The Divine Simian: Tribute to K C Aryan's work

The exhibition "Hanuman : The Divine Simian" is being held at Indira Gandhi National Centre for the Arts (IGNCA), Janpath, New Delhi from November 19 and will be on display till December 31, 2018. Organised by IGNCA, in collaboration with K C Aryan's Home of Folk Art (Museum of folk, tribal and neglected art), this exhibition is curated by B N Aryan. The catalogue for the exhibition, titled 'Hanuman: The Divine Simian' provides an Introduction by Dr Subhashini Aryan, a well known art historian.

This exhibition was inaugurated by Satya Pal Singh, Minister of State (HRD and Water), Government of India and Vijay Goel, Union Cabinet Minister of Parliamentary Affairs in the presence of the Member Secretary, IGNCA, Dr Sachchidanand Joshi and included many eminent guests like Arun Goel, Secretary, Ministry of Culture, Additional Secretary, Joint Secretary from Ministry of Culture, Government of India.

In India there is no town or village without a temple or altar consecrated to the most favourite and popular God Hanuman. He inspires us with his physical strength, humility, and loyalty. 'The Divine Simian' represents all these and yet a lot more. This exhibition is the first comprehensive, encyclopaedic and well documented attempt to unveil the God in his completeness through our rich heritage of visual culture, both traditional and folk.

This one of a kind exhibition is a tribute to the life time dedication of late K C Aryan (1919-2002), renowned modern artist and the visionary founder of 'Home of Folk Art'. Being an ardent devotee of Hanuman, Aryan travelled across India in search of unknown and unexplored images of his revered god. In the course of three decades, he collected a diverse range of art forms on Hanuman. He continued to extensively document and research on this popular god and wrote his first book on Hanuman in 1975, co-authored by Dr Subhasini Aryan. Today the Museum houses a fascinating range of over 600 rare artifacts of Hanuman, around 300 of which are being exhibited.

B N Aryan, son of K C Aryan and the curator of the exhibition, along with his siblings D. Subhashini Aryan and Dr Anuradha, currently looks after the collection single handed, with his own meagre resources and without any external private or governmental help. The museum is looking for a location where this important collection can be displayed and made accessible to masses, thus doing justice to its invaluable wealth. With its veritable collection, today the Museum of Folk Art is an institution waiting to be acknowledged.

Indira Gandhi National Center for the Arts is hosting this landmark exhibition to give the museum the exposure it deserves. IGNCA is a centre for socio-cultural dialogue, knowledge and research to promote cultural rejuvenation and convergence of all art forms, which are placed within the context of natural and human environment of mutual interdependence, social structure and cosmology. It has a multidisciplinary approach towards all its programmes of research, publications, exhibitions and performances.

This exhibition was an initiative taken by Dr Sachchidanand Joshi, Member Secretary, IGNCA. The Conservation Division of IGNCA provided all necessary support in the mounting and framing, transportation, packing, handling of this invaluable collection. The Kala Darshan Division of IGNCA prepared the venue for display of these rare objects.