Figures of thought, objects of experience
Publisher: Mumbai ; ; 2015Edition: XIX; IV; October.Description: 50-53.Subject(s):
| ARCHITECTURE GENERAL (AR-GEN) | SMOKE-FIRED EARTHENWARE;ORGANIC/ABSTRACT SHOW;MADHVI SUBRAHMANIANOnline resources: Click here to access online
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Summary: The narrative of early post-colonial Indian visual art was shaped by key tropes, many of which originated in the larger, interlinked discourses of Orientalism, Colonialism and Nationalism. It remains widely known that European travellers and colonial officials perceived India as lacking in the fine arts; unaware of the right context to appreciate Indian sculpture and painting, these foreigners readily favoured the rich designs and workmanship in metals, textiles, clay and wood, which formed the bulk of Indian industrial arts or crafts.1 The Great Exhibition of 1851 too hailed Indian handicrafts as a perfect counter-point to staid British mass-produced goods.2 All the same, the sites of the village and the craftsman were soon reclaimed by nationalists who shifted focus to self-sufficient rural economies.3 Even post-independent India’s continuing emphasis on rural crafts promoted the idea of a pre-modern, timeless and static crafts’ domain.4 The making of a national art collection at the National Museum, New Delhi (1947-48) did not help to ease this situation; it was preoccupied with ferreting art traditions at the cost of excluding all contemporary experiments.5 This was also the case with the making of Asian art collections and Asian art histories in museums and academies in the West.6 A consequence of these developments was the creation of a dichotomy between the arts and the crafts (often guided by the choice of materials) and the constant elision of contemporary visual art experiments from both frames. It was thus left to practitioners of numerous genres to demonstrate the primacy of their processes and concepts over the hierarchy of materials. This was achieved at schools such as the Maharaja Sayajirao University, Baroda. Since the inception of the Fine Arts Faculty in 1949-1950, the making of its archives and art history and fine arts curricula was guided by a cosmopolitan spirit.7 Artists such as K. G. Subramanyan and Jyoti Bhatt built exemplary practices which embraced a wide range of materials and genres such as terracotta, murals, prints and photography. One profiles contemporary ceramist Madhvi Subrahmanian against the backdrop of these tropes to demonstrate how individual practices have given value to the principle of egalitarianism in the shaping of Indian and Asian visual arts and their increasing presence in the global arena
| Item type | Current location | Call number | Status | Date due | Barcode | Item holds |
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Articles Abstract Database
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School of Architecture Archieval Section | Not for loan | 2020-2021061 |
The narrative of early post-colonial Indian visual art was shaped by key tropes, many of which originated in the larger, interlinked discourses of Orientalism, Colonialism and Nationalism. It remains widely known that European travellers and colonial officials perceived India as lacking in the fine arts; unaware of the right context to appreciate Indian sculpture and painting, these foreigners readily favoured the rich designs and workmanship in metals, textiles, clay and wood, which formed the bulk of Indian industrial arts or crafts.1 The Great Exhibition of 1851 too hailed Indian handicrafts as a perfect counter-point to staid British mass-produced goods.2 All the same, the sites of the village and the craftsman were soon reclaimed by nationalists who shifted focus to self-sufficient rural economies.3 Even post-independent India’s continuing emphasis on rural crafts promoted the idea of a pre-modern, timeless and static crafts’ domain.4 The making of a national art collection at the National Museum, New Delhi (1947-48) did not help to ease this situation; it was preoccupied with ferreting art traditions at the cost of excluding all contemporary experiments.5 This was also the case with the making of Asian art collections and Asian art histories in museums and academies in the West.6 A consequence of these developments was the creation of a dichotomy between the arts and the crafts (often guided by the choice of materials) and the constant elision of contemporary visual art experiments from both frames. It was thus left to practitioners of numerous genres to demonstrate the primacy of their processes and concepts over the hierarchy of materials. This was achieved at schools such as the Maharaja Sayajirao University, Baroda. Since the inception of the Fine Arts Faculty in 1949-1950, the making of its archives and art history and fine arts curricula was guided by a cosmopolitan spirit.7 Artists such as K. G. Subramanyan and Jyoti Bhatt built exemplary practices which embraced a wide range of materials and genres such as terracotta, murals, prints and photography. One profiles contemporary ceramist Madhvi Subrahmanian against the backdrop of these tropes to demonstrate how individual practices have given value to the principle of egalitarianism in the shaping of Indian and Asian visual arts and their increasing presence in the global arena
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