Waswo X. Waswo
Waswo X. Waswo | But I Fell From There Like a Leaf in Autumn – PB | 2019
Waswo X. Waswo (B. 1953) is an American traveller, poet and photographer who has lived and exhibited in India for over 20 years. Noted for their exquisite detailing, his contemporary miniature paintings extend their visual vocabulary to a style reminiscent of Mughal Miniature Paintings, Mewar Court Miniatures, and The Company School. Waswo poetically transfers narratives into rich and symbolic visuals with the help of a band of skilled traditional painters. The paintings are multi-layered and dense in narrative, blending genres and playing intelligently on themes interwoven from history, colonialism, and contemporary identities. In the paintings, Waswo often features as the bumbling protagonist who is observed and embraced by Indians. Part confessional and part comical, the paintings are semi-autobiographical, and evoke issues of Otherness, and the transcendence of the same in a way that is problematic yet poignant.
Waswo X. Waswo’s work is held in collections at the Haggerty Museum of Art, Marquette University, USA; The Asian Art Museum of San Francisco; The Museum of Art and Photography, Bangalore; DAG Modern; The William Benton Museum, USA, as well as others.
The artist lives and works in Udaipur, Rajasthan.