Anonymous Shiva Linga Paintings:
The Hudson Collection

March 1 through May 25

ICON Gallery is pleased to announce the significant exhibition
Anonymous Shiva Linga Paintings: The Hudson Collection, a selection of Tantric images made by anonymous painters from Rajasthan, India. This exhibition has been made possible by the very generous donation of the Hudson Collection to ICON’s permanent collection by Patricia Hudson, James Hudson, and Thomas Hudson. Additional support for the exhibition was provided by David T. Hanson, the Fairfield Cultural Alliance, and the Fairfield Convention and Visitors Bureau. This is possibly the finest collection of Shiva Linga paintings in the country. A portion of this collection was included in the prestigious 55th Venice Biennale in 2013.

“We are extremely grateful to the Hudson Family for gifting this prize collection to ICON,” says ICON Director Bill Teeple. “NY gallery owner Hudson past way in 2014. He was a friend to Fairfield and ICON. I feel that he is happy that his personal collection has found a home at ICON.”

Each of the 67 paintings in the exhibition depicts the “Shiva linga” on a page-size sheet of antique paper. The Sanskrit word “lingam,” originally meaning “mark” or “sign,” often refers to the phallus or symbol of male creative energy that is complementary to the “yoni,” which means both “source” and “female.” Unlike sculptural “Shiva linga,” which are commonly phallic in shape, the linga in these paintings are ovoid and accrue some of the symbolic associations of the “egg-shaped cosmos” — the idea of the “hiranyagarbha,” the “golden womb” or “golden egg” that represents the birth of the cosmos and the source of all energy. The images are intended to awaken heightened consciousness.

The French scholar André Padoux has described these images as “painted silences, the simple revelation of pure consciousness. . . . Artless, modest in appearance as they may seem, these lingas can induce a vision of the infinite.”

On Thursday, March 14th, University of Iowa Professor Frederick Smith, will give a lecture “The Form of No Forms: Placing Shiva Paintings in Context” at ICON. Professor Smith gave this lecture in Pennsylvania when the collection toured the country in 2013.

Iowa Contemporary Art.
58 N. Main St., Fairfield, Iowa 52556
Gallery hours:
Tues, Wed, Thurs – noon to 5:00,
Fri and Sat 1:00 to 4:30
641 469 6252