A Colloquium to mark the Launch of AAA’s Bibliography of Modern and Contemporary Art-writing of India
Friday 14 February,10am–5:30pm
Saturday 15 February, 9:30am–1:20pm
School of Arts and Aesthetics Auditorium
JNU, New Delhi
Open to all. Seats available on a first-come, first-served basis.
Asia Art Archive (AAA) is pleased to present Locating Art Histories: Dialogues on Language, Writing, and Research in India, a two-day colloquium in collaboration with India Foundation for the Arts, Bangalore, and School of Arts and Aesthetics, Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU), on 14 and 15 February 2014 at the School of Arts and Aesthetics Auditorium, JNU, New Delhi.
The Locating Art Histories colloquium marks the launch of Asia Art Archive’s Bibliography of Modern and Contemporary Art-writing of Indiaproject, which has compiled an extensive and growing database of art writing in India from the late 19th century until 1990, across 13 languages. Taking into consideration the lively field of art writing in the subcontinent throughout the 20th century, the Bibliography Project began its cataloguing process in English, Tamil, Marathi, Kannada, Telugu, Oriya, Hindi, Bengali, Assamese, Gujarati, and Punjabi. Other languages (namely Urdu and Malyalam) are presently in planning stages. As of February 2014, more than 10,000 texts have been compiled, including books, book chapters, catalogues, entire periodicals, periodical entries, and newspapers.
The Bibliography Project, available online after its launch, will be the first of its kind to provide a consolidated database of published material on modern and contemporary art of India. At the time of launch, the online Bibliography will primarily comprise of material collated in two languages—Marathi and Tamil. Entries collated in the remaining languages will be uploaded during the course of 2014 and beyond. By sharing information on publications from libraries, institutions, and personal archives across several cities and languages, the online database hopes to enrich understanding of this exciting field and to be useful to students, scholars, researchers, artists, writers, and the art community at large.
By bringing together scholars and researchers, the colloquium will be a platform for generating public discussion around the specific contexts of art writing in India, its practitioners, recurrent themes, and its publics.
About AAA
Asia Art Archive is an independent non-profit organisation dedicated to documenting and enabling research on the recent history of contemporary art in Asia within an international context. Founded in 2000, AAA is one of the world’s leading public resources for contemporary art in Asia. Accessible free of charge from AAA’s physical space and searchable from anywhere in the world via the online catalogue, much of the collection is now also available globally via www.aaa.org.hk.
More than a static repository waiting to be discovered, AAA is a proactive platform, instigating critical thinking and dialogue through its programmes for a wide range of audiences. AAA is committed to creating a collection belonging to the public, in a space that is open and productive, generating new ideas that continually reshape the Archive itself.
AAA India Projects: Highlights
In 2010, the Archive initiated its digitisation projects with the personal archives of two seminal figures, art critic and curator Geeta Kapur, and artist and activist Vivan Sundaram, now accessible on the AAA website. In 2013, during the research phase of the Bibliography project, the Archive concurrently organized a series of workshops with artists and scholars titled ‘Fields of Legibility: Disciplines and Practices of Art Writing in India.’ The workshops, held in Kochi, Mumbai, and Williamstown, Massachusetts, served as important platforms to collectively discuss frameworks for understanding regional and multi-lingual art histories. In the end of 2014, the Archive will launch its second digitisation project of the personal archives of four important pedagogues in Baroda: Professors K G Subramanyan, Gulammohammed Sheikh, Ratan Parimoo, and Jyoti Bhatt.
The launch of the ‘Bibliography of Modern and Contemporary Art-writing of India’ project anticipates Asia Art Archive’s upcoming series of publications that will contribute to newer understandings of art history and art practice in the subcontinent.
‘Bibliography of Modern and Contemporary Art-writing of India’ has been made possible by generous support from the Avantha Group.
Presented by Asia Art Archive in collaboration with India Foundation for the Arts and School of Arts and Aesthetics, Jawaharlal Nehru University.
Project details | www.aaa.org.hk/LocatingArtHistories Project enquiries | Sabih Mohd Ahmed | [email protected]
