This richly illustrated book explores the contested history of art and nationalism during the turbulent final decades of British rule in India. Western avant-garde art became a powerful weapon of resistance for Indian artists in their struggle against colonial oppression, and this complex interaction between Western modern art and Indian nationalism is at the heart of this book. "The Triumph of Modernism" takes the strikingly uncommented Bauhaus exhibition in Calcutta in 1922 as the point of reference for the arrival of European modernism in India. In four broad sections, Partha Mitter examines the fall of Eastern art and the rise of naturalism and modernism in the 1920s, as well as the relationship between primitivism and modernism in Indian art: Mahatma Gandhi inspires the Indian elite to discover the peasant, the people of the land begin to be depicted by artists as noble savages. A distinct female voice also emerges with the rise of women artists. Finally, the author explores the ambiguous relationship between Indian nationalism and the imperial funding of the arts.

With a fascinating array of art works, few of which have been seen or published in the West, "The Triumph of Modernism" illuminates a previously neglected aspect of modern art and showcases the work of artists who are little known in Europe or America. A book that challenges the dominance of Western modernism, it will be illuminating not only for students and scholars of modernism and Indian art, but also for a wide international audience that admires India's culture and history.

Pages: 256