It is heartening to see that Rose Wylie, at an age when most people have long since retired from the fray, has a new exhibition in a major New York gallery.

These curious and enigmatic objects from India, variously known as ‘sectarian body stamps’, ‘chhappa’, and ‘tika jali’, are used by Hindu Vaishnavite devotees (and sometimes Shaivites) to express loyalty to their deities and to transfer to themselves some of the gods’ power and beneficence.