When Gold Blossoms: Indian Jewelry from the Susan L. Beningson Collection celebrates the dazzling beauty and awe-inspiring technical craftsmanship of Indian jewelry with more than 150 pieces dating from the seventeenth through nineteenth centuries, primarily from South India. The title alludes to the preference for gold in South Indian jewelry—North Indian jewelry, on the other hand, is known primarily for the use of precious and semiprecious stones—as well as to the strong influence of nature on the designs, from ear studs in the form of a lotus to armbands featuring petal-and-leaf weaving.

When Gold Blossoms includes spectacular rings, anklets, earrings, hair pendants, jeweled crowns, ivory combs, and an elaborate swing and a gold throne for a deity. Some of the pieces are worn in daily life, others dedicated to deities in Hindu temples. Photographs from the nineteenth and twentieth centuries are displayed alongside the jewelry to provide a fuller understanding of the ways in which jewelry is both worn and used.

In recent years, there have been a number of exhibitions of North Indian jewelry. Consequently, these Persian-inspired forms of inlaid jewels with delicately enameled backs have come to define Indian jewelry for western audiences. When Gold Blossoms shows a different side, with strong geometric forms in solid gold, often filled with rubies.

Susan L. Beningson has amassed one of the finest collections of Indian jewelry. Her collection of jewelry dating from the seventeenth through the nineteenth century was recently featured in The Sensuous and the Sacred: Chola Bronzes from South India, an exhibition organized by the AFA and the Arthur M. Sackler Gallery, Smithsonian Institution.

The fully illustrated catalogue is written by the guest curator, Molly Emma Aitken, an art historian and independent curator who specializes in Indian Art. With its far-ranging references to literature, religious symbolism, and the social implications of the jewelry, Aitken’s essay in this publication is a major contribution to the field.

Exhibition Itinerary: the Dallas Museum of Art (November 18, 2007–January 27, 2008); the Phoenix Art Museum (February 16–May 11, 2008); the Figge Art Museum (May 31–August 24, 2008); and the Museum of Fine Arts, St. Petersburg (September 13–December 28, 2008).

For more information contact Curator of Exhibitions Suzanne Ramljak at 212.988.7700 ext. 245 or sramljak@afaweb.org.  You may also contact Brianne Jacobs, Executive Assistant, Exhibitions, at 212.988.7700 ext. 267 or bjacobs@afaweb.org.