John Guy | A Tale of Two Textiles. Exchange and Conflict in 18th Century South India

Name: John Guy | A Tale of Two Textiles. Exchange and Conflict in 18th Century South India
Start: 2026-11-16T17:00:00-05:00
End: 2026-11-16T19:00:00-05:00
Location: Princeton University Art Museum

by

Lecture Arts Global/Intercultural Humanities Social Sciences

Mon, Nov 16, 2026

5 PM – 7 PM EST (GMT-5)

Princeton University Art Museum

Princeton, NJ 08544, United States

Details

This lecture will present two extraordinary painted cottons cloths which, in their very different ways, vividly demonstrate the dynamics of the international textile trade in the first half of the 18th century. Both were essentially addressing European taste and narrative needs, one Dutch, one English. In reading their design histories and cultural memories, these two pictorial cloths allow us to construct a richer understanding of the complexities of textile design, commissioning, production and consumption across a landscape which reached from Europe to Japan. They also were produced against a backdrop of territorial and commercial ambitions and conflict that marked 18th century south India.

Where

Princeton University Art Museum

Princeton, NJ 08544, United States

Speakers

John Guy

Florence and Herbert Irving Curator of the Arts of South and Southeast Asia, Department of Asian Art

The Metropolitan Museum of Art

John Guy, FSA, FAAAS, is the Florence and Herbert Irving Curator of the Arts of South and Southeast Asia at The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York. He joined The Met in 2008, having formerly served as Senior Curator of South Asian art at the Victoria and Albert Museum, London for 24 years. In 2024 he was awarded a Republic Day Commendation Award by the Government of India for services to Indian culture and in 2026 the Outstanding Lifetime Achievement Award by the Bard Graduate Center, New York. He has worked on a number of archaeological excavations, including maritime sites, and served as an advisor to UNESCO on historical sites in Southeast Asia. He has curated numerous international exhibitions and published widely. His books include Indian Art and Connoisseurship. Essays in honour of Douglas Barrett (ed., 1995), Woven Cargoes. Indian Textiles in the East (1997), Indian Temple Sculpture (2007), Interwoven Globe: Textile Trade 1500-1800 (co-author 2013), Lost Kingdoms: Hindu-Buddhist Sculpture of Early Southeast Asia (2014) and Tree & Serpent. Early Buddhist Art in India (2023).

Hosted By

Center for Global India | View More Events
Co-hosted with: Princeton Institute for International & Regional Studies, Center for Global India (OWNER)