Iconography in Contemporary Times and Contemporary Iconology Iconography is a ‘pointer’ to the relevance of culturally recognized images, contained upon their own self. A sign is an arrow mark to a direction which separates itself from that direction. In this sense, an icon diff ers from a sign in the sense, the former doesn’t diff […]
Month: October 2012
Cover Story
Migrating Iconographies Iconography, as strictly defi ned, refers to the study of all visual symbols and/or the symbols themselves, but in popular usage iconography is nearly impossible to separate from religion and convention. Th e term itself elicits immediate associations with religious tradition(s). We think of Orthodox Christian churches with gold-haloed saints painted on 15th […]
Cover Story
Issues of Iconography and Contemporary Indian Art: A Rethink. Let us consider the Contemporary Indian Art before we explore the issues of iconography. Apparent is the expansion of art into areas beyond the perimeter of painting, sculpture and perhaps we can extend it to include here the architecture too, knowing for fact that in art […]
ESSAY
CHANGING ICONOGRAPHY OF WOMAN POWER / SHAKTI IN INDIA It is ironic that a nation that has venerated and held in an exalted position Goddess or Shakti , is also living with the ignominy of both practicing and accepting female foeticide Shakti has been revered since pre- Vedic times, and over time, the imagery has […]
ESSAY
THREADING A FRACTURE Even in anodyne discursive deliberation—in the regime of art fi eld, to proff er a trope much favored by Alain Badiou—craft , and its trendy metonymical step-sister “reskilling” art inaugurates a hermeneutics of suspicion evidenced in the re-qualifi cation of savoir-faire and renewed interest in traditional techniques by relocating craft ’s space […]
AMIT MUKHOPADHYAY’S COLUMN
NOTES FROM ‘LOWENIX’? No one has accused me of being so, not even the ‘unbidden chatterers’, but the point I have in mind for so long is, can religion be reconciled with reason because ‘secular’ and ‘spiritual’ always contradict each other ? Let us accept what Tartullian said in this regard: ‘It is true because […]
FACE TO FACE
‘WE HAVE BROKEN TABOOS AND MADE THE FORBIDDEN FASHIONABLE’ Celebrity Abu Jani and Sandeep Khosla are at the forefront of a glittering profession, having dressed such iconic illuminators as Amitabh Bachchan, Dimple Kapadia, Nikhil Nanda, Madhuri Dixit and Shahrukh Khan; with an additional international clientele of Dame’s Judi Dench and Maggie Smith, Darecy Bussell and […]
INTERNATIONAL
DOCUMENTA 13 Documenta over the years has always been a refl ective and somewhat grim aff air. Historically the fi rst Documenta in 1955 took place to lift the sprits of Kassel, a German town suff ering from the aft ermath of World War 2. Th e latest edition of Documenta 13 from 9th June […]
PHOTO ESSAY
HAND MADE MEMORIES – BIRENDRA PANI My present series of Conceptual Photographs are related to my experience of human life and material culture in contemporary time. Th ese were generated during my travel in diff erent spaces in India and abroad. I had started using the visual imagery of ‘capsule’ in the medium of printmaking […]
HISTORY
THE STYLISTIC CHANGES IN THE ICONOGRAPHIES OF BUDDHA Buddha, the founder of Buddhism, was born in the royal family of the Shakyas at Lumbini at 562/566 B.C. One day, as he was wandering around the royal park, he saw an old decrepit man, a sick man, and a corpse- leaving a strong impression on him […]
FILM
SALUTE TO WOMANHOOD: INDIAN CINEMA’S TRYST WITH DESTINY. Th e Indian Film industry has been a major point of reference for Indian culture in this century. It has expressed the changing scenarios of modern India to an extent that no other major art form has been able to express. Cinema has infl uenced the way […]
REVIEWS
OF DESIRE MACHINES AND HUMAN CONDITIONS ‘ Soft subversion’ and ‘Human conditions’ were two conceptual frameworks with which Birendra Pani and Rajiba Pani worked for their exhibition in Red Earth Gallery in Baroda’.Soft subversion’ speaks about the ‘new social reality in which the maximum of ecstasy is combined with the maximum of consciousness.’(Felix Guattari)He is […]
REVIEWS
ARTICULATED VIOLENCE AND THE ECONOMY OF THE UNSPOKEN Th e ascending stairs have the alphabets conjoined by the liquid in the test tube and further one has a panorama of what a ‘lived reality’ can never be the synonym of what an anticipated ‘ live moment’ would be- this is the message of Amit Mukhopadhyay’s […]
Editorial
Art in every age corresponds to the beliefs, ideals and philosophical ideas it propagates. Iconography as a convention is inseparable from the religiosity and ritual it entails. It has penetrated very deeply into the psyche of people and idol worship is practiced, revered and celebrated in most Indian households as a medium to reach out […]
“Understanding the Polemics of ‘Tribal Art’ in the Contemporary Art Scenario”
This has been a query that has haunted the art world in almost a Benjaminian sense of haunting, which is, when anyone posits the query – what is art? This has been a contentious and much debated issue since human civilisation started recognising art as a facet of humanity. And the answer or rather the […]
A PERSPECTIVE FROM THE GALLERY
THE SLOWDOWN IN THE ART MARKET HAS LEFT THE COLLECTORS’ ANXIOUS AND APPREHENSIVE, AS THEY EAGERLY AWAIT THE MARKET TO GAIN MOMENTUM. TO ANALYSE THE DIFFERENT FACTORS THAT HAVE INHERENTLY CONTRIBUTED TO THE STAGNANCY IN ART BUYING AND APPRECIATION, WE BRING TO YOU DIVERSE PERSPECTIVES FROM THE GALLERY OWNERS. WE POSITED SEVERAL QUESTIONS CONCERNING INDIA’S […]
Art Market
Art’s value is guaranteed by money, which doesn’t mean that without money it has no value, but that money value overrides art value, while appearing to confer it. Both art and criticism have been defeated by money, even though money gives art critical cachet, thus validating it as art. Even more insidiously, money has become […]
Editorial
The emergence of art as a market in the early 90s has constituted it is as yet another investment opportunity. I recollect, when I started out in the late 80s to pursue my passion for collecting art, the formation of galleries had still not begun. Hence, the recognition of art as an investment asset class […]