Lila Devi

Lila Devi kept a studio open to the street in Varanasi, where she painted on the floor using brooms when brushes ran out. She’d start before sunrise, rolling out cloth like a sari for canvas, mixing pigments with cow urine and tamarind seeds. One afternoon she painted Shiva riding Nandi with a single finger dipped in wet pigment, the bull’s muscles shimmering like wet silk under monsoon light.

Find her 1974 “Shiva riding on Nandi” in the gallery tiles, look for the floor-length brushstrokes and the way the hooves sink slightly into the painted ground.