Indian comics at LA County museum

The Los Angeles County Museum of Art is presenting -"Heroes and Villains: The Battle for Good in India's Comics," an exhibition from 17 October to 7 February, 2010.

The exhibition comprises 53 paintings, works on paper, and vintage comic books, examining the legacy of India's divine heroes and heroines in contemporary South Asian culture through the comic book genre. Curated by Julie Romain and Tushara Bindu Gude, ''Heroes and Villains'' mines the history of the comic book in India from the 1960s through ill now.

It explores the evolution of early Indian comics, which were modeled on American superhero comics, through the Amar Chitra Katha (Immortal Picture Stories), a popular series based on traditional Indian epic literature and religious texts recounting the heroic deeds of Indian gods and goddesses.

''This is the first exhibition of Indian comics on view at a major museum,'' said Romain.

''Here at LACMA we have the unique opportunity to consider this contemporary art form in relation to our extensive historical collection of South and Southeast Asian art.''

Today, comic book production takes place in a global cultural context and within a multi-media framework that combines traditional hand-drawn illustrations with computer design and animation technology. The exhibition explores this process through a survey of Liquid Comics' Devi and Ramayan series, which were inspired by heroic characters from the Mahabharata, Ramayana, and other Indian texts. Liquid Comics (formerly Virgin Comics) is an animation studio based in Bangalore.

To illustrate the continuity of the heroic narrative tradition in Indian art, a selection from LACMA's historical collection of Indian paintings will also be on view. These include folios from Mughal illustrated manuscripts, paintings and drawings from the northern Indian princely states, and story-telling paintings from central India.