Shiva

Shiva is a powerful deity, one part of Hinduism’s holy trinity, along with Brahma and Vishnu. Shiva is both a restorer and a destroyer, and can be seen as a meditating ascetic or an animated dancer, a universal teacher or a wild seducer, a celibate yogi or a caring husband and father to his wife Parvati and his sons Karttikeya and Ganesha. He has numerous iconic forms, benign and terrible, many of which are represented in Indian art. The paintings and sculpture in this exhibition mainly reflect Shiva’s less awesome aspects, for example as a family man. In one painting, Shiva is depicted dancing wildly in his mountain abode to a musical accompaniment provided by his family members and other attendant figures.