Foreword

Rub, Timothy

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Description: Kantha: The Embroidered Quilts of Bengal from the Jill and Sheldon Bonovitz...

Kantha: The Embroidered Quilts of Bengal from the Jill and Sheldon Bonovitz Collection and the Stella Kramrisch Collection of the Philadelphia Museum of Art

Foreword

Author

Timothy Rub

PublisherPhiladelphia Museum of Art

Stable URL: https://aaeportal.com/?id=-22909

Foreword

Created from fragments of old family garments and recycled threads, kanthas evoke memories of the past. Made to celebrate marriages and births, these beautifully embroidered Bengali quilts also invoke hopes for the future. At a time when the Philadelphia Museum of Art remembers its rich heritage while embarking on a new phase of its development, this publication and the exhibition it accompanies seem particularly appropriate.

Stella Kramrisch is a legendary figure in the history of South Asian art. In 1939, while a professor at the University of Calcutta, she introduced kanthas as an art form in a groundbreaking essay that is reproduced in this volume. In 1968, as a curator at the Philadelphia Museum of Art, she brought these “everyday” women’s quilts into the hallowed realm of a fine arts museum, displaying them alongside other treasures from the region in the remarkable and hugely successful exhibition titled Unknown India. During Dr. Kramrisch’s tenure of nearly forty years at this institution, she assembled one of the foremost public collections of South Asian art in the United States and produced a series of influential exhibitions. Among the many personal donations and bequests she made to the Museum is her renowned collection of fifty-two kanthas, all of which are reproduced in this volume.

Sheldon Bonovitz, Chairman Emeritus and CEO of Duane Morris LLP and a long-serving Trustee of the Museum, and Jill Bonovitz, a distinguished ceramic artist, were introduced to kanthas in part through Kramrisch’s writings. The lively and personalized images found in these textiles struck a chord with the couple, whose primary collecting passion is American self-taught art, and inspired them to form a collection that now numbers thirty-three quilts and is superb in both its quality and its variety. Like many of the self-taught artists the Bonovitzes have collected—such as James Castle, whose 2008–9 retrospective at the Philadelphia Museum of Art owed so much to the couple’s interest and support—the women who embroidered kanthas typically went unrecognized as artists during their lifetimes.

After forming their collection of kanthas, the Bonovitzes displayed many of these quilts, together with works by self-taught artists, in Duane Morris’s Philadelphia office. Soon, however, they recognized not only the importance of their collection, but also the need to bring these little-known works—and artists—to the attention of the public. It is due to their extraordinary insight, inspiration, and generosity that this book and the accompanying exhibition have come into being, and for that we would like to express our deepest appreciation. They were joined in this effort by the Coby Foundation, Ltd., for whose crucial support we are enormously grateful.

Each of the kanthas collected by the Bonovitzes, like those acquired by Kramrisch, displays great individuality in both type and motif. Yet while the two collections share a focus on figural imagery, as a group the Bonovitzes’ kanthas are very different in character from Kramrisch’s. By bringing these two collections together we can begin to appreciate the remarkable technical skill and wide range of artistic expression that Bengali women brought to the medium.

From the start, my esteemed predecessor, Anne d’Harnoncourt, enthusiastically embraced the Bonovitzes’ idea for this collection catalogue and exhibition, just as she had enthusiastically supported the work of Dr. Kramrisch and the Museum’s Department of Indian and Himalayan Art during her distinguished tenure as Director of the Philadelphia Museum of Art. Associate Director of Collections Alice Beamesderfer’s superb organizational abilities made light of all initial logistical complexities. As Interim Head of Curatorial Affairs following d’Harnoncourt’s tragic death, she gracefully brought the project to fruition with the strong support of Gail Harrity, the Museum’s Interim Chief Executive Officer.

Appropriately, this catalogue and the exhibition it accompanies have been organized by the Stella Kramrisch Curator of Indian and Himalayan Art, Darielle Mason, whose keen intellect, passion, and commitment to the project would certainly have been appreciated by her celebrated predecessor. She and I are deeply grateful to the four scholars whose many contributions to this publication—both as essayists and as advisors—provide it with authority and richness: Pika Ghosh, Katherine Hacker, Anne Peranteau, and Niaz Zaman, and to the many individuals in Bangladesh, India, Great Britain, and the United States who assisted in a host of ways. I would like to express our thanks to Jo Ellen Ackerman of Bessas & Ackerman for the elegant design, and to Lynne Shaner for the preliminary editing. In the Museum’s renowned Publishing Department, David Updike provided thoughtful editorial care and expertise, and Richard Bonk oversaw the production and printing of the catalogue with his customary skill and attention to detail. Graydon Wood, the Museum’s senior photographer, created the superb images that bring the catalogue to life and vividly convey a sense of the richly textured surfaces of these wonderful quilts. Virginia Whelan lent her great knowledge of embroidery techniques to furnish stitch identification. Dilys Blum, Senior Curator of Costume and Textiles, and Sara Reiter, Conservator of Costume and Textiles, provided expertise as well as logistical and technical assistance for both the catalogue and the exhibition.

Through the magnificent gift of the kanthas they have acquired, on the occasion of this publication and exhibition the Bonovitzes merge their collection with that donated by Stella Kramrisch to constitute the most significant holdings of these quilts outside of South Asia. Dr. Kramrisch wrote that “the kantha is a creative process of integration within each woman.” Collecting is likewise a process of creative integration by individuals, and the Museum itself is the integration of the many distinguished collections developed and then given to this institution by many generous donors over the past 134 years. The Jill and Sheldon Bonovitz Collection of kanthas will enrich immeasurably the Museum as a whole, as they will enrich the experience of future generations of artists, scholars, and visitors.

TIMOTHY RUB
The George D. Widener Director and Chief Executive Officer

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