Tantra Art: Its Philosophy & Physics [Hardcover]

Ajit Mookerjee (Author)

Product Details

• Hardcover: 154 pages
• Publisher: Rupa & Co. in collaboration with Ravi Kumar, Paris (1994)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 8171672582
• ISBN-13: 978-8171672585
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,016,690 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Philosophical Art / The Art of Philosophy, March 1, 2010

By 

Theseus "theseus" (US of A) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Tantra Art: Its Philosophy & Physics (Hardcover)

This review is for the Ravi Kumar (Switzerland) reprint of 1983: the English version in hardback.

Mookerjee's book on Tantra art was first released in 1963 and has gone on to become a minor publishing hit, being reprinted in various formats over the years.

This a magnificent piece of work: a large format hardback with 97 color plates (most of them full page) with intelligent and wide-ranging commentary on each image. With an introduction and an 8 page bibliography. Cloth over boards on glossy stock with a heavy dustjacket.

This offers up art in the larger Tantra tradition: paintings, graphic works, sculptures and objects all spinning off from a broadly-defined sanskrit tradition of Tantra (weaving or weaving-in-continuity.) The result is a mind-bender that comments on all sorts of traditions in Eastern thought and art: Hindu, Sikh, Buddhist, Jain...

One can approach this book as anthropological, philosophical, or as a book of pure art. (It certainly reminded me that abstract art certainly didn't start in Europe and America in the 20th century!)

A rich and ambitious book.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Tantra Art, May 4, 2006

By 

cortezhill - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: Tantra Art: Its Philosophy & Physics (Hardcover)

A collection of Indian sacred paintings, sculptues and tapestries in a wide range of styles, from abstract to figurative to erotic, originally published in 1966. Each of the 97 plates, most of which are in color, have both an explanation of the image and it's significance to Indian spirituality. The accompianiying text delves into the nuances on Buddhist Tantric philosophy.