When Was Modernism: Essays on Contemporary Cultural Practice in India

A commitment to modernity is the underlying theme of this volume. Through essays that are interpretive and theoretical, the author seeks to situate the modern in contemporary cultural practice. The essays divide into three sections. The first two sections, Artists and Artworks and Film/Narratives, raise questions of authorship, genre and contemporary features of national culture that materialize into an aesthetic in the Indian context. The last section―Frames of Reference―formalizes the polemical options developed across the book. The essays here propose resistance to the depoliticization of narratives, and affirm an open-ended engagement with the avant-garde. They explore the possibility of art practice finding its own signifying space that is still a space for radical transformation.