Boston museum displays art formed of Hindu bindis

Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum (ISGM) in Boston is currently exhibiting artwork titled “Not All Who Wander Are Lost”, which uses Hindu bindis as a signature element.

Created by artist-in-residence England-born Bharti Kher for the Museum’s façade, it reflects on maritime travel, and uses bindis as a central motif “to map demographic movement in an abstract way”; and shall be displayed till January next.

Commending ISGM for exhibiting art centered around a Hindu symbol, Hindu statesman Rajan Zed, in a statement in Nevada today, said that art had a long and rich tradition in Hinduism and ancient Sanskrit literature talked about religious paintings of deities on wood or cloth.

Rajan Zed, who is President of Universal Society of Hinduism, urged major art museums of the world, including Musee du Louvre and Musee d'Orsay of Paris, Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, Los Angeles Getty Center, Uffizi Gallery of Florence (Italy), Art Institute of Chicago, Tate Modern of London, Prado Museum of Madrid, National Gallery of Art in Washington DC, etc., to frequently organize Hindu art focused exhibitions, thus sharing the rich Hindu art heritage with the rest of the world.

Bindi (also known by tika, tilak, pundra and other names), also sometimes referred as “third eye” and flame, is an auspicious Hindu symbol, and is also used for meditative purposes.

ISGM, designed as a work of art in totality, provides an unusual backdrop for the viewing of art. It contains works by Titian, Rembrandt, Michelangelo, Raphael, Botticelli, Manet, Degas, Whistler and Sargent. Anne Hawley is the Director.