BA Art History and Chinese

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What do histories of colonial subjection and resistance to it tell us about ongoing struggles for and against modernisation? What can art produced in the world’s most populous country (and largest democracy) tell us about the impact of globalisation on lands, people, and their ways of living? What forms of art emerge in a country grappling with significant challenges posed by the rise of industrialisation, chronic poverty, failing infrastructure, and the presence of a phenomenally rich and high-powered global elite?

This seminar-based course examines how artists make sense of the complex phenomena of colonialism and globalization, via a focus on India in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. Through close analyses of specific objects of art, architecture and design, we consider how Indian artists engaged with questions of authenticity, narrative, urbanization, the environment, feminism, and science and technology. Specifically, we analyse art produced before and after the 1947 Partition of India which divided the subcontinent into two independent dominion states: India and Pakistan. The emergence of a self-conscious Indian modernism in the decades between independence and the 1980s had a significant impact on the Indian art scene. From the 1980s a period of economic and societal liberalisation ensued, when India opened to the world after experiences of Third World utopianism. This was a time of self-criticism and re-appraisal when artists felt that nationalism had fundamentally constrained their practice. Moreover, they confronted new threats posed by the surge of corporate monopolies, the growth of the militant far-right, and challenges to secularism by the rise of ethno-nationalism. The tensions between the modern powerhouse economy, manual forms of labour and environmental exploitation became focal points of analysis, with artists engaging critically with their predecessors.

The course enables students to comprehend the development of art practices and movements in relation to questions of colonialism, modernism, and globalisation in India across the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. Students will learn how to make sense of definitions of the ‘political’ in art by evaluating and comparing theories whilst being exposed to a variety of forms of assessment.

Lecture-based

Directed reading

Small and focused group discussion of texts and works

Reading and slide presentation uploaded to Blackboard 

Demonstrate knowledge and understanding of how artists deploy a variety of ‘political’ art forms from 1905 up until the present to confront the challenges posed by globalisation. 

Evaluate and assess the significance of artistic contributions in relation to the theme of globalisation. 

Show critical awareness of historical and art historical literature, both past and present. · Produce a satisfactory account describing how artists negotiate the challenges posed by globalisation in relation to wider debates. 

Demonstrate ability to work both independently and collaboratively on a set topic.

Demonstrate knowledge of a particular area in the history of art. 

Demonstrate an understanding of works of art in their historical context.

Engage in detailed and critical discussion of art historical and methodological issues at a satisfactory level. 

Display independent and critical understanding of the material. 

Use and exploit research resources in the field. 

Articulate arguments both verbally and in writing. 

Complete an original academic research project under supervision. 

Demonstrate that they have developed the ability to work under pressure and are able to articulate their knowledge effectively under time constraints.

Conduct independent research in libraries and online. 

Devise and execute a structured research and writing plan. 

Work collaboratively and develop willingness to share, debate and exchange knowledge with colleagues. 

Assess and integrate peer critical feedback on their own work

Understand, assess and synthesise key arguments from a variety of research sources. · Become an original and independent-minded researcher and writer. 

Become an indispensable team-player able to contribute, lead and moderate critical discussions in class. 

Produce a clear and cogent written exposition of a given topic. 

Manage time efficiently and deliver written and oral work to set deadlines. 

Deploy IT resources for research and communication purposes.

Oral and Written feedback on plan and indicative bibliography for Essay 1

Written feedback on essay 1/2

Supplementary one-to-one feedback by appointment or during office hours

Dadi, Iftikhar. Modernism and the Art of Muslim South Asia. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2010. 197-216. 

Habermas, Jürgen. Excerpts on Communicative Ethics, from The inclusion of the Other. Studies in Political Theory. Jürgen Habermas. MIT Press, 1998, parts VIII and IX of Chapter 1 only, reproduced here; https://www.marxists.org/reference/archive/habermas/1998/communicative-ethics.htm

Kapur, Geeta. 2012. “Secular Artist, Citizen Artist.” in Jessica Moss and Ram Rahman, eds., The Sahmat Collective: Art and Activism in India since 1989, (THE SMART MUSEUM OF ART at the University of Chicago, 2013). 

Mufti, Aamir, “Towards a Lyric History of India,” boundary 2 31:2, 2004. 

Pinney, Christopher. 2014. “Gandhi, Camera, Action! India’s ‘August Spring.’” In The Political Aesthetics of Global Protest: The Arab Spring and Beyond, edited by Martin Webb, Pnina Werbner, and Martin Webb, 177–92. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press. http://ls-tlss.ucl.ac.uk/course-materials/ANTH7025_74094.pdf

Rancière, Jacques. 2009. “Contemporary Art and the Politics of Aesthetics.” In Communities of Sense, 31–50. Durham: Duke University Press. https://selforganizedseminar.files.wordpress.com/2012/10/communities-of-sense.pdf

Terracciano, Emilia. Art and Emergency: Modernism in twentieth-century India. London and New York: IB Tauris, 2018. 1-11. 

Terracciano, Emilia. “Disappearing Worlds:” The Caravan, February 2014. 106-113. http://caravanmagazine.in/reviews-and-essays/disappearing-worlds