gallery’s upper register of its grand staircase. For that space, The Perseverant Prophet and The Pragmatic Pessimist were reimagined as tapestries–a new medium for the artist. The Perseverant Prophet coalesces Pieter Bruegel the Elder’s The Tower of Babel (1563) and John Martin’s The Destruction of Pompeii and Herculaneum (1822), creating an intense, apocalyptic scene. The Pragmatic Pessimist deliberates on the fragile state of Earth, featuring numerous polar bears on melting ice. Both works portray Shaw’s contemplations on the challenges and uncertainty of today’s world.

Raqib Shaw: Ballads of East and West takes place in two areas of the Huntington Art Gallery. Seven paintings will be displayed in the North Passage, while the two tapestries will be showcased in the upper section of the grand staircase. The exhibition will be on view through March 3, 2025.

Caption: Raqib Shaw, Ode to the Country without a Post Office, 2019-20.

Source: Raqib Shaw