Word: indianism
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...next portion of the exhibit consists largely of works by Raja Ravi Varma. A late 19th-century painter, Varma is easily the most famous artist in India. He used European techniques to illustrate Indian subject matter: various sari-clad women, figures from Hindu mythology, and scenes from everyday Indian life...
...month to visit the host of grandparents, uncles, aunts, and cousins they’d left behind. At one point during the trip, a police officer asked us to pull over our car. My dad was fully prepared to bribe him, the modus operandi when dealing with any uniformed Indian. But our American accents were enough to promptly dismiss the official, after offering to provide us with any assistance we might need. I giggled smugly along with the rest of my family, but I pitied the policeman. I had always viewed my heritage as a burden because I grew...
...Months after my return to the States, I encountered my first Varma painting while flipping through my high-school art-history textbook. (My class never got to the section on Indian art, which wasn’t covered on the AP Exam.) I would come to blame artists like Varma for the exaggerated deference I’d witnessed firsthand in India. In a country with such a rich artistic tradition, I found myself asking: What compelled a Keralite to adopt a European vocabulary to produce something meaningful and aesthetically pleasing...
...last section of the Government Museum consists of pieces from the past few years. Contemporary Indian artists have begun using archetypal Indian techniques in new and interesting ways. This trend is unsurprising in a nation whose potential growth rate is expected to average 8.4 percent until the year 2020, with a GDP set to surpass that of the United States by 2050. As the nation grows and develops economically, its people are discovering a newfound pride in their heritage. They needn’t look to the West for expressions of their modernized selves but can instead draw from their...
...roots. (The journey of self-discovery included a trip to the Government Museum.) At the same time, New York Times columnist and similarly second-generation immigrant Anand Giridharadas was completing a four-year tour of the country. Determined to steal my thunder, Giridharadas wrote about a transformation of the Indian population’s psyche. “They don’t crave our mayonnaise and khakis anymore... Indian accents are now cooler than British ones... How fortunate to live in a land you needn’t leave to become your fullest possible self...