Publications

Thai Ceramic Art - The Three Religions

Comments from Dick van Oenen
e-mail Seaartresearch1@ntlworld.co

"My wife, Nicol Guerin, who is presently in Canada, and I were so pleased to learn that my Singapore Society will hold a special review of our book on June 13.

Please inform Mrs. Wang that I will gladly supply any further information she or the other members of the Society may require. As you will see from the enclosure there has been a brief initial review by Roxanna Brown of the Bangkok Ceramic Museum. The contents may be of interest to you and to Mrs. Wang.

For information of Mrs. Wang I apologize for a number of printing errors left in the book by the editor. Several of the illustrations unfortunately were also printed back to front! It was too late to have them corrected.

The book contains a number of illustrations from the collections of Mr. Goh of Moongate, and of the late members. Dr. Earl Lu and Jack Chia. We had much help from your former Hon.Secretary Diana Stock. Would you have her current address?

We would be very grateful to receive a copy of Mrs. Wang's talk and we will send her a personal copy of the book from Canada.

With our kindest regards and best wishes to you and my fellow-members of the Society.

Yours sincerely
DICK VAN OENEN"

Book Review by Roxanna Brown (PDF format)

Short synopsis of the book

Notes from Margaret Wang's talk on 13 June 2006

SEACS will take orders for this publication @ S$120.00 (not including postage)

Members please send in your orders by e-mail to:
ceramic@seaceramic.org.sg

INDIAN TEMPLE SCULPTURE
by
JOHN GUY

£35.00 Hardback ISBN-13 9781851775095
192pp, 150 colour plates,
50 black and white illustrations, 1 map
Published June 2007
From V&A Publications

This innovative new book is themed around Indian temple
arts as instruments of worship – devotional sculptures
which embody, through the combined authority of the
aesthetic and the symbolic, powerful religious experiences.
It examines Indian religious sculpture in the temple
context – its cosmological meaning, its function within the
architectural schema and its dynamic interactive
role in worship. Accessible and multidisciplinary in
its approach, Indian Temple Sculpture reveals the vivid
traditions still in practice today, and opens up a world of
understanding about Indian devotional art.

The origins of sculptural imagery and the emergence of a
formalised pantheon of deities which paralleled the growth
of temple building are explored, along with the later
codification of art-making as reflected in the medieval
artists’manuals (sastras). These guides dictated not only
form but also rasa, the emotional authority of a work
of art. The temple setting is presented and the place of
sculpture in it examined through the eyes of the devotee.
The principal deities are presented through their myths
and manifestations.

Illustrated throughout with the V&A’s unrivalled collection
of South Asian sculpture, this book introduces the reader
to the principal iconographic forms in the three ancient
religions of the Indian subcontinent, Hinduism, Jainism
and Buddhism, conveying a picture of the richness of India’s
religious imagery and providing keys to its understanding.
The sculptures are contextualised with selected archival
images and contemporary photographs of Indian temple
festivals and worship.

John Guy is Senior Curator of South and South-East Art in
the Asian Department of the Victoria and Albert Museum,
London. He has organised a number of exhibitions, most
recently Indian Art and Devotion (Barcelona and Madrid,
2007), and contributed to many catalogues, including
Encounters: the meeting of Asia and Europe 1500 – 1800
(V&A, 2004), La Sculpture du Champa (Musée Guimet,
Paris, 2005) and Chola Bronzes (Royal Academy, London,
2006). Major publications include Oriental Trade Ceramics
in South East Asia (1986), Ceramic Traditions of South East
Asia (1989), Arts of India: 1550–1900 (1990, co-ed.), Indian
Art and Connoisseurship (1995, ed.), Vietnamese Ceramics:
A Separate Tradition (1998), and Woven Cargoes. Indian
Textiles in the East (1998). He is currently preparing a
catalogue to the Indian sculpture collections in the V&A.

AVAILABLE FROM JUNE 2007

V&A Publications
Victoria and Albert Museum

How to order a copy

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