The ongoing "Creative Exchanges" exhibition at the Pollock-Krasner House and Study Center in Springs includes a novel, offsite spinoff this weekend with a concert of Indian music and dance at LTV Studios in Wainscott.
"Indian Music to Heal the Soul," a tribute to Nataraj Vashi and Pravina Mehta, happens on Sunday at 7:30 p.m. and features Ustad Shafaat Khan on vocals and sitar, Rishy Mehrotra on tabla, and Jaspinder Mehrotra, who will dance to the music.
"Creative Exchanges" brings together work by visual, literary, and performing artists whose contact information is found in the address books kept by the artists Jackson Pollock and Lee Krasner from the early 1950s through the 1960s (Pollock died in 1956). Among them were Nataraj Vashi, an Indian musician, and his wife, Pravina Mehta, a dancer.
"There are 75 artists in the books," said Helen Harrison, director of the Pollock-Krasner House. Among them, 30 "who had particularly close connection to Jackson and Lee" were chosen for the continuing exhibition.
Vashi and Mehta "had been in New York in 1947 presenting their work at the Belasco Theatre," Ms. Harrison said, "and evidently met Herbert and Mercedes Matter." Mercedes, an abstract painter, "was very close with Lee," she said, and Herbert, a photographer and graphic designer, "photographed Pravina dancing in motion, in beautiful stop-action."
"A large audience of Hindus and non-Hindus assembled at the Belasco Theatre last night for the American debut of the Hindu dancers, Nataraj Vashi and Pra-veena, sponsored by the India Society of America under the royal patronage of the Maharajah of Baroda," The New York Times reported on May 27, 1947.
Among the objects in the "Creative Exchanges" exhibition is "Dances of India," an album recorded in India but pressed in New York, with a cover design by David Stone Martin, an artist known for his work on jazz albums. "I opened up the cover," Ms. Harrison said, "and it was inscribed to them. It said, 'To Lee and Jackson with love.' That's pretty personal."
The Matters spent the summer of 1958 in a rented house near Pollock and Krasner's, and "evidently brought [Vashi and Mehta] out here," she said, "and they met Jackson and Lee and gave them the album and became good friends."
Vashi and Mehta, who first came to the United States in 1937, taught at the Black Mountain College Summer Art Institute in North Carolina in 1949. "After they finished at Black Mountain, they came back and visited again," Ms. Harrison said. "And then in '52 they were renting out here. So they spent a considerable amount of time in the area."
"The chief feature of the program was 'Trimurti,' a long work dealing with the cosmic drama of creation according to Hindu philosophy, in which the two principals each assumed a number of roles," The Times wrote of Vashi and Mehta's performance at the Belasco Theatre.
When the two couples were in Springs, "Jackson and Lee apparently spent a lot of time with them, and they discussed Indian religion and Indian philosophy," Ms. Harrison said. "Jackson was not religious, but he was spiritual. He was looking for spiritual direction. According to his biographers, this was part of the attraction to get to know" Vashi and Mehta.
Mr. Khan, who will perform on Sunday, is a renowned Indian classical musician. The son of Ustad Imrat Khan, a sitarist and composer, and nephew of Ustad Vilayat Khan, a sitarist, he has performed all over the world, including with Stevie Wonder at the Bonnaroo Festival. ("Ustad" is an honorific for an expert in Indian classical singing and instrumentation.)
"I thought this would be a wonderful way of paying tribute to that friendship, that relationship," Ms. Harrison said. She asked Josh Gladstone, an associate producer at LTV and former creative director at Guild Hall's John Drew Theater, if he could recommend a performer.
"I had the pleasure of presenting them previously at the John Drew Theater in 2019, where they gave a completely riveting, transporting, and excellent performance," Mr. Gladstone said. "I'm delighted we can bring them back to the community."
Tickets for "Indian Music to Heal the Soul" start at $30 and are available at bit.ly/45pVBw9.
