CONTEMPORARY INDIAN ART
Other Realities
Edited by YASHODHARA DALMIA
New Delhi: Marg Publications, 2002. 131 pages. $66

reviewed by Justin Marx

Contemporary Indian Art: Other Realities is a collection of thought-provoking, informative essays by some of the leading scholars and proponents of contemporary Indian art from both inside and outside India. It is edited by Yashodhara Dalmia, author of The Making of Indian Art: The Progressives (2001) and curator of the inaugural show at the National Gallery of Modern Art, Mumbai, in 1996-97. The essays in the book center on the debates and issues that have surrounded contemporary Indian art (mostly post-Independence/post-1947 art) in the last decade or so. In her introduction, Dalmia clearly and succinctly outlines the essence of the debates, while the essays themselves, which range from academic articles to introductions to exhibition catalogues, are woven into a cohesive volume. Dalmia has turned what otherwise could have been severely squelched voices destined to fall on academic ears into a wonderful volume that those with a general interest in art and South Asia can appreciate. Rather than focus on the rhetorical question of whether there is an "Indian modernism," she identifies three issues that these authors focus on: 1) that modernism is essentially a Western concept; 2) that there are many modernisms, such as "Asian" modernism and "contextual" modernism; and 3) that there is a need to address marginalized political and social issues in art, such as feminism and subalternism.

Although it is not the aim of the book, it is possible to construct a history of modern art in India from reading these essays. Different authors focus on different periods and schools of art, and the book is filled with over one hundred excellent color plates representing works from Ravi Varma's Galaxy (1893) to Anju Dodiya's Colony (2001). Many theoretical articles are included, as well as analyses of the work of individual artists, such as Abanindranath Tagore (1871-1951), one of the founders of the Bengal School and "the first Indian artist to openly commit himself to culture-specific modernism" (in the essays by R. Siva Kumar and Ella Dutta), and Anita Dube (b. 1958), whose 1997 Silence (Blood Wedding)a display of human bones stitched in red velvet and decorated with sequinsis part of a growing body of feminist art in India (in the essay by Gayatri Sinha).

The authors convincingly challenge the commonly held belief that modernity moves from developed to developing countries, and instead argue that modernity reinvents itself everywhere and can easily incorporate elements of tradition that had previously been seen as in opposition to modernity. Jyotindra Jain, the current head of the School of Art and Aesthetics at Jawaharlal Nehru University, for example, discusses how rural folk artists in Bengal have engaged with the mass media and incorporate mass media-based imagery in their art, demonstrating that for many folk artists modernity has meant consolidation, not degeneration, of tradition. Dalmia argues that it is contradictory to speak derogatorily about Indian art as "hybrid" and "imitative," since modernism in the West has always been rooted in the principles of universalism and internationalism. R. Siva Kumar, art historian and academic, uses the term "art language" to discuss this process of cultural exchange and the development of eclectic and hybrid art practices by examining the work of several artists in depth.

Kumar also shows that modernism in India has led in two different directions, on the one hand pulling toward greater cultural specificity, and on the other gravitating toward common values in a sort of international modernism. Dalmia points out that modernism in India has always been associated with nationalism and identity, with political and social aspirations. She sees postmodernism as beginning in India only in the 1990s when young artists like Ravindra Reddy, Atul Dodiya, and Anita Dube, unencumbered by the "colonial hangover" that had affected the previous generation of artists, began to move away from painting to create installations and use mixed media in their art.

Susan Bean, curator at the Peabody Essex Museum in Salem, Massachusetts, home of the largest collection of contemporary Indian art in the United States, put together a show called "Timeless Visions" at the museum in 1999. In her essay, which was the introduction to the catalogue for the exhibition, she emphasizes that although "contemporary" art is always changing and always current, it must also attempt to transcend time because it is the recognition and duration of an art work that gauge its success. Bean argues that " . . . the temporal aspect of contemporary art in India is unusually rich because of the complexity and sophistication of co-present philosophical, theological, and scientific concepts." The premodern, modern, and postmodern coexist on many street corners and canvases in India, but the West is still hegemonic, at least in terms of the art establishment and its schools, galleries, criticism, and market (see the essays by Thomas McEvilley and John Bowles).

Overall, this is an excellent book, with articles that will appeal to both scholars and general readers interested in India, art, and cultural exchange. It is a much needed and appreciated contribution to a small but growing body of criticism and documentation of contemporary Indian art.