A Mediated Magic – The Indian Presence in Modernism: 1880-1930

Edited by Naman P. Ahuja and Louise Belfrage (Mumbai: Marg, 2019)

 

Launch of the book followed by presentations by contributors to the volume: Dr. Naman P. Ahuja, Professor of Art History, Jawaharlal Nehru University; Dr. Peter Marx, Chair of Theatre and Media Studies, University of Cologne; Dr. Kalpan Sahni; and Ms Kristine Michael, artist and arts educator 

 

The exchanges with ideas Indian and with Indians themselves, had a decisive impact that contributed to the eruption of Modernism in the West. In turn, they lead us to think about how these ideas fed back to shape India’s self-perception. The latest book by Marg provides an intriguing history of how India was typecast in artistic, scientific, cultural and spiritual circles – as mediated for the stage by the Ballet Russes – Anna Pavlova, Léon Bakst, Gustav Holst, Stanislavsky and Tairov; in the arena of spiritual and cultural discourse by C.G. Jung, Helena Blavatsky, Annie Besant, Rabindranath Tagore, and Ananda Coomaraswamy; and in art, by Hilma af Klint, Wassily Kandinsky, Piet Mondrian and Natalia Goncharova, to name only a few. The four contributors to the book will present these greats of European art in astonishing new light

 

(Collaboration: Marg)