The Rediscovery & Reception of Gandharan Art Workshop 24th-26th March 2021
In this fourth international workshop of the Project, we seek to stimulate an exchange of new information and ideas about two aspects of Gandharan art in the modern world.
Firstly, we examine the ‘rediscovery’ of Gandharan culture in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. To what extent can the consideration of museum collections, archival documents, and other evidence help us to reconstitute lost information about the provenance and meaning of Gandharan artefacts and sites? And a broader question: how is such evidence shaped and mediated by the experience of Gandhara in the context of colonial rule? Can we – and should we – try to think Gandharan art out of that political, cultural, and ideological setting in which it was first recognized as an academic field?
Secondly, we consider the subsequent shifting, and often disputed, significance of Gandharan art in different places and periods, in South Asia and Central Asia, in Europe, America and the Far East; in world museums, private collections and the controversial antiquities market; in public perceptions of cross-cultural connections and the so-called ‘Silk Road’; from narratives of national identity and cultural heritage, to popular ideas of ancient and modern globalization.
Programme
Workshop abstract
Speakers' AbstractsWednesday 24th March 2021Session One: 12:00 - 13:00Prof Peter Stewart (Director, Classical Art Research Centre)Welcome and IntroductionDr Elizabeth Errington (Former project curator, British Museum)Reconstructing Jamalgarhi: The Archaeological Record 1848-1923
Session Two: 14:00 - 15:30Dr Rafiullah Khan (Taxila Institute, Quaid-i-Azam University, Islamabad)Archaeology in the Princely States of India: The Indian Political Service, the Walis of Swat and the Barger Expedition (1938)Dr Kurt Behrendt (Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York)Finding Contexts for Gandharan SculptureThursday 25th March 2021Session Three: 12:00 - 15:15Prof Muhammad Ashraf Khan (Taxila Institute, Quaid-i-Azam University, Islamabad)The Sukker Collection of Buddhist Sculptures: History of Discovery, Issues of Their Provenance and ChronologyDr Zarawar Khan (University of Swat, Kanju)Gandharan Stucco Sculptures from Sultan Khel (Former Khyber Agency), in the Collection of Peshawar Museum: A Study in Three PartsSession Four: 14:30 - 15:15Dr Andrew Amstutz (University of Arkansas, Little Rock)Buddhist Art, Italian Museums, and the Exhibition of an Ancient Past for PakistanFriday 26th March 2021Session Five: 12:45 - 13:30Dr Shaila Bhatti (National College of Arts, Lahore)Stories of Gandhara: Antiquity, Art and IdolsSession Six: 14:30 - 16:00Dr Helen Wang (British Museum)Gandhara in the News: Rediscovering Gandhara in the TimesDr Shailendra Bhandare (Ashmolean Museum, Oxford)Art of Deception: Perspectives on the Problem of Fakery in Gandhara
