Indian Art Gallery entices visitors with cavalcade of treasures
By Wanda Adams
Advertiser Staff Writer
To walk through the Honolulu Academy of Arts' newly enlarged Indian Art Gallery with Indru Watumull is to experience it with all the warmth that a homeowner puts into giving a tour of her lovingly redecorated living room, filled with treasures, each one of which has a story.
Above: Indru Watumull explains how she made wicks for oil lamps like this one, which is made of bronze. The academy's original Indian Art Gallery was named for her father-in-law, Jhamandas Watumull. Eugene Tanner • The Honolulu Advertiser • • • Indian art lecture "Essence and Appearance, Indian Portraits: Mughal and Rajput," by art historian B. N. Goswamy 7:45 p.m. Tuesday UH Art Auditorium 956-2677
The academy's original Indian Art gallery, which was half the size of the new suite of rooms off the 'ewa courtyard, was named for Watumull's late father-in-law, Honolulu businessman Jhamandas Watumull, who presided over the opening in 1985, on his 100th birthday.
Top: The Dancing Krishna is depicted as an energetic boy whose face reflects the mischievousness of youth. Stories about his dancing refer to his joy when he stole butter from his mother's pantry.
Standing before one of the gallery's central pieces, an immense double door of hand-carved Burmese teak, Indru Watumull smilingly recalled how she and her husband, Gulab, purchased the piece as a surprise for "Baba."
"I can still remember when he pulled the ribbon and the sheet came down, everybody went 'aaaaaaah'; they just gasped,' " she said. "And he kept asking, 'Where did you get it? Where did you get it?' "
Now the piece — characteristic of the doors on the 18th century homes of the wealthy money-lending Chettair families of Southern India — is known as "Baba's door."
In keeping with her training as a former academy docent, Watumull doesn't stop with this personal anecdote as we tour the gallery, which opened in January along with new Indonesia and Southeast Asia Galleries. She goes on to detail the door's attributes and artistic importance, pointing out a carving of the goddess Lakshmi, surrounded by elephants who are bathing her in milk. Lakshmi is the goddess of wealth and good fortune, Watamull says, so even the poorest families in India treasure her image as a way of courting her favor.
The Watumulls' contributions to the gallery are considerable, not just in dollars but in artworks from their personal collection, as well as pieces purchased specifically for the exhibit. An entire antique jewelry exhibit was purchased by Indru Watumull during one of her annual trips to her family home in India. As she poses for a photo in front of a carved marble Jain temple niche from Rajasthan, she tells with a laugh how Gulab chided her: "Why did you give that piece? I like that piece."
On this day, Watumull has just completed a special tour for a women's group (she does not generally lead tours), along with her sister, Koshu Lalchand, who is visiting from Madras. It was Lalchand who found one of the most amazing pieces in the jewelry group, a solid gold pectoral ornament called a gaurishanker. The exquisitely detailed necklace, about the size of a man's hand, includes images of all the major Hindu gods, with barely a square millimeter not covered with carving, crosshatching or granulation.
Lalchand explains that the necklace is traditionally worn by a man on his 60th birthday, an auspicious occasion upon which he and his wife renew their wedding vows and their children come home seeking a blessing. A lidded casket at the bottom of the necklace is meant to be filled with sacred ashes and incense, which the father would sprinkle over the heads of their children as they show their respect by touching their heads to his feet.
Others have given generously as well, as Watumull is quick to point out, including her friends Christian and Sally Aall, whose gifts include a beautiful Rajput architectural screen being mounted now outside the gallery.
Edmund J. and Julie Lewis, also Watumull friends, selected and donated some exquisite carved objects, among them a nephrite jade huqqah (or hookah, a water pipe for tobacco) bowl decorated with lapiz, gold and rubies.
At the heart of the gallery's treasures are pieces from the personal collection of the late Utah mining magnate Allen Christensen, first loaned to the museum in 1994, and then given outright by his family's foundation, The Christensen Fund; Christensen's daughter, C. Diane Christensen, is an academy trustee.
Asian art curator Julia White said Christensen's gifts include primarily tribal arts and Indonesian textiles (housed in other galleries) as well as the Indian pieces. Many of these had never been unpacked because there was no space to accommodate them. Among these is one of the gallery's centerpieces, an immense carved head of a bull that would have been carried in religious processions. It brought gasps from academy staff when it was finally released from its crate.
White explained that the design of the gallery — a room within a room — is based on the Hindu concept of yantra, a visualization of a cosmic unification of energy that once created, establishes a place suitable for the divine. As such, it also mimics the design of a Hindu temple, Watumull said, wherein the most sacred of the god images is contained in a central, windowless room lighted only by flickering candles. Two impressive tiered candle holders are among the objects in the collection.
Among the Christensen gifts are 14th-century wooden sculptures, rare because wood usually does not survive over the centuries. Cases in the center gallery house important religious images in stone and bronze. The age range in the space is considerable, from a silk sari that Watumull brought with her in her trousseau in 1950 to some sculptures that date to the second century.
Even if you're not able to stroll the stone floors and peer into the gently lighted cases with Watumull, this serene space is welcoming, and illustrates the importance of India as a crossroads of civilization and the home of a complex tapestry of cultures.
