'A revolutionary art movement asserted itself in India between the declaration of independence at midnight on 15 August 1947, and the economic boom of the 1990s. This is the first in-depth study of the three generations of artists responsible for critical shifts in the development of India’s modernist art. Their achievements and the country’s unprecedented boom ushered India’s modern and contemporary art into a new era of globalism, a soaring international market, and an explosion in the media and technologies of art. After independence, India’s artists faced a particular artistic challenge: how to express the new nation’s distinctive character while entering a global discourse focused on modernism’s universal premises of experimentation and shared human values. In the absence of a dominant aesthetic, painters could turn where they wished and blend as they liked—from Abstract Expressionism to Tantric spiritualism; from Rajasthani painting to changes in India’s complex politics, religions, classes, and vernacular life.' - from book flap

An associated exhibition titled 'Painting the Modern in India' was on view at the Peabody Essex Museum, Salem, Massachusetts from February to April 2013, featuring works drawn from the Herwitz Collection. This publication includes texts by Susan S. Bean, Karin Zitzewitz, and Ajay Sinha, a conversation with Homi K. Bhabha, as well as the detailed profiles of 23 artists. A bibliography is also included.

Please note that a paperback version of this publication is also in AAA's collection.