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the Banyan Tree
Beneath
The Banyan Tree - Terracotta and Brass Images
The
terracotta and brass objects are made as votive offerings
or as icons of the gods and goddesses of the Hindu world.
These are placed under trees as objects of worship or are
found in home shrines, and they continue to be worshipped
throughout their lifetime. As figures of the gods and goddesses
themselves, they recall mythological stories of these deities,
stories that are often told at the time of worship, especially
by women. Most of these images derive from the Bihar/Bengal
region. These objects are drawn from the Ruth Reeves Collection
of Indian Folk Art, owned by Syracuse University.
Ruth
Reeves was an American artist who taught at Columbia University
and the Cooper Union Art School. In the 1940s, she began
to study abroad, first going to South America and then to
India in 1956 as one of the first Fulbright scholars. Becoming
interested in cire perdue, a method of making brass objects
also known as ‘lost wax’, she wrote the definitive
book on Indian cire perdue in the late 1950s. She went on
to work with the All-India Handicraft Board and aided the
Census of India in its 1961 monographs on the native crafts
of individual villages. Her influence on the development
of the study of Indian folk art was immense.
In
1963, Ms. Reeves approached Laurence Schmeckebier, Director
of the Syracuse University School of Art, about acquiring
her collection of textiles, numbering “300 museum
quality pieces” as well as ceramic, wood, and metal
objects yet to be acquired. After Ms. Reeves death in New
Delhi in 1966, the Fulbright office was able to send the
remainder of her collection, although the Government of
India refused to allow the textiles to leave the country.
Some eventually went to the University of Wisconsin while
the remainder form the core collection of the National Crafts
Museum in New Delhi.
