The Living Tradition- Perspectives on Modern Indian Art

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'The fulfilment of a modern Indian artist's wish to be part of a living tradition, i.e. to be individual and innovative, without being an outsider in his own culture, will not come of itself, it calls for concerted effort.'

In The Living Tradition, a critical study of modern Indian art as it has evolved through continuous interaction with several traditions, foreign and indigenous, K. G. Subramanyan offers a theoretical ground- work for that 'concerted effort'. In the course of his study, he explores the distinctions between Indian and European traditions, the continuities in India's folk traditions, and the attempts of several thinkers and artists to identify an Indian artistic tradition or to deny it altogether in a quest for personal expression or universality. With over 75 illustrations in colour complementing Subramanyan's thought-provoking essay, The Living Tradition provides readers with a visually engaging exploration of the vibrant tapestry of Indian art.

Most of us in the modern art world have a slightly exaggerated image of our creative independence. Reacting to a previous situation where efficient conformities to a limited style or a not-so-limited set of ideals were prized above individual sensibilities or viewpoints, we have barricaded ourselves within an antithetical position, whence we reject, if only in theory, all conformities. Taking our cue from what is happening in the sciences, where every few years new discoveries and inventions render obsolete older concepts, values, tools and technologies, we venture to think that our innovations too will wipe out our history. Not so long ago, some of us declared with unshakeable assurance that, abstraction having found wide currency on the global art scene, realism was dead and will not resurrect; we know better now from what has happened since.

The comparison with the sciences has been, to say the least, unfortunate. Even without pondering how valuable the ideas of the past are to a scientist, we should not find it hard to realize that all art, or communication, needs the presence of its past to gain breadth and resonance, that even in the person of the artist an image comes alive only to the extent that it receives fuel and sustenance from what lies behind it.

True, in an open society like that of today, a man's personal heritage is not as compact and uniform as in older societies.