The Imaginary Institution of India. Art 1975鈥�1998
A landmark group exhibition of art made in response to India鈥檚 changing cultural-political landscape during pivotal years.
Featuring artwork by over 30 Indian artists, this major exhibition is bookended by two transformative events in India鈥檚 history: Indira Gandhi鈥檚 declaration of a state of emergency in 1975 and the Pokhran nuclear tests in 1998. The fraught period between these years was marked by social upheaval, economic collapse, and rapid urbanisation.
Within this turbulence, ordinary life continued, and artists made work that distilled historically significant episodes as well as intimate moments and shared experiences. Across a range of media, the vivid, urgent works on show 鈥� about friendship, love, desire, family, religion, violence, caste, community, protest 鈥� are deeply personal documents from a period of tremendous change.
This is the first institutional exhibition to cover these definitive years, with many works never before seen in the UK.
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A landmark group exhibition of art made in response to India鈥檚 changing cultural-political landscape during pivotal years.
Featuring artwork by over 30 Indian artists, this major exhibition is bookended by two transformative events in India鈥檚 history: Indira Gandhi鈥檚 declaration of a state of emergency in 1975 and the Pokhran nuclear tests in 1998. The fraught period between these years was marked by social upheaval, economic collapse, and rapid urbanisation.
Within this turbulence, ordinary life continued, and artists made work that distilled historically significant episodes as well as intimate moments and shared experiences. Across a range of media, the vivid, urgent works on show 鈥� about friendship, love, desire, family, religion, violence, caste, community, protest 鈥� are deeply personal documents from a period of tremendous change.
This is the first institutional exhibition to cover these definitive years, with many works never before seen in the UK.
Artists on show
- Anita Dube
- Arpita Singh
- Bhupen Khakhar
- C.K. Rajan
- Gieve Patel
- Gulam Mohammed Sheikh
- Himmat Shah
- Jagdish Swaminathan
- Jangarh Singh Shyam
- Jitish Kallat
- Jyoti Bhatt
- K.P. Krishnakumar
- Madhvi Parekh
- Maqbool Fida Husain
- Meera Mukherjee
- N.N. Rimzon
- Nalini Malani
- Navjot Altaf
- Nilima Sheikh
- Pablo Bartholomew
- Rameshwar Broota
- Rumanna Hussain
- Safdar Hashmi
- Savi Sawarkar
- Sheba Chhachhi
- Sheela Gowda
- Sudhir Patwardhan
- Sunil Gupta
- Tyeb Mehta
- Vivan Sundaram
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