Frieze Masters 2019
2nd October, 2019 - 6th October, 2019
Main Section – Stand F 08
Regent’s Park, London
Prahlad Bubbar gallery is delighted to show at Frieze Masters 2019, for the fourth consecutive year, with a pairing of modern and classical masterpieces with connections to South Asia.
To coincide with the major Museum exhibition – ‘Modern Maharaja’ in Paris at the Musée des Arts Décoratifs, and our long-standing interest in the subject, the inspiration for this year’s presentation is the Modernist Paradise – Indore. In the 1930s the gifted and visionary Indian Maharaja Yashwant Rao Holkar II built and furnished his palace with supreme examples of art and design, pieces by Eileen Gray, Ruhlman, Constantin Brancusi, Francis Picabia, Man Ray and Eckart Muthesius adorned and furnished the legendary residence – Manik Bagh, or Jewelled Garden.
The gifted Maharaja became friends with artists and intellectuals in India, Paris and in the United States. He inherited the legacy of a great Maratha kingdom with deep traditions and understated elegance. The palace, once ‘lived in’, housed Mughal and Maratha artefacts, images of devotion, tiger skins and other personal objects along with modern Western masterpieces. This juxtaposition of cultures and dynamism was unprecedented in the history of art.
The centrepiece to our exhibition is a table from the banquet hall of the legendary Manik Bagh with inset lighting by rare designer Eckart Muthesius. Shown in the West for the first time since it left for India in the 1930s, it is the most important piece by the designer to come on the market since the pair of lamps from the Yves Saint Laurent collection were sold in 2009 by Christie’s.
An outstanding, Hollywood-style portrait of the Maharaja and his American wife Maharani Margaret Holkar by Man Ray, and a radical minimalist carpet from the Indore palace, come alive with masterpieces from the Mughal and Rajput traditions.
An exquisite, highly refined Imperial painting of Dara Shikoh, the princely ascetic, once in the collection of Warren Hastings, Governor General of India (1774-85) will not be a chance pairing with the Holkar, both princes’ sensibilities were ahead of their time.
Rare, published Tibetan ‘Tiger rugs’ from the 19th century represent examples of classical ‘design’, used by high lamas for meditation. A jewelled hat for an Indian Nawab or Prince adorned with natural pearls and rubies sets the tone for opulence and tradition of a Jewelled Garden.
Vibrant and exquisite Mughal and Deccani drawings and paintings of women, arabesques, and forests of sensual, conceptual and painterly appeal will further this dialogue and inspiration between past and present, modern and classical.
Frieze Masters
2-6 October 2019
Regent’s Park
London NW1 4HA
Opening hours:
Wednesday Preview 2 October (Invitation only)
Thursday Preview 3 October: 12.00 – 20.00
Thursday Private View 3 October: 17.00 – 20.00
Friday 4 – Saturday 5 October: 12.00 – 19.00
Sunday 6 October: 12.00 – 18.00
For more information and image requests, please contact:
Miguel Pacheco, miguel@prahladbubbar.com
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Prahlad Bubbar gallery specialises in the arts of South Asia and 20th century masterpieces of art, photography and design. The gallery opened in 2010, and is located in Mayfair’s Cork Street, a historical epicentre of the London art world.
As a leading and respected specialist in Classical Indian and Islamic paintings from 1400-1900, Prahlad Bubbar has established often-overlooked connections between Eastern aesthetics, modernist design and 20th century art movements, particularly the Surrealist and Dada movements. The gallery often creates stimulating critical dialogues between different artists, eras and cultures, in an effort to extend and actualise concepts conveyed by different artworks to the experience of the contemporary viewer.
Prahlad Bubbar has been a regular exhibitor at Frieze Masters, Asia Week New York and Asian Art in London. Past exhibitions have received critical acclaim by critics, collectors and the international press. The gallery regularly publishes scholarly catalogues with contributions by leading international experts.
Permanent Gallery:
Prahlad Bubbar
33 Cork Street, Mayfair
London W1S 3NQ
Opening hours:
Monday – Thursday, 10.00 – 18.00
Friday, 14.00-18.00
