With art historian, Jasleen Kandhari
The arts of the Sikhs and Punjab are extraordinarily rich. Discover how the Sikh Gurus are represented in fine miniature paintings, illustrated manuscripts, murals and oleographs. Explore the visual narratives in Janamsakhi paintings – the hagiographical accounts of the life of the first Guru of Sikhism, Guru Nanak Dev ji and how the core beliefs of Sikhism are portrayed in historical, modern and contemporary Sikh art.
Jasleen Kandhari is an art historian specialising in the artistic heritage and material culture of the Punjab. She lectures for the Ashmolean Museum at the University of Oxford on Indian textiles and art, and will be teaching a summer school there on Asian textiles including textiles from the Punjab. She has lectured for several museums and universities over the past ten years including the British Museum, Victoria & Albert Museum, British Library, SOAS, the Center for Hindu Studies and Center for Buddhist Studies at University of Oxford.
She delivers evening courses on Indian art, paintings and textiles at Morley College in London which includes Sikh art and will be delivering a course on Indian Textiles at University of Oxford’s continuing education department next year. She is the editor of the Oxford Asian Textile Group’s publication called Asian Textiles and has published several articles on Sikh art including, ‘In Pursuit of the Divine: Arts of the Sikh Courts & the Punjab’ in the Apollo, ‘Arts of the Sikh Loom: Phulkaris & Kashmir Shawls’ in Asian Textiles, review of ‘I see no Stranger: Early Sikh Art & Devotion exhibition at Rubin Museum, New York,’ in the Sikh Patrika of Sri Guru Singh Sabha, Mombasa. She is currently working on an article for the Journal of Punjab Studies, University of California Santa Barbara on defining what Sikh Art is, leading onto her book.