Ideals of Indian Art

Ideals of Indian Art
Author: Ernest Binfield Havell
Publisher: Palala Press
Total Pages: 278
Release: 2018-02-24
Genre: Art
ISBN: 9781378669686

This work has been selected by scholars as being culturally important, and is part of the knowledge base of civilization as we know it. This work was reproduced from the original artifact, and remains as true to the original work as possible. Therefore, you will see the original copyright references, library stamps (as most of these works have been housed in our most important libraries around the world), and other notations in the work. This work is in the public domain in the United States of America, and possibly other nations. Within the United States, you may freely copy and distribute this work, as no entity (individual or corporate) has a copyright on the body of the work. As a reproduction of a historical artifact, this work may contain missing or blurred pages, poor pictures, errant marks, etc. Scholars believe, and we concur, that this work is important enough to be preserved, reproduced, and made generally available to the public. We appreciate your support of the preservation process, and thank you for being an important part of keeping this knowledge alive and relevant.

Indian Art

Indian Art
Author: Partha Mitter
Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
Total Pages: 295
Release: 2001
Genre: Art
ISBN: 9780192842213

This concise yet lively new survey guides the reader through 5,000 years of Indian art and architecture. A rich artistic tradition is fully explored through the Hindu, Buddhist, Islamic, Colonial, and contemporary periods, incorporating discussion of modern Bangladesh and Pakistan, tribal artists, and the decorative arts. Combining a clear overview with fascinating detail, Mitter succeeds in bringing to life the true diversity of Indian culture. The influence of Islam on the Mughal court, which produced the world-famous Taj Mahal and exquisite miniature paintings, is closely examined. More recently, he discusses the nationalist and global concerns of contemporary art, including the rise of female artists, the stunning architecture of Charles Correa, and the vibrant art scene. The very particular character of Indian art is set within its cultural and religious milieu, raising important issues about the profound differences between Western and Indian ideas of beauty and eroticism in art.

Art for a Modern India, 1947-1980

Art for a Modern India, 1947-1980
Author: Rebecca M. Brown
Publisher: Duke University Press
Total Pages: 222
Release: 2009-03-17
Genre: Art
ISBN: 0822392267

Following India’s independence in 1947, Indian artists creating modern works of art sought to maintain a local idiom, an “Indianness” representative of their newly independent nation, while connecting to modernism, an aesthetic then understood as both universal and presumptively Western. These artists depicted India’s precolonial past while embracing aspects of modernism’s pursuit of the new, and they challenged the West’s dismissal of non-Western places and cultures as sources of primitivist imagery but not of modernist artworks. In Art for a Modern India, Rebecca M. Brown explores the emergence of a self-conscious Indian modernism—in painting, drawing, sculpture, architecture, film, and photography—in the years between independence and 1980, by which time the Indian art scene had changed significantly and postcolonial discourse had begun to complicate mid-century ideas of nationalism. Through close analyses of specific objects of art and design, Brown describes how Indian artists engaged with questions of authenticity, iconicity, narrative, urbanization, and science and technology. She explains how the filmmaker Satyajit Ray presented the rural Indian village as a socially complex space rather than as the idealized site of “authentic India” in his acclaimed Apu Trilogy, how the painter Bhupen Khakhar reworked Indian folk idioms and borrowed iconic images from calendar prints in his paintings of urban dwellers, and how Indian architects developed a revivalist style of bold architectural gestures anchored in India’s past as they planned the Ashok Hotel and the Vigyan Bhavan Conference Center, both in New Delhi. Discussing these and other works of art and design, Brown chronicles the mid-twentieth-century trajectory of India’s modern visual culture.

Indian Art, an Overview

Indian Art, an Overview
Author: Gayatri Sinha
Publisher: books catalog
Total Pages: 254
Release: 2003
Genre: Art
ISBN:

Indian Art: An Overview is a seminal study on Indian art's entry through modernism into post-modernism. Through fifteen essays, leading tendencies in Indian art are traced from the period of the 1850s onwards. Leading critics and art historians analyze th

20th Century Indian Art

20th Century Indian Art
Author: Rakhee Balaram
Publisher: National Geographic Books
Total Pages: 0
Release: 2022-06-28
Genre: Art
ISBN: 0500023328

A major publication showcasing the history of Indian art across the subcontinent and South Asia from the late-nineteenth century to the present day. This landmark collection presents a new history of Indian art from the twentieth century to the present day. Recent decades have seen an overdue interest in the acquisition and exhibition of modern Indian and South Asian art and artists by major international museums. This essential, lavishly illustrated volume presents an engaging, informative history of modern art from the subcontinent as seen through the eyes of prominent Indian art historians. Illustrations are paired with a strong narrative through line, where key experts contribute multiple perspectives on modernism, modernity, and plurality, as well as expansive ideas about contemporary art practices. A range of subjects, including Group 1890, the Madras Art Movement, Regional Modern, and Dalit art, are contextualized, along with key artists such as Amrita Sher-Gil and Raqs Media Collective. There are also sections devoted to the art of Pakistan, Nepal, Bangladesh, and other parts of South Asia. Together with lively expert discussions and a selection of absorbing interviews with artists, 20th Century Indian Art meets a clear demand for a comprehensive and authoritative sourcebook on modern, postmodern, and contemporary Indian art. This is the definitive reference for anyone with an interest in Indian art and non-Western art histories. Published in association with Art Alive

The Square and the Circle of the Indian Arts

The Square and the Circle of the Indian Arts
Author: Kapila Vatsyayan
Publisher: Abhinav Publications
Total Pages: 210
Release: 1997
Genre: Art
ISBN: 9788170173625

The Square and the Circle of the Indian Arts is a major contribution in Indian art history. More than a book on the theories of arts, it has far-reaching implications for the way one thinks about the future of indology and art history. It provides a model to be emulated for inter-disciplinary research, not only between the arts but also the sciences and the arts. The book begins by re-examining the imagery of the Vedas and the Upanisads, highlighting some aspects of early speculative thought which influenced the enunciation of aesthetic theories, particularly of Bharata in the Natyasastra. The next chapter introduces a new methodology of analyzing the rituals (yajna) as laid down in the Yajurveda and the Satapatha Brahmana, the best way to focus the relationship between the text and the practice. Four chapters follow – one each on drama (natya), architecture (vastu), sculpture (silpa), and music (sangita). Each presents some fundamental concepts of speculative thought, concerned with each of the arts and purposefully correlates these with actual examples both of the past and the present. The afterward to this second edition remains an event not only because the book benefits from the works published since the first edition, but also because it presents the author’s integral vision and her unique adventure into the boundaries of several disciplines. It demonstrates the efficacy of her earlier approach of investigating the imagery and the metaphors as basic to the discourse of the Indian tradition. She proposes a multi-layered cluster of concepts and metaphors which enable one to uncode the complex multi-dimensional character of the Indian Arts. Also significantly she suggests a deeper comprehension of the relevance of the developments in the field of traditional mathematics and biology for the study of the language of form of the Indian Arts.

Alamkara

Alamkara
Author: Ramesh Chandra Sharma
Publisher: Asian Civilisations Museum
Total Pages: 0
Release: 1994
Genre: Architecture
ISBN: 9789971917777

Alamkara is a Sanskrit word for ornamentation or decoration. This book examines ornamentation in the context of Indian objects made for use in domestic, courtly, and religious settings. Three essays and a catalogue section develop this notion. From the exhibition: The first ever blockbuster exhibition of Indian antiquities was the result of a memorandum of understanding on culture between the governments of Singapore and India. This exhibition was setup with 330 loan artefacts from the National Museum, New Delhi at the former National Museum building (now Singapore History Museum on Stamford Road). It saw 120,000 visitors entering the portals of the museum within a record time. The exhibition was accompanied by attractive crafts, food and performances which saw community participation and support. The exhibition was thematically arranged, covering 5000 years of Indian art woven around a recurrent theme of decoration, Alamkara. The first section introduced the civilisation from Indus-Sarasvati cultures through sculptural development to fully developed temple forms with sculptures displayed in their design context. The idea of ornament was developed further to explain its aesthetic and artistic meaning and ramifications in various media. A whole section on ornamentation showcased jewellery, textiles and costumes for men, women and children along with contextual paintings to elaborate their historicity. The artefacts were further divided into more lifestyle-based themes such as from pot to plate, adorning the self, the pursuit of pleasure, the heroic ideal, kings, courtiers and craftsmen, mortal women celestial lovers and streams of devotion. These sections elaborated using a collection of artefacts based on their function and usage, the ideas of food, adornment, games and leisure activities, lovers and the world of women and religions practiced on the Indian subcontinent. The star piece of the religion section was a relic of Buddha, excavated from a site called Piprawah. These relics were honorably displayed on a platform which visitors could circumambulate. A large pillared hall evoking the Ellora buddhist caves from 7th-9th century in western India was the model for the religion gallery display. A large court interior was also evoked using tent panels, quilts, cushions and umbrellas with decorative huqqas and silverware.

The Body Adorned

The Body Adorned
Author: Vidya Dehejia
Publisher: Columbia University Press
Total Pages: 262
Release: 2009-02-26
Genre: History
ISBN: 9780231512664

The sensuous human form-elegant and eye-catching-is the dominant feature of premodern Indian art. From the powerful god Shiva, greatest of all yogis and most beautiful of all beings, to stone dancers twisting along temple walls, the body in Indian art is always richly adorned. Alankara (ornament) protects the body and makes it complete and attractive; to be unornamented is to invite misfortune. In The Body Adorned, Vidya Dehejia, who has dedicated her career to the study of Indian art, draws on the literature of court poets, the hymns of saints and acharyas, and verses from inscriptions to illuminate premodern India's unique treatment of the sculpted and painted form. She focuses on the coexistence of sacred and sensuous images within the common boundaries of Buddhist, Jain, and Hindu "sacred spaces," redefining terms like "sacred" and "secular" in relation to Indian architecture. She also considers the paradox of passionate poetry, in which saints praised the sheer bodily beauty of the divine form, and nonsacred Rajput painted manuscripts, which freely inserted gods into the earthly realm of the courts. By juxtaposing visual and literary sources, Dehejia demonstrates the harmony between the sacred and the profane in classical Indian culture. Her synthesis of art, literature, and cultural materials not only generates an all-inclusive picture of the period but also revolutionizes our understanding of the cultural ethos of premodern India.