This issue of TAKE on Art focuses on the production and circulation of printed books, particularly those devoted to the arts of India. A short list of suitable books in any one genre is fraught with the danger of personal subjectivity. With that as a given, my central premise has been on identifying seminal books across a wide gamut of topics that shed new light on the various disciplines of India’s arts.
Details BuyTAKE Books: Editor's Note
Why Books?
The Weight of Time
Rock by Rock
Phaalgun sudi 9 samvat 2078
Chittaprosad, A Retrospective
Botanical Drawings
Cock, Indian Firework Art
Molly Emma Aitken, The Intelligence of Tradition in Rajput Court Painting'
Maps of Delhi
A Manifesto for Impermanence
Deccan Traverses, The Making of Bangalore’s Terrain & Soak, Mumbai in an Estuary
Bhimayana as a Dwelling
Two Books for a Past, Present and a Future
Cartography of Bombay Cinema
Indian Tiles, Architectural Ceramics from Sultanate and Mughal India and Pakistan
Subhash Parihar on the Indo-Islamic Architecture of Punjab, India
Mutable, Ceramic and Clay Art in India Since 1947
With Great Truth & Regard, Tapping the Past
Wondrous Love and the Great Mughal Book
TAKE Editions: The Reflection on Critical Art Vocabulary Laced to Economy of the Art Market
For Everyone Archives their Photographs: Dayanita Singh’s Museum Bhavan
A Moving House or a Landscape
Mapping Metamorphosis: A review of Tanmoy Samanta’s ‘The Shape of Home’
Silences and Speaking Out Loud: Varunika Saraf’s ‘Caput Mortuum’
Homeland as a Creative Circuit
Liquid Bodies and Morphing Sites: ‘Adorning Shadows’ by Radhika Khimji
Undeciphered
‘All Canaries Bear Watching’: The Pharmakon of Left Curatorialism?
Immigrants of Culture and Nature
An Ode to Afterlife: A Review of Jayasri Burman’s ‘River of Faith’
A Timeless Line
Beyond the Frame: Exploring Contemporary Textile Art with Uthra Rajgopal
Conversations with the Self and the Moon
20th Century Indian Art: Modern, Post-Independence, Contemporary
Bangalore’s Lalbagh: A Chronicle of the Garden and the City
Vivan Sundaram is not a Photographer or Why Vivan Sundaram Returns to Photography
Shahidul Alam, The Tide Will Turn
Reconceiving Genre: Art Documents For The Twentfirst Century
Shilpa Gupta: Drawing in the Dark
Interview with Murti Ahuja
Fly on the Wall
Cast
Archive, by nature, is based on a series of selections and deletions, the motivation being to preserve material deemed most representative of the production in question. I look at these questions through the processual journeys of the artists, spaces and productions to see if or how the notion of the archive extends beyond its traditional role as static repositories of information.
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My filter for books is purely an integrity of purpose and the creation and articulation of new bodies of knowledge. Books featured across this issue include those on paintings, botanical drawings, photography, cinema, textiles, design, architecture, ecology, children’s publication, material culture, exhibition catalogues and more; all made public within this new era of the Anthropocene.
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While the pandemic may have killed the viability of running several physical bookstores, the endless lockdowns nevertheless brought us closer to the printed matter and the written word than ever before.
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Chagani is emotional as he narrates how the city of Lahore with its historic red brick architecture has given him everything from the fulfilment of his goals to inspiration for art making. His site of discourse may appear to be a homage to the city of Lahore but the choice of material and meticulous making and production of his works call for a much more nuanced understanding of Chagani’s work.
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The city is all set to launch its tenth edition of the gallery weekend with a gamut of artists: from the modernists, Akbar Padamsee and Vijay Shinde, to the contemporary, Saju Kunhan, Desmond Lazaro, to name a few. Twenty-four art institutions are part of this four-day preview.
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Unique, limited editioned and handcrafted affordable artworks by eminent artists exclusively commissioned for TAKE on Art.
Lingam Lamp, Sculpture Cast aluminium, toggle switch cast in aluminium, Edition of 25, 10 x 7.25 x 14 inches, Lingam Lamp by Ashiesh Shah, 2020
Not Available
Untitled , Hand–painting on Papier Mache, 11 x 9.5 x 1.5 inches, Hand-painted book object by Ganesh Haloi, 2021
Not Available
My Bonsai Tiger, Stainless Steel, 264.4 mm x 306.6 mm x 1.5 mm, Limited edition of 35 , My Bonsai Tiger by Rekha Rodwittiya, 2022
Not Available
Untitled, Mirror Acrylic, Limited edition of of 50, 13 x 9.2 inches, Untitled by Shilpa Gupta, 2022
Not Available
Birds from the Golden Cage, Stoneware ceramics in Nerikomi technique, 8.5 inches each clapper, Series of 5 (Compositions of Hoopoe, Indian Pitta, Kingfisher, Muniya & Owl), A series of ceramic clappers made in Nerikomi technique by Kavita Pandya Ganguly., 2022
Not Available
Talisman (Twin-1), Digital collage printed on rice paper (100 GSM), with wooden boxes for encasing Limited edition of 10, each numbered and signed, 9 x 9.4 cm (h x w), length of spread out 514.5 cm, the attached wooden support covers 2 cm, outer box: 10.4 x 12.4 x 6 cm (h x w x d), A digital collage accordion format book named ‘Talisman’, Second edition, 2022
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Re[construction], Brass ghungroos (trinkets) and steel, 14x 8 x 8 inches, A series of unique sculptures made of brass ghungroos (trinkets) and steel by Vibha Galhotra, 2022
Not Available
Reordered Records: Amalgamation as sculpture (1), Biodegradable polylactic acid, Limited edition of 10, 21 x 16 x 12 inches, Editioned sculptures made of biodegradable polylactic acid by Ayesha Singh, 2022
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Drop, Unbleached cotton painted with acrylic paints, aluminium wire, Limited series of 35, 6 x 3 inches approx., wire: 38 inches approx., outer acrylic box: 6.5 x 6.5 x 8.75 inches, A series of soft fabric sculptures by Dhruvi Acharya, 2022
Not Available
Untitled, Paper mache and acrylic paint Hand-painted Unique Book , 11 x 11 x 2 inches, Untitled, 2016
Not Available
Table Lamp, Mixed Media Unique Series of 12, 20 inches (lamp shade 7 x 12 inches, stand: 12 x 9 inches), Table Lamp, 2011
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Painted Palettes, Acrylic on palette (MFD board) Series of 10, , Painted Palettes, 2012
Not Available
Museum Bhavan, Nine individual ‘museums’ in book form in a handmade box , 3.7 x 5.5 inches , Museum Bhavan, 2017
Not Available
Untitled, Etching on copper and carved mahogany wood Edition of 50, 12 x 10 inches, Untitled, 2009
Not Available
Stretched Body Series, Watercolour on arches paper-pulp book cast sculpture Hand-painted Unique Book , 11 x 9.5 x 1.5 inches, Stretched Body Series, 2014
Not Available
Untitled, Collage, watercolour, graphite on paper mache Hand-painted Unique Book, 11 x 9.5 x 1.5 inches, Untitled, 2014
Not Available
Untitled , Collage, watercolour, graphite on paper mache Hand-painted Unique Book , 11 x 9.5 x 1.5 inches, Untitled , 2014
Not Available
Torso, Hand gilded on polyester resin fiber Exclusive Edition of 30, 9 inches, Torso by G. Ravinder Reddy, 2017-2018
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Two Thousand Three Hundred Grams of What?, Acrylic and decoup acrylic Limited Edition of 50, 11.5 x 8.7 x 1.5 inches, Two Thousand Three Hundred Grams of What? by Raqs Media Collective, 2013
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The Popular Series, Native Women of South India: Manners and Customs, Giclee Print, 5.5 x 8 inches each, The Popular Series, Native Women of South India: Manners and Customs by Pushpamala N and Clare Arni, 2000-2004
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I Never Promised You A Rose Garden, Single book in metal Editions of 50, 8.6 x 5.9 x 1.1 inches, I Never Promised You a Rose Garden by Shilpa Gupta, 2011
Not Available
The Book of Sand – II, Watercolour and marble dust on arches paper-pulp book cast sculpture Hand-painted Unique Book, 11 x 9.5 x 1.5 inches, The Book of Sand Series by Atul Dodiya, 2016
Not Available
The Book of Sand – I, Watercolour and marble dust on arches paper-pulp book cast sculpture Hand-painted Unique Book, 11 x 9.5 x 1.5 inches, The Book of Sand Series by Atul Dodiya, 2016
Not Available
Pink elephant in bathtub, Digital print on archival paper Edition of 50, 5 x 7 inches, Pink Anubhav Highres by Manjunath Kamath, 2011
Not Available
Matchbox, Digitally printed matchboxes, 15 x 15 inches , Series of unique pieces signed by the artist , 2018
Not Available
Forbidden Stories, Paper Mache and acrylic paint on arches paper-pulp book cast sculpture Hand-painted Unique Book , 11 x 11 x 2 inches, Series of unique pieces signed by the artist , 2016
Not Available
Anti-clock, Mixed media (water colour on hand-made sheet, velvet etc.), Sizes vary, Series of unique pieces signed by the artist , 2011
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Tract, Visual book with 100 images, 1200 gsm, natural evolution hard bound Limited Editions of 100, 12 x 17 inches, A photo book that encapsulates the collapse of ecological terrain to advance the multitude of urban life.,
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