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.

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.