International Departures - by Devika Singh (Hardcover)

About the Book

"In this richly illustrated account, Devika Singh presents together for the first time the work of Indian and foreign artists active in India after independence in 1947. The book engages with the many creators, critics, and patrons of post-war Indian art from Bhupen Khakhar, Zarina and Kekoo Gandhy to Isamu Noguchi, Le Corbusier, and Clement Greenberg. Devika Singh opens up new ways of thinking about Indian art by considering their reception in India and abroad. Featuring a wealth of rare and previously unpublished images, this provocative new book explores how artists in India participated in global modernism during a crucial period of decolonization and nation-building." --

Book Synopsis

A new global history of Indian art after 1947.

In this richly illustrated account, Devika Singh presents together for the first time the work of Indian and foreign artists active in India after independence in 1947. The book engages with the many creators, critics, and patrons of post-war Indian art from Bhupen Khakhar, Zarina and Kekoo Gandhy to Isamu Noguchi, Le Corbusier, and Clement Greenberg. Devika Singh opens up new ways of thinking about Indian art by considering their reception in India and abroad. Featuring a wealth of rare and previously unpublished images, this provocative new book explores how artists in India participated in global modernism during a crucial period of decolonization and nation-building.

Review Quotes

"Combining a history of exhibitions with one of ideas, the study of entirely new archives with transnational trajectories reset in a global context . . . Singh's publication is an indispensable read and contributes to the writing of a new history of 20th-century art that is truly connected."-- "Critique d'Art"

"Rather than treating internationalism as an 'ism', Singh unpacks it and peoples it with artists, curators, artworks, events, conversations, letters made possible by thorough archival research. Breathtaking are unpublished photographs that render the familiar story of the Indian modern fresh."-- "Take on Art"

"Through her analysis of the internationalist networks created and utilized by Indian, American, and European luminaries of art, architecture, film, and design, Singh successfully convinces her reader that India should be regarded as a crucial site for the development and reinterpretation of modernism in the Cold War era."-- "ARTMargins"

"Singh's eloquent challenge to perspectives on modernism . . . Her book examines international connections that shaped Indian art between independence in 1947 and the 1980s, arguing that the latter cannot be analysed as a separate, grand national narrative, but must be seen as entangled with transnational trends. In so doing it seeks to unpick the complex mutual relationships between traditions on the receiving end of colonialism and within the hegemonic centre itself."-- "Morning Star"

"This 'captivating' and richly illustrated history of Indian art since 1947 describes how artists in India - both native and foreign-born - participated in the global modernist movement during a crucial period of decolonization and nation building."-- "The Bookseller"

"Singh offers a major contribution to a new, transnational history of art. The first book to probe how a society, through its artistic community and practice, deconstructed Western discourses on the other and in the process re-appropriated its own identity, International Departures substantially revises the terms of the history of modern art and turns the tables on the critical uses of Western formalism under the shadow of Indian political motivations."--Zahia Rahmani, National Institute for Art History (INHA), Paris

"An important departure in the study of post-Independence Indian art envisaged as an archive in transition between national prerogatives and foreign relations. Singh's lively narrative explores the institutional trials and individual tensions that accompanied the legitimate emergence of Indian artists on the international stage. International Departures is an impeccably researched study of cultural intersections and aesthetic innovations to observe the founding, and grounding, of an emancipatory political imagination."--Homi K. Bhabha, Harvard University

"This captivating book reads like a living map of Indian modernisms. Singh's transnational art history of mobility gives us a rare synopsis of the entangled routes of art and the activities of Western artists in India."--Christian Kravagna, Academy of Fine Arts Vienna

"This highly original and fascinating work traces the story of interactions between Indians and the West in the formation of post-independence art in India. Not only will it become an indispensable text for art history, this richly illustrated work will be essential reading for all serious students of global modernism. An impressive achievement."--Partha Mitter, University of Sussex

About the Author

Devika Singh is a senior lecturer in curating at the Courtauld Institute of Art, London and was previously curator of international art at Tate Modern.