Acharya Vyakul

Acharya Vyakul (1930 – 2000), whose full name was Acharya Ram Charan Sharma, lived most of his life in Jaipur, the capital of India’s Rajasthan. He was a member of the Brahman caste within Hindu society. Brahmans are designated as the priestly class, serving as ministers and spiritual teachers. The basis of the age-old veneration of Brahmans is the belief that they are inherently of greater ritual purity than members of other castes and that they alone can perform certain vital religious tasks. The study and recitation of the sacred scriptures were traditionally reserved for this spiritual elite, and for centuries, all Indian scholarship was in their hands.

Vyakul was a guru to many and an ardent collector of magical and religious items, establishing his private museum in Jaipur with a collection of folk and Tantric art. He was also a prolific artist, poet, and philosopher who painted Tantric iconography with fluid improvisational strokes. He used various materials—from coal, flowers, stone pigments, and marker pens to communicate a mystical vision with dynamic energy. He referred to himself as a “modern artist with roots" and exhibited worldwide, including in the exhibition "Magiciens de la Terre" at The Centre Pompidou in Paris in 1989.

All the works in this exhibition are from the collection of The William Louis-Dreyfus Foundation. Established in 2013, the Foundation is dedicated to the mission of educating the public about the importance of art and increasing public awareness of self-taught and emerging artists. In 2015, the Foundation announced its intention to donate proceeds to the Harlem Children's Zone when it sells works from its collection. As part of the Foundation's broader philanthropic mission, proceeds from the sales of its artworks will benefit the Harlem Children's Zone as well as the Foundation itself.