Sitar
On loan to The Met
This work of art is currently on loan to the museum.Ravi Shankar’s performances of Hindustani classical sitar music in the West had a profound influence on musicians from John and Alice Coltrane to violinist Yehudi Menuhin to George Harrison and the Beatles. His appearances at the Monterrey Pop Festival in 1967 and Woodstock in 1969 added fuel to the craze for sitar sounds in psychedelic rock. Shankar owned and played this sitar and gave it to Mercury Records executive Shelby Singleton as a gift on a trip to America in the early 1960s. It has since been displayed at the Musicians Hall of Fame and the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame.
Technical Description:
Toon and/or teak wood, metal, plastic, gourd; five melody strings, three drone strings, thirteen sympathetic strings
Technical Description:
Toon and/or teak wood, metal, plastic, gourd; five melody strings, three drone strings, thirteen sympathetic strings
Artwork Details
- Title: Sitar
- Artist: Rikhi Ram Music Instrument Manufacturing (Indian, est. 1920)
- Artist: Ravi Shankar
- Date: ca. 1960
- Geography: India
- Medium: Toon and/or teak wood, gourd, metal, plastic
- Dimensions: Length: 48 in. (121.9 cm)
Width: 14 in. (35.6 cm)
Depth (max): 13 in. (33 cm)
Weight: ~6-9 lbs. - Classification: Chordophone-Lute-plucked-fretted
- Credit Line: Sukanya Shankar and the Ravi Shankar Foundation
- Curatorial Department: Musical Instruments