Moving Focus, India | Book Release and Panel Discussion | IAF 2022

India Art Fair, Mortimer Chatterjee and The Shoestring Publisher are delighted to invite you to the book release of Moving Focus, India on Friday, 29 April at 6:30pm at the India Art Fair auditorium.

The event will begin at 6:30pm sharp with a panel discussion on Moving Focus, India and the questions it raises. Our distinguished speakers are all contributors to the book: Rahaab Allana; Annapurna Garimella; Jyotindra Jain; and Nilima Sheikh. The discussion will be moderated by Mortimer Chatterjee, gallerist and the book’s general editor.

Moving Focus, India is a first-of-its-kind exploration of Indian art made since 1900. From long-lost paintings to ephemeral sculptures, from whimsical performances to iconic public murals, and from independent films to landmark design objects, the surprising and provocative contents of this book have been provided by an exceptional and varied group of experts.

The book invited 54 artists, curators, historians and writers to each create a list of five works of art, made at any time since 1900, by artists living in India or identifying as part of its diaspora.

Collector’s edition
A numbered edition of 350 copies – two hardback volumes in a clamshell box with two limited edition prints by artists Nilima Sheikh and Vivan Sundaram.
2022
Hardcover
620 pages (with 6 foldouts)
Over 1000 colour illustrations

Slipcase edition
Two paperback volumes in a slipcase
2022
620 pages (with 6 foldouts)
Over 1000 colour illustrations

Panelist biographies:

Rahaab Allana is Curator, Alkazi Foundation for the Arts, New Delhi; Fellow of the Royal Asiatic Society, UK; and was previously honorary research associate at University College, London. The founding editor of PIX and founder of the ASAP/ art app, Allana is on the board of Trans Asia Photography and guest-edited Aperture magazine’s 2021 summer issue on Delhi.

Annapurna Garimella is a designer and an art historian. Her research focuses on late medieval Indic architecture and the history, pedagogies and practices of vernacular visual and built cultures in India after Independence. Garimella is the managing trustee of the not-for-profit organization Art, Resources and Teaching Trust, and heads Jackfruit Research and Design, an organization with a specialized portfolio of design, research and curation. Jackfruit’s curatorial projects have included ‘Vernacular, in the Contemporary’ (Devi Art Foundation, New Delhi, 2010–2011), ‘Mutable: Ceramic and Clay Art in India Since 1947’ (Piramal Museum of Art, Mumbai, 2017) and ‘Barefoot School of Craft: Made in Goa’ (Serendipity Arts Festival, 2017–2018). She co-edited The Contemporary Hindu Temple: Fragments for a History (2019), edited The Long Arc of South Asian Art: A Reader in Honour of Vidya Dehejia (2021), and is preparing the manuscript for Digesting the Past: The Discourse of Sacralized Architectural Renovation in Southern India (14th–17th Centuries).

An eminent scholar of Indian arts, Jyotindra Jain has published extensively in his areas of specialization and curated exhibitions at some of the most respected institutions in India and abroad. A former director of the National Crafts Museum, professor of Arts and Aesthetics at Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU), and member secretary of the Indira Gandhi National Centre for the Arts, he has been a visiting professor at Harvard University and Berlin’s Humboldt University, as well as a Getty Distinguished Professor at the JNU.

Nilima Sheikh. Born 1945, New Delhi, India. Lives and works in Vadodara and New Delhi. Selected Solo Exhibitions: 2017–2018 – ‘Terrain: Carrying Across Leaving Behind’, Chemould Prescott Road, Mumbai; Gallery Espace, New Delhi; ‘Lines of Flight’, Asia Art Archive, Hong Kong. 2014 – ‘Each night put Kashmir in your dreams’, The Art Institute of Chicago. 2010 – ‘Each night put Kashmir in your dreams’, Chemould Prescott Road, Mumbai. Selected Group Exhibitions: 2020 – ‘Minyatur 2.0: Miniature in Contemporary Art’, Pera Muzesi, Istanbul; ‘Seismic Movements’, Dhaka Art Summit. 2019 – ‘5 Artists 5 Projects’, Gallery Chemould Prescott Road, Mumbai. 2018 – Kochi-Muziris Biennale, Kochi. 2017 – Documenta 14, Athens and Kassel.

Having completed his studies in art history in the UK, London-born Mortimer Chatterjee moved to India to pursue his interest in art from the subcontinent. He co-founded Chatterjee & Lal with his wife, Tara Lal, in 2003 and, today, the gallery is an important node in Mumbai’s maturing art scene. In 2010, Chatterjee co-authored a publication on the art collection of the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research (TIFR), and also curated an exhibition of the collection at the National Gallery of Modern Art, Mumbai. In addition to his columns on art and culture in GQ India and Mumbai Mirror, he has contributed articles to the Indian editions of journals such as Architectural Digest and Domus.

Please RSVP at pooja@theshoestringpublisher.com or WhatsApp +91 98202 98246.
Due to covid protocols, numbers will be restricted.

While the event is free and open to all, please note that entry to the fair will require a pass which you can book here: https://bit.ly/3Lc3Jpw