Montreal Gallery Opens Space Dedicated to Sikh Art
The Montreal Museum of Fine Arts says it is opening the first space dedicated to Sikh art at a Canadian museum.
The art, which includes works on paper, rare coins and Punjabi textiles, was donated by the late Narinder Singh Kapany, an Indian-American physicist known as the father of fibre optics, and his wife, Satinder Kaur Kapany. They founded the Sikh Foundation International in California to promote Sikh art and culture.
Their daughter, Kiki, said her parents believed their art collection would foster understandings of Sikh history and help people "find unity in our common humanity."
Additional support was provided by Montreal businessman Baljit Singh Chadha and his wife, Roshi.
Works from the collection will be displayed in a section of the museum that seeks to create dialogue between ancestral cultures and contemporary artists from Canada and abroad.
The collection includes works on paper depicting gurus and illuminations representing maharajas of the Sikh Empire from 1799 to 1849, as well as ritual objects and rare minted nanakshahi coins. Publications related to the Sikhs during the British Raj from 1858 to 1947, provide further context. The collection also features phulkari shawls.
"This newly acquired collection, one of the largest in North America, provides a dynamic platform for dialogue, understanding, respect and inclusion," the museum said.
"It thus mirrors the core values and contributions of the Sikh people, who currently number approximately 27 million worldwide."
Although most Sikhs live in northwest India, on the border with Pakistan, large Sikh communities are also found in Canada, Britain and the United States.
Source: Montreal Museum of Fine Arts
