Highlights: South Asian Art Collection

The Cincinnati Art Museum’s collection of South Asian Art is stewarded by the Department of South Asian Art, Islamic Art, and Antiquities. The arts of historic South Asia (often defined as modern India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, and Sri Lanka) are most prominently represented at CAM through sculpture and architectural fragments, decorative arts, and paintings. The collection emphasizes how trade, migration, and shifts in political power fueled interaction and exchange among the region’s cultural and religious groups. The South Asian Art collection also includes strength in contemporary works from artists based in greater South Asia, as well as diasporic artists in the US and Europe. This section of the collection is actively growing through acquisitions, commissions, and gifts.