The sensitivity with which eminent art historian B. N. Goswamy looks at and thinks about Pahari paintings (paintings from the kingdoms of the Himalayan foothills) was revelatory for Amit Dutta. Goswamy and Dutta first collaborated on the film Nainsukh (2010); Dr. Goswamy also appears in subsequent Dutta films, including The Museum of Imagination: A Portrait in Absentia.

We were honored that Dr. Goswamy wrote for the Sackler Gallery’s exhibition catalogue Yoga: The Art of Transformation and were delighted he came from Chandigarh to Washington, DC to see the exhibition and to speak. His keynote lecture at Yoga and Visual Culture: An Interdisciplinary Symposium in January 2014 is titled “Inward Journeys: Yoga and Pilgrimage.” It’s a wonderful introduction to Dr. Goswamy’s insightful understanding of Indian painting.

Dutta recorded several conversations with Professor B.N. Goswamy. Interspersed with these talks are silences. In The Museum of Imagination: A Portrait in Absentia, Dutta intersperses architectural and historical spaces that are part of Goswamy’s work, life and legacy, from the moss-laden relics of the Kangra Valley to Le Corbusier's Chandigarh. You can stream it here.

In Nainsukh, Amit Dutta breathes new life into the painter’s old creations, reviving the intimacy of the grand worlds of the past through the time-defying medium of cinema. You can stream it here.