Features: Magazine | Literary Review | Life | Metro Plus | Open Page | Education Plus | Book Review | Business | SciTech | Friday Review | Young World | Property Plus | Quest | Folio |

All about Indian art

Of `Dictionary of Indian Art & Artists' by Pratima Sheth

For years, art education in India dealt mainly with western art; even when Indian art was taught, we had to accept the western view of Indian art as gospel truth. Rarely any reference was made to Indian treatises on art.

Indian art and artists have made an important contribution to the development of art at the global level; contemporary Indian art now is the toast of the global art scene.

To fill in the lacuna of reference material relating to Indian art and artists comes the "Dictionary of Indian Art & Artists," a pioneering effort by Pratima Sheth, an alumnus of J.J. School of Art, Mumbai. It has taken nearly a dozen years of hard work in researching for authentic information from the Indus art to the current times.

This is the first ever book to concentrate exclusively on the evolution and context of Indian art — painting, sculpture, print making, weaving and embroidery.

The dictionary gives information in alphabetical order on traditional and contemporary art and artists, various techniques, styles, materials used, the meaning of hundreds of terms in Indian languages, cross references and links between various aspects, art institutions, galleries and so on.

The book also contains a few informative articles such as `History of Indian Art' by Aban Amroliwala, `Art & Nationalism in Colonial India: the first phase (1850-1922)' by Partha Mitter and `Preservation of Art Objects' by O. P. Agrawal.

It is indeed a labour of love by Pratima Sheth, an artist herself. The well-produced book, brought out by Mapin Publishing, has over 300 colour illustrations with an attractive cover. It's a useful guide for art students, professionals, writers, art lovers and collectors.

A casual perusal itself revealed quite a few spelling and grammatical errors, which hopefully would be rectified in the subsequent editions.

LAKSHMI VENKATRAMAN

Printer friendly page  
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail