Asian Art Resource Room

Meditation in Minimalism

Tantra is a general term referring to a number of esoteric scriptures dating from the 7th century. As well as Hinduism, both Buddhism and Jainism have been influenced. Painted as illustrations for sacred texts or sutras, Tantra painting represents an abstract vision or even a kind of plan of the sacred world view. The painter Raja Babu Sharma (1956–) began research into Tantra painting having discovered them in his grandfather’s library collection at a young age. In the mid-70s he managed to get hold of a copy of Tantra scriptures. His work as a devoted successor to that traditional world illustration was shown in Paris at the 1989 exhibition Magiciens de la Terre. As abstract work with a completely different background to western modernism, it has contributed to the development of modernist painting unique to India.