TAKE on Art was launched in 2009 with its first edition, Issue Zero—a publication with 100 blank pages. Emerging as a response to the lack of printed discourse in the contemporary art landscape at the time; TAKE has since then published over 26 issues, partnered with global institutes, held writers’ workshops, symposia, and other events, and has fostered its own art writers’ prize.

The inaugural issue was launched at Agni, The Park Hotel, this issue was conceptually designed to invite the art community to share within its blank pages, what they expected of a new art journal. With the global inflation that hit the economy, the spirits in the Indian art world at the time were not exactly soaring and the art boom of the previous years that had triggered many ambitious ventures had collapsed.

The feedback that Issue Zero received indicated that there was indeed the need for renewed perspectives on art given the rate at which artistic production had transformed in the region over the previous decade, but the comments were also mixed with disbelief at the boldness to launch a publication in times so bleak. We chose to be encouraged nevertheless and plunged into confronting the challenges in order to renew the interest in art and art writing. This was the mindscape that coloured the magazine’s first editorial initiative, TAKE Black (Vol. I, Issue 01) launched in February 2010.