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A new era of Indian Art at the Mori Museum

The Native Types - Lakshmi

Pushpamala N.
The Native Types – Lakshmi (After Oleographfrom Ravi Varma Press, Early 20th Century)
2001 C print on metallic paper 61 x 50.8cm
Courtesy: Nature Morte, New Delhi and BosePacia, New York
Photo: Clare Arni

Anant Joshi Navel One and the Many 2007

Anant Joshi
Navel One and the Many 2007
Plastic toys, stainless steel, razor blades, 2 OHPs, motor,acrylic sheet, regulator et al.
Multimedia installation
Courtesy: The Artist and Chemould Prescott Road, Mumbai

Thukral & Tagra

Thukral & Tagra
Phantom IX-B
Oil and acrylic on canvas.
182 x 367cm
Courtesy: Nature Morte, New Delhi

A new era of Indian Art at the Mori Museum

Chalo! India: A New Era of Indian Art, the exhibition brings together 27 artists / artist groups from cities throughout India such as Delhi, Mumbai, Bangalore and Vadodara

22 November (Sat), 2008 – 15 March (sun), 2009 MORI ART MUSEUM

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The Mori Art Museum is pleased to present it’s 5th anniversary exhibition,“Chalo! India: A NewEra of Indian Art,” bringing together 27 artists / artist groups from cities throughout India such asDelhi, Mumbai, Bangalore and Vadodara. Contemporary art in India has been the focus of muchinternational attention recently, and this exhibition examines its latest movements, including those inpainting, sculpture, photography, and installation.

“Chalo!” means “Let’s go!” in Hindi. The exhibition invites viewers to journey through the latest trends inIndia’s art, constituting an unprecedented opportunity to gauge Indian society as it is today and the future. Itis a metaphorical expression for Indian society in the midst of a great transition, for a world shifting its focusto India, and for the dynamism of contemporary Indian art as it emerges onto the international stage. “Chalo”also implies movement, fluidity, formlessness, and transcendence of borders.

After the country gained independence in 1947, India’s art exhibited an aesthetic influencedpredominantly by Western Modernism and a homegrown form of expression linked with the processof building a national identity. However, over the last 60 years, the nation’s art has gradually come totackle potentially controversial topics – such as sexuality – and also to incorporate political and criticalideas. Since the 1990s, developments such as globalization, the expansion of the art market, and theemergence of a younger generation of artists have lead to the creation of a diverse and dynamic artscene, the likes of which have never been seen in the country.

“Chalo! India” examines the way that Indian artists use their keen insights and increasingly freespirits to question the reality and age in which they live, taking their themes from familiar objectsand ideas in daily life and society – often as though to transform them into a theater of life. Theexhibition introduces over 100 works, predominantly new or recent, and features pop and colorfulpaintings brimming with an urban awareness. There are also interactive works of media art, drawingon state-of-the-art technology that befits an IT giant. The exhibition also includes sociologicalresearch projects that utilize data and information about contemporary India, which can be described as a “thinking architecture.” Dividedinto five sections – “Prologue: Journeys,” “Creation and Destruction: Urban Landscape,” “Reflections: Between Two Extremes,” “FertileChaos,” “Epilogue: Individuality and Collectivity / Memory and Future,” viewers experience extensive diversity in the works, and are drawninto a consideration of the many different facets making up contemporary Indian society, including its urbanization and new lifestyles, itsdreams, its disparities and its contradictions, all of which are highlighted as the backdrops of these art works

“Chalo! India: A New Era of Indian Art,” is one of the largest exhibitions of Indian contemporary art ever held in Japan. It provides anopportunity to experience avant-garde artistic expressions that are not yet commonly known outside of the country. In the past, discourseon India has tended to center around its history dating back to time immemorial, its Gods and devotion, its musical Bollywood movies, andits newly-discovered economic promise. These ideas are no longer sufficient

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A new era of Indian Art at the Mori Museum