The Smithsonian’s National Museum of Asian Art in Washington, DC, has announced a new exhibition titled “Of the Hills: Pahari Paintings from India’s Himalayan Kingdoms,” running from April 18 to July 26, 2026. The show features 48 paintings and colored drawings, including canonical masterpieces and never-before-seen works, drawn largely from the museum’s 2017–2018 acquisitions of the Ralph Benkaim and Catherine Glynn Benkaim collection. The exhibition explores three key periods from 1620 to 1830, highlighting the collaborative creativity of artists in the small Hindu kingdoms of the Himalayan region.
This exhibition matters because it challenges traditional art historical methodologies by focusing on collaboration and regional innovation in Pahari painting, a beloved but understudied genre of Indian art. It also marks a rare opportunity to view previously unseen works, and it is part of a broader scholarly effort that includes concurrent exhibitions at the Cleveland Museum of Art and the Cincinnati Museum of Art, as well as a new catalogue co-authored by leading experts. The show deepens public understanding of South Asian and Himalayan artistic traditions and underscores the importance of the Benkaim collection as a major resource for research.