Alice Boner Gallery, Benaras Hindu University

Showcasing the works and life of Alice Boner, a Swiss artist and scholar, the Alice Boner Gallery, Varanasi reopens to public. [dated September 2008]

Pro Helvetia - Swiss Arts Council cordially invites you to view the new Alice Boner Gallery, Kala Bhavan, Benaras Hindu University on Friday 26 September 2008 at 10:00am.

Alice Boner
Dr Alice Boner (1889-1981) a Swiss artist and scholar gravitated towards this great cultural and religious centre, and in 1935, she chose to settle here in a modest house on Assi Ghat, on the banks of the river Ganges. Her experiences of the city and its life, recorded in her diaries, reflect her journey in search of the ‘beyond’, a realm of artistic freedom, deeper experience and consciousness. Once in India, she turned to art studies and studied principles of Indian art and architecture. She came to be known as one of the outstanding scholars and interpreters of Indian sculpture and temple architecture. Her research led her - to not only the significant discovery of the principles of composition in Indian sculpture, but also to a search for the meaning of its content.

Her creative exploration of the “language of form” in Indian sculpture and temple architecture led Alice Boner to move from live practice to the interpretation of Indian art. Seeking confirmation of her own theoretical discoveries in the Sastras and comparing them with the extant monuments in all their dimensions, she combined the interpretive, visual method with the textual and traditional approach. Her understanding and research is reflected in the ‘Principles of Composition in Hindu sculpture’, which is her unique contribution to the study of Indian art. Alice Boner’s pioneering research on Indian art has been widely acclaimed throughout the world.

For her unique contribution to the understanding of Indian art, she was awarded the Padma Bhushan, an Indian civilian award that is awarded to recognise distinguished service of a high order to the nation, in any field, by the President of India in 1974. She was also awarded an Honorary Doctorate by the University of Zürich.

Alice Boner Foundation, Varanasi
The house of Alice Boner in Varanasi is supported by Pro Helvetia, the Swiss Arts Council. Writers, scholars, artists, dancers and musicians from India and abroad are invited for a creative stay and are provided a residency with basic, but comfortable facilities. This old and atmospheric house on the bank of the Ganga accommodates also the Alice Boner Institute with its library for research on Indian arts. Through its academic activities and exhibitions, the Institute furthers Alice Boner’s own research and also perpetuates her memory.