What conception does a modern artist or critic have of contemporary art activity? How does a modern artist react to his environment and cultural inheritance? Under what perceptions or illusions or emotional urges does she work? And what general norms of achievement can we think of in the highly heterogenous art scene of today?
In The Creative Circuit, Subramanyan draws upon his considerable experience as a art practitioner and theoretician to engage with these concerns from a modern Indian perspective. The five lectures that comprise this volume discuss certain common terms and concepts such as modernity, eclecticism, nostalgia-which have entered our art vocabulary and which lend them- selves to reinterpretation today. This erudite discourse is accompanied by a large selection of illustrations in colour.
K. G. SUBRAMANYAN (1924-2016) played a pivotal role in shaping India's artistic identity after Independence. Mani-da, as he was fondly called, seamlessly blended elements of modernism with folk expression in his works, spanning paintings, murals, sculptures, prints, set designs and toys. Beyond his visual artistry, his writings have laid a solid foundation for understanding the demands of art on the individual. In the year of his centenary, Seagull Books is proud to publish his writings in special new editions.
This volume consists of the five Navyug Acharya Memorial lectures I delivered at Santiniketan in February 1990 under the auspices of Calcutta University.
I want to thank everyone who made this possible-Seagull Books, who showed an interest in printing these lectures even before they were delivered; Calcutta University, who gave the necessary permission soon after; Visva-Bharati University, who graciously hosted the lectures, and the Director and staff of Rabindra Bhavana, who made the necessary arrangements.
While planning these lectures I received helpful suggestions from friends and colleagues too numerous to mention by name. I thank them all. I also benefited from the views of many artists, authors and thinkers; wherever I have drawn such support for my statements, it has been acknowledged in the notes. I thank my young colleague R. Siva Kumar, who has helped me in finalizing the text, locating references, photographing the illustrations and getting the matter typed; and Samik Bandyopadhyay, P. K. Ghosh and Anjum Katyal for their editorial advice.
The publication has been titled The Creative Circuit, even though each of the five lectures has its individual title and focus; because, when taken as a whole, they discuss the interactions between the creative individual and aspects of his environment which are intrinsic to the growth of his work and which eventually educate one's responses to it, and the various experiential circuits that these set in motion. The phrase occurs in some of the lectures, particularly the last one.
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