Expert to speak about sensual nature of Indian sacred art

April 5, 2007

GAINESVILLE, Fla. — Vidya Dehejia will speak Tuesday at the Harn Museum of Art to preview her forthcoming book, “The Body Adorned.”

The book addresses the dominance of the human form in India’s art, including the sensuous portrayal of deities, the intimate depictions of divine couples and sacred spaces which accommodate what might be considered profane images in other cultures.

The speech will begin at 6 p.m. and will be held in the Harn Auditorium.

Dehejia is the author of more than 20 books on Eastern art, archeology and poetry, and she was the deputy director and chief curator of the Smithsonian’s Freer Gallery and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery between 1994 and 2002. She is currently a professor of Indian and South Asian art at Columbia University.

“Vidya Dehejia is a celebrated professor who uses the passion, the spirituality and aesthetics of Indian poetry and narrative to illumine art and architecture,” said Vasudha Narayanan, director of the UF Center for the Study of Hindu Traditions. “It is most fitting that UF should invite a scholar of her stature to give the Roy C. Craven Jr. memorial lecture at the Harn, as he was a distinguished professor of Indian art at UF for many years.”

The event is free and open to the public.