The exhibition brings together a selection of 84 works created in South Asia between the 16th and 19th centuries from the Edwin Binney III Collection held at the San Diego Museum of Art.

It is divided into two sections. The first, curated by Dr Ladan Akbarnia, takes an in-depth look at the role of the elephant in Indian courtly painting. Court artists produced splendid paintings and studies of the majestic animal, at once massive, graceful, powerful and noble. Many of them were put together to be admired in albums, while others were created as independent compositions or designs intended for transfer to other media. The second section, assembled by Dr Sabiha al Khemir, examines life in the royal court by means of images relating to power, hunting and love.

The San Diego Museum of Art has one of the finest and most complete collections of South Asian paintings anywhere outside of India, thanks to the legacy of Edwin Binney III (1925-1986), one of the top experts on the subject in modern times. Consisting of almost 1,500 paintings, the collection aspires to be encyclopaedic, with works from all of the important schools from the 12th to the 19th centuries, including paintings created for the Mughal, Deccan, Rajasthani and Pahari courts of India.

The exhibition is organised and produced by Evolucionarte in partnership with the San Diego Museum of Art and CentroCentro.