Celebrate the new South Asian Art Galleries and Zarah Hussain: Breath

Wednesday, December 9 | 5 pm

BROUGHT TO YOU BY

Brian Kennedy, The Rose-Marie and Eijk van Otterloo Director and CEO, the Board of Trustees of the Peabody Essex Museum, and the East India Marine Associates invite you to a virtual opening celebration of the South Asian art galleries and the exhibition Zarah Hussain: Breath. Hear from Siddhartha V. Shah, Director of Education and Civic Engagement and Curator of South Asian Art, as he introduces these exciting new spaces and takes us behind the scenes. We will be joined by special guest, artist Zarah Hussain.

Performances by Emmanuelle Martin of classical Karnatik music and by Bishi, singer and electronic rock-sitarist.

You will receive a confirmation email with instructions on how to participate via Zoom. For more information, please email Lauren Fairweather at lauren_fairweather@pem.org

Prashant H. Fadia Foundation and Deshpande Foundation Gallery

This new gallery features a selection of objects from PEM’s extensive collection of historical material from India. Focused primarily on the 19th century, the gallery considers India’s long and complex history of foreign occupation, and its troubling impact on the representation of Indian people in art. Featuring some of the earliest objects to come to PEM, including unfired clay sculpture, mica paintings and kalighat paintings, the gallery considers and questions the timeless tropes of India that persist even today.

Chester and Davida Herwitz Gallery

Following independence from British Rule in 1947, artists in India aimed to uncover a visual language that was uniquely Indian in inspiration to convey their experiences, struggles, ambitions and dreams. Bridging myth with social and political history, the new Chester and Davida Herwitz Gallery tells the story of nation-building and self-discovery through works by India’s most celebrated artistic geniuses of the 20th century.

“My Dear Davey and Chester ...”

These words, teeming with affection, symbolize the close relationships Indian artists forged with Massachusetts-based collectors Chester and Davida “Davey” Herwitz over the course of the couple’s long-standing engagement with modern Indian art and artists. The letters and photographs shared in this Phillips Library Gallery exhibition are a fraction of Chester and Davida’s personal archive, which they donated to PEM along with 1,275 works of art and their library of more than 6,000 books.

Zarah Hussain: Breath in the Jurrien Timmer Gallery

 In a series of paintings commissioned by PEM, British artist Zarah Hussain explores the universal sanctity and necessity of breathing. Mining her own experiences, she integrates the personal stories of members from our community who have, in some way, experienced the physical trauma of losing their breath or its transformative healing power. Hussain’s work — produced while the artist was under lockdown due to COVID-19 — utilizes the universal principles of mathematics to guide us into moments of deep contemplation and stillness. The exhibition also features an animation and soundscape that slows visitors down to activate a deeper connection to the breath.