An interactive online bibliography of published writing on modern and contemporary art.
Bibliography of Modern and Contemporary Art Writing of South Asia is the first of its kind to collate annotated bibliographies of art writing in South Asia across multiple languages. The Bibliography website offers interactive tools for users to access, search, and explore complex historical patterns and trends in the field using timelines, maps, and name-clouds.
Phase One | 2011–2014
Database built in India on art writing in Assamese, Bengali, English, Gujarati, Hindi, Kannada, Malayalam, Marathi, Odia, Punjabi, Tamil, Telugu, and Urdu. By 2014, bibliographies of over 12,000 texts, including books, book chapters, catalogue essays, periodical entries, and newspaper articles were compiled.
Phase Two | 2015–Ongoing
Expansion of project scope across languages and regions beyond India to other parts of South Asia. Currently covers select art writing in Tamil from Jaffna, Sri Lanka; Urdu from Lahore, Pakistan; and Bengali from Dhaka, Bangladesh. The project continues to develop in collaboration with more partners.
For more on the project, click here.
Programmes
AAA has initiated various programmes with institutions and organisations in South Asia around the Bibliography Project to reach out to audiences, users, and potential collaborators and contributors.
Symposium | Locating Art Histories: Dialogues on Language, Writing, and Research in India | Feb 2014
A two-day colloquium held at the School of Arts and Aesthetics, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi, to launch The Bibliography Project. For details on the colloquium and to watch video recordings of the event.
The Bibliography Workshops, Talks, and Panel Discussions | Dec 2015–Dec 2016
A series of workshops to explore collaborative ways to compile bibliographies.
Dhaka and Chittagong, Bangladesh
6–10 Dec 2015
A closed-door workshop that examined art and activism in Bangladesh between 1980 and the 1990s at Dhaka University, culminating in a bibliography that will feed into the Bibliography project database as a special contribution; public panel discussion ‘Arts - Languages - Contexts: Modern and Contemporary Art Writing of Bangladesh’ on art writing and the politics behind language in Dhaka; and a talk on AAA projects in South Asia at Chittagong University.
Santiniketan, India
19 –23 Feb 2016
The second Bibliography Workshop held in partnership with Kala Bhavana, Visva-Bharati University, Santiniketan, for students and young researchers of the institution to examine writing by artists in its multiple forms, including letters, poems, essays, reports, and reviews. A public panel discussion presented with Kala Bhavana, Santiniketan to discuss the subject of archives will also be held on 23 Feb 2016.
Pune, India
18–22 Oct 2016
The third Bibliography Workshop held in partnership with Abhinav College and Maharashtra Cultural Center in Pune, India, for students and young researchers from various institutions in Pune to examine writings by artists in Marathi. Following the second workshop in Santiniketan in February 2016, the Pune programme continues to look at 'artists' writing' as a genre, with an additional focus on circuits of its dissemination in Marathi periodicals ranging from little magazines and literary-cultural journals to commercial magazines and art journals between 1940 and 1990.
Panel Discussion | A Question of Language: Artists’ Writing in Maharashtra | 22 Oct 2016 | 4–6pm
Organised as part of AAA’s Bibliography Workshop in Pune, the panel engages with ‘artists' writing’ as a genre in the context of Maharashtra, and addresses questions of language, vernacular intellectual milieus, region, translation, and the intersectional character of cultural practices. Such explorations may facilitate a more nuanced understanding of the artistic field.
Speakers:
Shukla Sawant, Professor, School of Arts and Aesthetics, JNU, New Delhi
Abhijeet Ranadive, Writer and Art Critic, Pune
Madhuri Purandare, Writer and Translator, Pune
Sanjeev Khandekar, Artist, Mumbai
Moderator: Abhijeet Tamhane, Art Critic, Mumbai
Venue: Sudarshan Kala Manch, Shaniwar Peth, Pune
Exhibition and Call for Participation | Dhaka Art Summit 2016 | Live Feed Station | 5–8 Feb
An on-site junction to view an array of publications, art magazines, books, and catalogues published in the past century available in the Bibliography database. An Open Call for Material at the event invites the public to contribute to this expanding platform of shared knowledge.
Bibliography of Modern and Contemporary Art Writing of South Asia is supported by Thapar Public Charitable Trust.