Bøker av K. G. Subramanyan

This volume dives deep into how art reflects the ever-evolving relationship between humanity and nature, exploring industrialization's impact on cultural practices and memory. In The Concept of Tradition and Other Essays, K. G. Subramanyan explores questions about art and tradition, such as whether tradition is more than a mere linear progression of artifacts and ideas. He also explores how art reflects on the evolving relationship between nature and humanity and the impact industrialization has had on our aesthetic sensibilities. He interrogates the structures that transmit cultural knowledge across generations while exploring whether tradition can serve as a viable framework for human endeavor in modern society. Subramanyan brings his trademark candor, lucidity, and wisdom to these reflections and responses.

These insightful essays explore how the intersection of artistic and scientific pursuits shapes creative processes. In this collection of essays by one of India's most celebrated artists, K. G. Subramanyan explores many questions that have shaped his art and his process. Among the ideas that shape this collection are such questions as how does the artist's eye manipulate her view of the world?; was a visual defect responsible for the birth of impressionism?; what is the grammar of the art language?; how can rasa theory help explain the aesthetic experience of visual art?; and what drives artistic and scientific pursuits, and how do aesthetic experiences shape the creative process in both domains? In A Matter of Perspective and Other Essays, Subramanyan answers these questions with his trademark candor, lucidity, and wisdom, shedding new light on his work and creative philosophy.

This volume of essays examines and celebrates how cross-cultural encounters have shaped modern art, a crucial reminder in today's political landscape. In The Local and the Global and Other Essays, K. G. Subramanyan investigates the fate of multiculturalism in a globalized world. He interrogates questions about when art stopped being subservient to the dictates of the calendar and explores how artistic traditions maintain their identity in a global context. Examining how cross-cultural encounters have shaped and absorbed artistic practices across borders, he also discusses the societal and individual role of art and how it has evolved from prehistoric times to modernity. Subramanyan brings his trademark candor, lucidity, and wisdom to these reflections and responses.

An examination of the dependence and independence of the artist in the contemporary world in which they must choose between consumerism and state support. In Theory Text Context and Other Essays, K. G. Subramanyan asks what exactly we mean by the patron when we speak of modern art. Seeking to understand the conditions necessary for a cultural renaissance to occur, he also wonders whether a cultural renaissance is even possible and if it can be more than the mere revival of old forms and manners. Exploring whether theories of art are timeless or time-bound, he discusses advances in visual art and how they influence our perception of art history. Subramanyan brings his trademark candor, lucidity, and wisdom to these reflections and responses.

A fascinating discussion of Gandhi's moral values and art stance, providing contemporary ethical reflections. In Discovering Each Other and Other Essays, K. G. Subramanyan reflects on Gandhi's political and cultural role in India and what lessons can be learned and applied more broadly. He explores how Gandhi's moral values compared with his stance on art, while also investigating how traditional crafts can survive in an industrial world. He asks what role policymakers can play in the sustainability of manual crafts and investigates how the perception of tribal communities and their art changed in India over time. Subramanyan brings his trademark candor, lucidity, and wisdom to these reflections and responses.

Word-pictures crafted by a master artist from everyday moments offer deep reflections on contemporary existence in this poem collection. I lie and lay my head upon the grass And unwind the body hardened stiff like glass. But the tiny blades tickle the lower ear Making me ask myself, why do I bear This crass impertinence and sink my head Still further down its bed of prickly green? So asks the poet, his ears pressed against the earth as he maps the world around him in a new geography of sound. Places, photographs, books, neighbors, afternoons, love, loss, and longing are sketched into word-pictures by Subramanyan as he reflects, reacts, and reminisces in this collection of poems. These memoir-poems will help throw into relief some of Subramanyan's symbols and motifs, better contextualizing his oeuvre.

From one of India's best-known artists, an inspired exploration of China's cities and small towns and villages, highlighting landscapes and everyday life. In 1985, K. G. Subramanyan visited China on an invitation from the China Artists Association, exploring Beijing, the Dunhuang caves, Xinjiang, Shaanxi, and Guangdong. Rather than its old monuments and new cities, what caught his eye were China's landscapes and the quotidian scenes of life in its small towns and villages. During his travels, he preferred to make visual impressions rather than elaborate drawings. Upon returning to Santiniketan, he used those visual notes to produce a large body of ink works on card-sized handmade paper, as well as a few paintings, registering his recollections with precise calligraphic economy. This volume brings together a number of these drawings and paintings along with Subramanyan's writings on China, giving us a rare insight into this cross-cultural interaction.

A collection of letters discussing the role of the state in the preservation and promotion of art and culture, by one of India's greatest artists. The seventeen letters in this collection were written by K.G. Subramanyan in response to requests from "various quarters" about matters ranging from the National Policy of Education to the government's seeming preference for erecting statues of dead men and organizing grand Republic Day parades rather than for preserving the myriad threads of cultural tradition and ensuring the survival of the Indian value system against the onslaught of a "Western" lifestyle. As Subramanyan writes in his preface, although he has no proof that any of his views and suggestions translated into practice, the very writing of them was, for him, a process of thinking through a range of issues that pertain not merely to art and aesthetics but to life itself.

Offers a stinging parable of democracy gone wrong by narrating and illustrating the story of a princess whose autocratic rule brought nothing but suffering to her people, despite her ambition of progress for her country.