Modernity & Visual Culture

This project explores how Indian modernity is produced by and through the paradox of how to be both modern and Indian in the post-Independence period from 1947-1980. If the modern involves universal communication and pure form, a turning away from religion to reason, and a reliance on a (usually colonized) Other as productive foil, then how can one produce a modernism that also constructs the particularity of a new, formerly colonized, nation? Examining the interconnections among fine art, architecture, photography, and vernacular visual culture after Independence, this research provides a new, overarching examination of this crucial period in Indian art history.

Publications: monograph, 4 articles, 3 book chapters, 1 catalog essay and 5 artist entries; 2 book chapters forthcoming

Exhibitions: 2: Akhoury and Rubin Collections (2009), Rubin Collection, with catalog (2011-12)