\"After Midnight: Indian Modernism to Contemporary India, 1947/1997,\" Queens Museum, New York City

“After Midnight: Indian Modernism to Contemporary India, 1947/1997” - artforum.com / critics' picks

6/1/15 6:13 PM

“After Midnight: Indian Modernism to Contemporary India, 1947/1997” QUEENS MUSEUM New York City Building, Flushing Meadows March 1–June 28 As suggested in the exhibition’s title, “After Midnight: Indian Modernism to Contemporary India, 1947/1997” launches a conversation between two discrete time periods. Curated by Dr. Arshiya Lokhandwala, the presentation begins with paintings from the era following India’s independence from Britain, primarily by those involved in the seminal Progressive Artists’ Group that jumpstarted modernism in India. These artists’ interest in diverse media beyond painting—output that is rarely exhibited—is worth noting. See F. N. Souza, who used diluted printer’s ink and magazine paper to create what he dubbed “chemical paintings” in 1969, and Tyeb Mehta, who produced the sixteen-minute blackand-white film Koodal (“Meeting Place”) in 1970.

Subodh Gupta, What does the room encompass that is not in the city?, 2014, found boat, found objects, found utensils, fabric, steel, found fishing net, bamboo, rope, plastic pipe, dimensions variable.

Two standout contemporary artworks that marry material experimentation with social commentary are Asim Waqif’s ByConstruction and Jitish Kallat’s Public Notice, (both 2003). Exploring art-world consumption, the former is an ingeniously built sprawling structure composed entirely of trash generated by the exhibition itself, such as shipping crates. The latter is inspired by the inaugural speech of the newly formed and independent India’s first prime minister, Jawaharlal Nehru. Kallat transcribed each letter of the address with rubber adhesive that he then set aflame. Given that the work was constructed a year after the sectarian riots in Gujarat, the charred letters and the buckling of the mirror from the heat powerfully suggest that Nehru’s wishes for India were unfulfilled. Overall, the highlighting of experimentation with materials throughout the exhibition prevents the show from being weighed down by context— a chronic problem for display of “Indian” art —while not eschewing it either. — Alpesh Kantilal Patel

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