Senior curator, Asian department, V & A Museum London
Susan Stronge is a Senior Curator in the Asian Department of the Victoria & Albert Museum in London. She specializes in the arts of the Sikh and Muslim courts of the Indian subcontinent, and has curated the award-winning 1999 exhibition, “The Arts of the Sikh Kingdoms.” Her books include Painting for the Mughal Emperor, Tipu’s Tigers, and the catalogue of her recent exhibition, Bejewelled Treasures: The Al Thani Collection. Her current project is a V&A loan exhibition to the Herbert Gallery, Coventry, UK, in October 2017. This focuses on the artistic legacy of the cities of Amritsar and Lahore.
Abstract: Exhibiting Punjab under Sikh rule
The deeply embedded artistic traditions of the historic province of Punjab, the land of the ‘five rivers’, survived religious and political upheavals that took place over centuries. Many of the paintings and textiles produced in the region, as well as arms and armour, metalwares and hardstones, date to the 19th century. Through these, many potential exhibition themes may be formulated. This presentation discusses the issues that determine how an exhibition comes into being.