According to Indian aesthetician Harsha V. Dehejia, art and history are Western concepts. We, as enlightened museum goers, should cultivate the Indian eye. An object is more than an object - it has a life. Objects in this museum are of beauty, vastu, and not art objects. And the Indian eye moves from the object to the subject, from beautiful to beauty, to gain a serene, subjective, inward, restful experience, which is parallel to a transcendent experience. At our Online Talk #IndianEye on the occasion of the the centenary celebrations of Mumbai’s Chaatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Vastu Sanghrahalaya (formerly the Prince of Wales Museum), he will walk us through some of the objects in the Museum’s collection with an emphasis on creativity rather than antiquity or historicity. His take on the Museum is on experiencing poetic truth rather than art historical facts.

Note: Zoom link will be shared a couple of hours before the event

About the speaker

Harsha V. Dehejia has a double doctorate, one in Medicine and the other in Ancient Indian Culture, both from Mumbai University. He is a member of the Royal College of Physicians of London and Canada, both by examination. He is a practicing physician and Adjunct Professor in the College of the Humanities, Carleton University, Ottawa, ON., Canada. His special interest is in Indian Aesthetics and has more than 30 books, 3 films and many curated exhibitions to his credit.