The Empire Strikes Back: Indian Art Today

The first in-depth look at the lively, hip, and often controversial contemporary art scene in India. Indian art has gone through a boom period paralleling the country’s extraordinary economic rise from an agrarian state to a high-tech axis of the new global economy. With new money came bigger gallery spaces and bigger art—the scale of ambition led to a break onto the international art market. The new art also often reflects a background of religious divide and violence. The exploration of identity, a common enterprise for artists internationally, is all the more challenging in the context of India under transformation. The book features the richest collection of contemporary art assembled to date. It brings together the most compelling and interesting artists from this young and vibrant art scene, some of whom have not shown outside their native country.

Zehra Jumabhoy, the leading authority on contemporary Indian art, writes on such universal themes as gender politics, national stereotypes, and the collision between old traditions and the computer age.