Paradise Lost (Chapter 1) (detail), 2009–11
Raqib Shaw. Courtesy of the artist. © Raqib Shaw.
Raqib Shaw has spent two decades at work on his monumental painting Paradise Lost. The autobiographical work traces Shaw’s life from his childhood in the ethereally beautiful but politically troubled region of Kashmir through, as the artist said, “exile and rebellion, artistic awakening, emotional turmoil, and transformation that still continues.” The work’s title references both John Milton’s 17th-century poem of the same name and Kashmir’s reputation as a paradise on earth.
Shaw employs a unique artistic vocabulary and singular technique, developed using enamel automobile paint applied deftly with needle-fine syringes and a porcupine quill. The finished works are intricate, magical, and breathtaking in both color and complexity.
Join Raqib Shaw and Alsdorf Associate Curator of Indian, Southeast Asian, and Himalayan Art, Madhuvanti Ghose, as they discuss this epic masterpiece.
Paradise Lost (Chapter 1), 2009–11
Raqib Shaw. Courtesy of the artist. © Raqib Shaw.
About the Speakers
Raqib Shaw is a Kolkata-born, London-based artist renowned for his opulent, jewel-like paintings and sculptures. Shaw’s upbringing in a family of merchants surrounded by antiques, textiles, and jewels greatly influenced his distinctive visual language.
His work draws on a vast range of influences, including Persian carpets, Renaissance art, Japanese lacquerware, and mythology from both Eastern and Western traditions. His highly detailed, fantastical worlds often feature mythical creatures, warriors and sensual scenes, blending beauty with violence and decadence. His meticulous technique, which recalls the ancient art of cloisonné, involves the use of vibrant enamels, rhinestones, and glitter to create surfaces that shimmer with intricate patterns and vivid colors.
Shaw has exhibited at major institutions, including the Tate Britain, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Scottish National Gallery, and the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum. His first traveling retrospective, Ballads of East and West, continues to tour internationally.
Dr. Madhuvanti Ghose is the inaugural Alsdorf Associate Curator of Indian, Southeast Asian, and Himalayan Art in Arts of Asia. Since joining the museum in 2007, she opened the Alsdorf Galleries in 2008 and has curated and organized numerous exhibitions and installations including Jitish Kallat’s site-specific Public Notice 3 (2010–2011), The Last Harvest: The Art of Rabindranath Tagore (2012), Nilima Sheikh: Each Night Put Kashmir in Your Dreams (2014), and India Modern: The Paintings of M.F. Husain (2017–2018).
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Closed captioning will be available for this program. For questions related to accessibility accommodations, please email access@artic.edu.
