The twain does meet

Amrit and Rabindra Singh paint in a miniature tradition that is "past modern".

An Indian miniature-inspired painting titled "Nineteen Eighty-Four" by the popular Twin Sisters (as Amrit and Rabindra Singh are known) is currently on loan to the Smithsonian Institution in Washington.

A strong political work of art, the sisters say they have been offered $1 million to sell it "" but they aren't interested. "It's too significant a piece to be hidden away in a private collection," says Amrit.

"And it's far more important to us right now that it remains on public display, accessible to a global audience," chips in Rabindra.

The London born and based Singh Twins do only commissioned works as a policy "" public or private. It was a strategy they adopted to develop a career to raise their profile and create awareness about their work.

The strategy worked as they have created a permanent non-selling body of works to which they keep adding, constantly available for future shows.

It has also helped them enjoy sustained public and media interest. In the last 20 years, they claim, the collection has become of important archival value. But recently, the Singh Twins have done a series that was available for sale off the wall at a show in Delhi.

When the Twins were teenagers, they drove in a motor home across Europe and the Middle East to explore India for the first time. "Our interest in the miniature began when we came across them in museums on that trip," says Rabindra.

They initially copied and later photographed details of miniatures to learn the technique. But while developing their own style and technique they resorted to using an Indian brand of readymade poster paints against traditional materials like mineral pigments.

Interestingly, the Twins' now hugely popular miniature art form, which they like to call "past modern", was initially rejected by the British art education system.

To their British tutors, inspiration from a traditional art form wasn't acceptable; "they defined modern art from a Eurocentric perspective and constantly pressured us to seek Western role models," says Rabindra.

But the Twins didn't budge, and it cost them their degree in art as the chief examiner refused to mark their final art dissertations, as their influence was non-European art. Their work was also labeled as "too culturally different" in a televised competition.

"The negative attitude we experienced became a major factor in our deciding to not only develop the Indian miniature within contemporary art but also to establish it as an international career in art," explains Amrit.

The Twins' miniatures usually see historical or mythological themes blending with contemporary issues "" social, political, personalities or popular culture.

Each miniature takes anything from 100-1,000 hours for them to complete, depending on the detailing and research, the hours usually equitably distributed between the two.

"We have a tight schedule in which to complete works, even if that sounds a little mechanical for art," says Rabindra, who feels that each piece is intended to be a mini essay or debate for people to react to.

From heavily detailed works to those less so, the Twins' style has seen gradual changes in composition and the balance of decoration, versus the actual content and the influences of a Western perspective, teamed with photographic realism.

The two sisters recently experimented with a new form "" combining Indian miniature formats with decorative art nouveau and pre-Raphaelite movements of Western art, for a theme on spices and flowers that combined Eastern and Western mythologies.

As of now, the two sisters are busying themselves with a public commission for a project as Liverpool, besides some private ones, but both remain eager to do another "selling" show in India after their previous success "" but "it won't be before 2008". says Amrit.