Rhythms of India: The Art of Nandalal Bose

At a time when India's artistic traditions had been largely lost after fifty years of British colonial rule, one artist, Nandalal Bose, made a unique contribution through art and education towards the cultural regeneration and independence of the nation. In thousands of works of remarkable depth and variety, he synthesized aspects from India's ancient artistic heritage - knowledge of which was just beginning to be available - with indigenous methods and materials, a variety of elements learned from Japanese and Chinese sources, and distinctly modern sensibilities, all unified by an underlying spirituality, Rhythms of India: The Art of Nandalal Bose (1882-1966) explores India's crucial period of transition from colony to independent nation through the lens of the premier artist of the time and the intersection of his life and works with Pan-Asianism, the Arts and Crafts movement, Hindu spiritual revival, Rabindranath Tagore's vision for cultural revival, and the freedom struggle as led by Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi.

With contributions by eight distinguished scholars, including historians, art historians, and artists spanning three generations, the essays and catalogue entries present a full view of Nandalal's oeuvre, life, and the vital times of ferment during which he lived. This full-color catalogue is lavishly illustrated with works by Nandalal and comparative examples of historical, colonial, and modern Indian art as well as rare documentary photographs. Also included are Bose's never-before published murals.

Introduction by John M. Rosenfield. Contributions from Sonya Rhie Quintanilla, Pramod Chandra, A. Ramachandran, Debashish Banerji, Kumamoto Kenjiro, R. Siva Kumar, K. G. Subramanyan, and Sugata Bose. 245 pages, color throughout, Paperback, $39.95