s | ii||:' "%-.;-\ ;M:% ':"£*V •<•*;.. >:%iii| sf , . I'iti -r '1^^1*1 •w.v. 1 **«• - «i When Was Modernism Essays on Contemporary Cultural Practice in India GEETA KAPUR A commitment to modernity is the underlying theme of this volume. Through essays that range from the interpretive to the theoretical, the author seeks to situate the modern in contemporary cultural practice. She sets up an ideological vantage-point to view modernism along its multiple tracks in India and the third world. The essays divide into three sections. The first two sections, Artists and ArtWork and Film/Narratives, analyse the works of a selection of artists and filmmakers, raising questions of authorship, genre, and features of the national/modern that materialize into an aesthetic in the Indian context. The last section, Frames of Reference, deals with broader cultural issues. The essays here formalize polemical options that emerge from concerns developed across the book. They propose resistance to the depoliticization of the narrative, and affirm open-ended engagement with the avantgarde. They explore the possibility of cultural practice finding its own signifying space that is still a space for radical transformation. Geeta Kapur is an independent art critic and curator. She has written and lectured extensively on contemporary Indian art and is the author of Contemporary Indian Artists. Her recent work extends to cinema and issues in culture studies. She is a founder-editor of Journal of Arts & Ideas, and advisory editor to Third Text and Marg. She has held fellowships at the Indian Institute of Advanced Study, Shimla and Nehru Memorial Museum and Library, New Delhi. Rs 1400 June 2000 Hardback 456 pages 350 b/w plates 7.25 x 9.5 inches Special offer for Social Scientist individual subscribers Write to us at the address given below, along with your subscription number, and a DD/MO in the name of Tulika Print Communication Services Pvt.Ltd., to get a copy of the book at a special price of Rs 1050. Tulika 35A/1 (third floor) Shahpur Jat New Delhi 110 049 India Phone: 649 1448 Telefax-. 649 7999 email: tulika@ndf.vsnl.net.in