Fine Arts & Visual Studies - Page 4

The Confluence in the Contemporary Art World of Literature and Postmodern Visual Arts in Jeff Vande Zande’s Landscape with Fragmented Figures

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Smriti Thakur1 & Dinesh Babu P2

1Ph. D Research Scholar, Department of English, Central University of Punjab, E-mail: mriti.thakur7@gmail.com

2Assistant Professor of English, Centre for Classical and Modern Languages, School of Languages, Literature and Culture, Central University of Punjab, E-mail: dinesh.babu@cup.edu.in

 Volume 12, Number 5, 2020 I Full Text PDF

DOI: 10.21659/rupkatha.v12n5.rioc1s1n4

Abstract

The American poet, novelist and editor, Jeff Vande Zande’s Landscape with Fragmented Figures (2009) is a novel that deals with the contemporary world of art, which brings forth the intricacies of the art forms such as collage, action paintings, and drop cloths that have established a crucial distance between the present and the past world of pre-modern art. As the novel revolves around the world of postmodern visual arts and brings this subject into the literary world, it necessitates an interdisciplinary approach, which not only brings the two different academic disciplines of arts together for a critical appreciation, but also creates a new aesthetic experience in the reader, wherein visual arts is seen through the lens of literature, which helps foreground the hidden patterns and motives behind the art work, and the literary work is appreciated with a greater knowledge and understanding of  the practices in and theories of the modern and postmodern art. By looking at the symbiotic relationship between visual art and literature through the novel, this study makes an attempt to contribute to the aesthetic appreciation of the engaging confluence of postmodern visual arts and literature in the contemporary world of art. By analysing the text, the study explores the phenomena that have reduced the difference between the original and copy in the contemporary art-world wherein the artist’s aesthetic sensibility seems to derive from other sources, and thus brings into critical discourse those factors that have determined the use of parody, pastiche, irony, and collage in contemporary art forms.

Keywords: Modern-art, Postmodern-art, Visual-arts, art-novel, Aesthetic sensibility, Symbiotic relationship, Parody, Pastiche, Irony, Art Culture.

Art in the Digital during and after Covid: Aura and Apparatus of Online Exhibitions

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João Pedro Amorim1 & Luís Teixeira2
1Universidade Católica Portuguesa, School of Arts, CCD/CITAR, pamorim@porto.ucp.pt, https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0267-1276

2Universidade Católica Portuguesa, School of Arts, CCD/CITAR, lteixeira@porto.ucp.pt, https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1206-4576 

 Volume 12, Number 5, 2020 I Full Text PDF

DOI: 10.21659/rupkatha.v12n5.rioc1s1n2

Abstract

The public health measures that were put in place to contain COVID-19 impacted the lives of people and institutions alike. For its global impact and transformation, the pandemic has the potential to be classified as a mega-event. Such radical events have become great opportunities to the testing of new technologies and forms of organisation, (Masi, 2016) that might in the future become prevalent. The impact of the pandemic was particularly felt in the contemporary art world, as the entire cultural activity was suspended. During this period, art institutions and collectives around the world reacted by adapting and providing alternative materials online. This paper aims at reflecting upon the challenges facing the exhibition of contemporary art online. Following Boris Groys’ (2016) actualisation of Walter Benjamin, we problematise how the digital reproduction of art affects the aura of an artwork. Proposing a critique of the apparatus of digital platforms, we analyse how the digital reproduces and enhances ideological structures that overpass the whole of society. For that purpose we analyse how four different organisations (an artist-run space, an art gallery, a museum and an art biennale) have migrated their activity to online platforms. The case-studies will allow a broad understanding of the different approaches available – with some radically taking advantage of the digital environment, and others merely digitising the role taken henceforth by printed catalogues.

Keywords: reproducibility of the work of art, Art in the Digital, Aura, Contemporary Art, apparatus

The Way of the Firang: Illustrating European Social Life and Customs in Mughal Miniatures (1580 CE -1628 CE)

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Soujit Das1  & Ila Gupta2

1Assistant Professor of History of Art, Government College of Art and Craft Calcutta, West Bengal, India.

2Retired Senior Professor, Department of Architecture and Planning & Joint Faculty, Department of Humanities and Social Sciences, Indian Institute of Technology Roorkee, Uttarakhand, India.

 Volume 12, Number 5, 2020 I Full Text PDF

DOI: 10.21659/rupkatha.v12n5.rioc1s1n1

Abstract

During the sixteenth century, along with the rise of the Mughal Empire, the social landscape of India changed drastically with the advent of the European colonial powers. In 1580 CE, following the First Jesuit Mission to the Court of Emperor Akbar, a new cross-cultural dialogue was initiated that not only impacted the socio-economic and political fabric but also the artistic productions of the time. The growing presence of the European traders, ambassadors, soldiers, and missionaries in the Mughal world also lead to several curious narratives that were widely circulated. These tales also gave birth to cultural misconceptions as the Europeans on several occasions were seen as social evils. They were often collectively addressed as Firang/Farang or ‘Franks’ and were perceived as ‘strange and wonderful people’ or ‘ajaib-o-ghara’ib’. It was during the Mughal reign when for the first time in Indian visual culture, a conscious attempt was made to document the life and customs of the European people. This paper attempts to understand how the processes of cultural alienation and Occidentalism had influenced the representation of Europeans in Mughal miniatures. It also argues how Mughal artists innovate new iconographic schemes to represent and perpetuate a sense of the ‘other’. How artists used these identity markers to establish notions of morality as well as of Islamic cultural superiority. The select illustrations also attempt to elucidate how these representations of Europeans were culturally appropriated and contributed to the Mughal ‘fantasy excursions’.

Keywords: Firang, Mughal, miniatures, Occidentalism, cross-cultural encounters

Indian Art and European Science: Patnakalam and Colonial Botanical Drawings

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352 views

Saumya Garima Jaipuriar

Assistant Professor, Department of English, Kirorimal College, University of Delhi.

ORCID: 0000-0002-4336-6278Email: sgjaipuriar@gmail.com,

 Volume 12, Number 4, July-September, 2020 I Full Text PDF

DOI: 10.21659/rupkatha.v12n4.14

 Abstract

This paper seeks to explore how scientific documentation fuelled by Enlightenment and indigenous art intermingled to create Patnakalam in nineteenth century India. Patnakalam, a school of painting that flourished in Patna, Bihar in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, came into existence with the complex interactions between an indigenous artistic tradition and a western visual sensibility mediated by the requirements of science. Botanists of the East India Company employed native artists to make illustrations of local plant species in an attempt to scientifically catalogue all of the natural resources of the region. This inevitably contributed to the formation of a style of painting which went on to have an enduring legacy far beyond their taxonomical albums.

Keywords: Company Painting, Patnakalam, Modern Indian Art, Indian Art History, British Colonial History, Age of Enlightenment

Cakapura: A Unique Ritual-painting Tradition of India

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250 views

Sanjay Sen Gupta

School of Fine Arts, Amity University, Kolkata, India. ORCID: 0000-0003-0824-9145.

Email:  ssgupta@kol.amity.edu

 Volume 12, Number 4, July-September, 2020 I Full Text PDF

DOI: 10.21659/rupkatha.v12n4.05

Abstract

Caka refers to a square – a lateral space on the ground – while pura means filling up. Together they identify a unique form of ritual painting, executed during the festival of Bandna all across the land of ancient Manbhum – including parts of today’s West Bengal and Jharkhand. In this tradition, a specially prepared liquid pigment is dripped with all the five fingers of the hand – creating sacred designs by the village women effortlessly on their ritual-grounds. This linear emotion often gets extended upon the adjoining wall – where the same pigment is sprinkled with the fingers, along with impressions added with the palm and finger-tip. As a whole, this form of visual expression could be distinguished and identified in comparison to any other floor or wall paintings in India. It’s undoubtedly one of the finest examples – all in terms of technique, style and aesthetics – representing the rich folk-tribal tradition of this country.

Keywords: Cakapura, Bandna, Manbhum, Mahato, Purulia, ritual, painting, tradition

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