This exhibition brings together over twenty-five drawings, prints, and watercolor paintings to explore “contemporary” art on the Indian subcontinent over the past century, a period that witnessed dramatic social and artistic transformations.

This exhibition highlights a selection of purchases, gifts, and bequests since the year 2000—a group so varied it encompasses the Museum’s departments of American art, costume and textiles, East Asian art, and European decorative arts.

In this exhibition, the Museum presents masterpieces from its outstanding collection of rarely seen Malla Period art. Vibrant Buddhist ritual paintings burst with energy, a marvelous goddess coyly dances, and golden Hindu and Buddhist sculptures regally invite adoration.

Kansai Yamamoto is one of the founding fathers of Japanese contemporary fashion. Best known for his work during the 1970s and 1980s, his avant-garde designs are inspired by the colorful Azuchi-Momoyama period (1568-1600) and traditional Kabuki theatre. The exuberant Pop-like quality of his work contrasts with what is today associated with Japanese fashion, Zen-like simplicity and deconstructed silhouettes.